Group Dating :: Free Online Dating :: Ignighter

Ignighter sighting on NBC today

This morning NBC did a story about Jean Haner, an expert at analyzing personalities based on faces. New York's favorite Features Reporter, Cat Greenleaf (you may remember her from such NBC News features as The Sex and the City Book Club), tested Haner's accuracy by having her analyze an Ignighter profile and then speak to the actual Ignighter user in person. It's a really interesting story with a little love for everybody's favorite group dating site thrown in too.

Life at Ignighter

People are never always asking us what it's like to work at a cool company like Ignighter. Recently TechStars held a banquet honoring their awesome mentors. To provide an update of the companies and celebrate their progress each of the past founders at TechStars were asked to make a short video showing what life is like at their Startup. We made this:

“The Social Climb”

This weekend a couple good friends of Ignighter were reading an etiquette book from the fifties (we have such a genteel userbase!) and came across a page that details "the social climb". Pretty cool to see that group dating has been one of America's cultural mores even dating back half a century.

The New Ignighter is Live!

If you're reading this on the blog itself, it has probably already become clear to you that things are a little different around here. Have you seen the new homepage yet? It's pretty funky, huh? But much like the Ignighter team itself, the new site is more than just a pretty face. While the new design is pretty hot, the new functionality that accompanies it scorching. 1. One significant change to Ignighter's functionality is the ability to "become a groupie" of other groups that interest you. Basically this means that you and your group can follow the status updates of other hotties in your city. So if they're uploading more photos or talking about their weekend plans, the groupie feature helps give you and your friends insight into what's happening with the people who tickle your fancy. 2. Another big change is Ignighter's new Matching Engine. Here at Ignighter we've developed the world's first and best group-to-group matching engine. Using cutting edge, in-house technology, we've figured out a way to study your group's profile and match you up with another group based on percentage of compatibility. It's pretty cool stuff and it keeps getting better. 3. The final significant change that we made to the new Ignighter is the introduction of the Ignighter Magazine. In addition to being the go-to group dating hub on the Internet, it's also our goal to be a source of fun, entertaining, thought-provoking content surrounding the world of dating, relationships, sex, and other fun stuff. Each day we'll feature an original article by one of Ignighter's professional writers. It also must be pointed out that we owe a great deal of thanks to Slice of Lime for their awesome design and usability work. Right now we're begging for your feedback. So if you haven't signed up for the site yet (it's free so what is there to lose?!) please do so and let us know how we can improve it. The Ignighter team has been working around the clock to make a really cool product. So please get on there, try it out, and tell us how we can make it even cooler.

A Sex and the City Book Club on NBC!

At first we thought it was an alarming trend; many female profiles on Ignighter describe the group of friends as "The Sex and the City Girls". The profile anoints each member of the group as either a "Carrie", "Charlotte", "Miranda", or "Samantha". Seeing this commonality play out across female Ignighter groups from all corners of the U.S., we realized that if we didn't understand this crucial feminine text, we would never have a good grasp on the female perspective of sex and relationships. In an effort to fill this void in our relationship awareness, we started a Sex and the City Book (DVD) Club and invited a few of our buddies to join us. NBC heard about it and stopped by Dan's Upper West Side apartment to talk to us.

Some other dudes talk about Ignighter

Our friend Bambi Francisco of Vator.tv sat down with Richard Jalichandra, CEO of Technorati, and Ezra Roizen to talk about Ignighter. They show a clip from our San Francisco TechStars presentation (we're forever grateful to Jason Mendelson, our friend and mentor, for being such a good sport) and then have a discussion about Ignighter that includes the question "Will group dating appeal to those over 30?". What are your thoughts on the topic? See this video on Vator.tv »

A/S/L Check - An Ignighter Interview Series - Hard Questions, Soft Bodies. #5

She's already been here for a couple weeks, but her employment really wasn't official until her A/S/L Check went up on the Ignighter blog. It is our pleasure to introduce the lovely and talented Ayca Aksu, Ignighter's newest Developer and Interaction Designer. Although we're still a young company, one aspect of company culture that we take very seriously is the nickname. We have a strict hiring policy at Ignighter: We only hire geniuses. And as a result, all of our nicknames include a reference to our genius...um...osity. When we first hired Nicky the combination of his youth and brilliance was so rare that he was quickly labeled Boy Genius . We called him B.G. for short until two syllables became one too many and he evolved into "Beege". As Beege's life-mentor, I naturally became "Meege" (Man Genius). Dan, being no slouch in the genius department, became "No Sleege" while Kevin became "Keege" (Kevin Genius) and Molly, in a gesture to her heritage, became "Heege" (Hebrew Genius). It must be noted that Kevin wasn't always Keege. Originally his nickname was based on the fact that he was a Real Genius, however it didn't take long until we started to feel alarmingly similar to Kelly Ripa every time we wanted to acknowledge him. Thus he became simply Keege. It may be hard to believe, but anyone who has spent a little time at Ignighter HQ knows that this is really the way it is. We actually call each other by these nicknames at all times. It's not to be funny, but rather it's a celebration of our genius...um...ness. We're a lot like Apple's Genius bar, just without the male ponytails. Ignighter: So with that overlong introduction in mind, Ayca (pronounced eye-cha), what would you like your Ignighter genius nickname to be? Ayca: Umm... How about Aych (eye-ch)? Ignighter: So Aycheege? Ayca: No, just Aych works for me. Ignighter: After all that? Just Aych? Ayca: After all what? I'm sorry, I haven't been paying attention. The truth is, you're kinda boring. Ignighter: So I've heard. Well Aych, let's get down to business. Ayca: 'Bout time. Ignighter: Hmmph. Where are you from Aycheege? Ayca: I was born in Rize. It is a small town by the Black Sea, in northeast Turkey. Ignighter: Do you have siblings? Ayca: I have a 27-year-old sister and a 20-year-old brother. My sister has the most awesome job. She is the third officer on a commercial ship, soon to be the second. My brother goes to college. His major is mining engineering. Ignighter: Your brother is a major minor? You don't hear that too often. Ayca: Are you doing more of your comedy? Ignighter: Sort of. Pressing on. What do you like to do in your free time? Ayca: I used to do scuba diving when I was in Turkey. I have more than 50 dives up to 150 feet. I am planning to go to Mexico for scuba diving next summer. I also love sculptures. I have been taking sculpture classes where we learn about formalizing our ideas. One of my favorite places in NYC is the Moma, I love going there once in a while. I also love reading science fiction, fantasy, and comic books. Ignighter: We're really excited to have you on the Ignighter team. What is your primary goal at Ignighter? Ayca: As a part of the Ignighter team, I very much look forward to seeing Ignighter become a successful product not just in terms of page views or revenue but also in terms of the whole user experience. Ignighter: OK if you're feling up to it, we'll get to the closing questions now. Ayca: Yeah, just hurry it up Sachs. Ignighter: Alright. What is your favorite word? Ayca: Penultimate. Ignighter: Least favorite word? Ayca: Abysmal. It reminds me of the GRE. Ignighter: And the penulatime question, favorite smell? Ayca: Lavender. I also like the smell of rain, especially on a dry summer night (but maybe that's too romantic. I am totally not romantic). Plus I have a soft spot for Gio, men's perfume, it smells soooo good. Ignighter: And now the final question to this abysmal interview, what historical figure would you most like to go on a date with? Ayca: I would like to go on a date with Picasso because he is a wonderful artist. Ignighter: Aych it's really been a pleasure. You've been an awesome addition to our genius team here and we know you're going to make an awesome contribution to the success of the company. Ayca: Are you still talking? I'm busy reading Jezebel.

Dutch Lovin’

There are two reasons why we love when international publications/blogs talk about Ignighter. 1. It gives us an excuse to Photoshop ourselves into other countries/cultures. 2. We get to use Babelfish or our bilingual friends to see what kinds of crazy translations come out of it. So far we've been featured in everything from Russian (here) to Chinese pieces (here and here). Here's a photo from our Shanghai Press Conference back in June: Well today we're covered by a Netherlands blogger who apparently thinks we're Canadian. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Here's a Dutch to English Babelfish translation of the post: Canada stands confessed as a social country. A good health care and a government who pieces less Right is oriented himself than those of neighbouring country the US. Logically that groepsdaten do it well in Canada. A group forty-five friends goes on step with another group willing bachelors. Of course was possible this already earlier, but the phenomenon has rapidly grown since the launching of groepsdatingsite Ignighter.com. While two groups of 45 friends on a date may make for a scheduling nightmare, the point remains the same: groepsdating is more fun! Here's a photo of the Ignighter team from our last trip to Holland (check out our clogs!):

An Open Letter To The Ladies On Valentine’s Day…From Some Dudes

Here's a piece I wrote that was featured on the Huffington Post today. You can see the original here: Ladies, we want you to know that Valentine's Day is the most confusing and frightening day of the year for men. We love you and our only intention is making this day special for you, or at the very least, not disappointing you. The problem is that the harder we try to make this day perfect, the wronger our instincts ultimately prove to be. If we were smart, we'd pull a George Costanza and recognize that "if every instinct we've ever had is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right." But instead of ditching the proverbial tuna on toast for "chicken salad, on rye, untoasted...and a cup of tea," we let our instincts guide us. This inevitably leads to disappointment and miscommunication in the triumvirate of Valentine's Day events: Dining, Gifting, and Romping. Dining For weeks leading up toe the big day we're scanning the Internet, looking for the most romantic restaurant in town. Worried that you'll think we copped out by discovering that we chose the number four restaurant in Zagat's list of Top 10 Romantic, we remember a special meal that we had in October that we paid a fortune for. You loved that meal (at least you said you did) and the vegetarianna that you are even ate red meat for the first time in seven years. We think, wow you really enjoyed that meal so much that you even made a dietary exception to get their namesake dish. This is going to be perfect. So we make the reservation, preparing to shell out another $300 for dinner and wine, make you close your eyes in the cab and when we get there, you're pissed. "Why are we at Peter Luger's on Valentine's Day?? Did you forget I'm a vegetarian?" FAIL. Gifting Giving VDay gifts to us is super easy. We like cool stuff. The Chumby you got us for our desk at work is the perfect Valentine's Day prezzie. For us, if a gift is romantic, in our heads that means it's not something we can use after tonight. If you want to give us something romantic, give us something cool. Because we like cool, practical gifts, we can't seem to shake the fact that you simply do not. For us, the gift giving is a source of extreme stress. They say that from great constraint comes great creativity. That couldn't not be more true in this case. Somebody once told us that being romantic means being a really good listener. With that in mind, we think back to different items you've recently mentioned wanting. High-waisted shorts? Yeah you've been dying for those. This is going to knock her socks off. We picture you talking to your friends on the fifteenth: Friend: He got you SHORTS?? You: Yes, but he overheard me say that I was browsing for high-waisted shorts online at work and he REMEMBERED! It's so romantic. Friend: OMG is he single?! Oh wait, he's your boyfriend. But that's not what happens. Instead, it goes like this: Friend: He got you SHORTS?? You: Yeah, he's a shmuck. Friend: Glad he's not my boyfriend. Romping If we've done even a passable job in the Dining and Gifting categories and we didn't get in a huge argument after dinner, this tends to be the time in the night where you Ladies start to feel the immense pressure that we've been feeling leading up to this day. You want to reward us, and in your heads, that means you have to use your memory and come up with something creative that we might like. So, you think back to that hungover brunch where we mentioned that we wanted to make love to the omelette we were eating and the next thing we know there are egg whites and feta joining us in the VDay sack and Philippe, the line cook, is standing in the corner over a griddle cooking up some hash browns. The truth is, we're simple creatures and really just enjoy the normal stuff that we do all the time. Sure, we'll occasionally make a "joke" about how we'd like to try a threesome and chuckle insincerely while we attempt to judge your reaction. But in reality we don't really need to stray to far from the routine to enjoy ourselves, so don't fret. ... With that, ladies, our hope is that on this Valentine's Day, you will try to believe that all of our actions leading up to now have been driven solely by love and the desire to please you. We want to create a flawless day for you because that is what you deserve. All we ask for in return is that you cut us some slack and enjoy your porterhouse.

RSVP for Ignighter’s NYC Valentine’s Day event Thursday 2/12

This Thursday we're hosting our Second Annual Valentine's Day Party. Last year's party was a blast and this year is on track to be even better. We have a professional photographer, a videographer, and most importantly a Free Open Bar! Everybody is invited to attend, but you MUST RSVP in order to get into the event. Go to http://ignighter.com/vday to RSVP.