A startup is crowdfunding cross-country flights to help single men and women in San Francisco and New York find love. Or, at least, dates for a weekend.
The Dating Ring, a New York-based matchmaking startup, has launched two campaigns to help fly single men to New York City and single women to San Francisco.
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Lauren Kay, Dating Ring's CEO, says the idea came from trying to solve the logistical problems singles in the two cities face in their respective dating scenes. Simply put, she explains on Crowdtilt, there are not enough single men in New York and not enough single women in San Francisco.
Through running The Dating Ring, we've met thousands of amazing, beautiful, smart, super datable people in NYC and SF and we realized there was a really silly problem:
There are tons more single women in NYC, and tons more single men in SF. And, see, the two cities are only separated by a bunch of crappy airports, flight delays, and cheap roundtrip flights.
So, we started joking about doing some cross country matchmaking. And you know what they say - make a joke 12 times and it becomes a Crowdtilt.
The goal of both campaigns is to raise $10,000 over the next eight days. If they do, the Dating Ring will fly a plane full of single women to San Francisco and a plane full of single men to New York City for a weekend of parties and dates, specially curated by Dating Ring's matchmakers.

Image: Crowdtilt
Each $20 donation earns one chance to be selected for the cross-country flight, while a donation of $500 or more guarantees a spot on the plane, three dates and invitations to two parties. Donating $1,000 adds weekend accommodations to the package and $1,250 adds three special coaching sessions with a matchmaker.
New York and San Francisco residents who want a chance to meet the imported singles only need to donate $20 for an invitation to one of the weekend parties in their city.
Dating Ring is a Y Combinator accelerator startup that first launched its matchmaking service in New York before bringing it to San Francisco in February. Kay says the company plans to expand to Boston and Los Angeles in the near future.
To be a part of the company's regular matchmaking services, currently still in beta, prospective daters sign up via Dating Ring's website. After signing up, members meet face to face with the matchmakers who then set up group dates for their clients, based on compatibility.
Each date costs $20 and the groups consist of either three women and three men for straight members or groups of four for gay members.
So far, the campaign to bring New York women to San Francisco has raised $3,220 and the campaign to bring San Francisco men to New York has raised $1,270.
Both campaigns will end March 14.

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