Perfect match-maker
AS A recruiter, Tiffany Villaluz worked matching candidates with their ideal job.
Now she’s working to match people with a romantic partner, having created a dating site with a twist.
DateMyFriend works on the premise that users get their descriptions written by a friend, rather than face the daunting task of describing themselves to potential suitors alone.
“It’s almost like having an online wingman or matchmaker,” Mrs Villaluz, of Point Lonsdale, said.
“For people wanting to go through that process and ask their friend to do it for them … it shows that they’re genuine,” she said. “I’m passionate about bringing people together in a safe environment.
“I hate that people just swipe left or swipe right these days … it’s just so superficial.
“We don’t want it to be intimidating. One of the things we wanted to be able to achieve is to encourage those people who have never been on internet dating before.”
Friends can also sign up a single mate, who will then be sent an email encouraging them to sign up if they would like to.
Mrs Villaluz described the site as “quite different to what’s out there at the moment”.
A safety feature, which will be ready to launch within weeks, will let users generate a new number to use in communication until they are ready to provide their real phone number.
DateMyFriend, which had a soft-launch eight months ago, has more than 160 users.
Mrs Villaluz said only people in Australia could sign up at the moment, but she’d like to expand the site internationally in the future.
The website can be used on a desktop and is also mobilefriendly, Mrs Villaluz said. It’s currently free to join, but eventually subscriptions will be introduced.
Point Lonsdale 26-year-old Elise Mangan joined DateMyFriend because it looked “pretty fun and interesting”.
“The site sort of has a community feel because it does include friends … it makes it feel a little more humanised rather than just swiping left or right and basing it just on a photo, a name, age and just basic information,” Ms Mangan said.
“In general, I hate writing my own bios. It makes it a bit easier and fun because your friends are involved.” Visit datemyfriend.com.au