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If you haven’t heard, Grouper is a startup based in New York. It was founded in 2011 by a guy named Michael Waxman and partners Tom Brown, Challen Hodson, and Kristen Badal. Since launching in New York, Grouper has expanded to cities across the US including Chicago, SF, Boston, LA, Miami, Philly, Seattle, Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, D.C., and recently launched in Canada.
Grouper’s mission? “To end loneliness” by setting you and two of your friends up with 3 random strangers for drinks at a place of Grouper’s choice. They use Facebook to match the two groups; specifically looking at age, educational background, profession, interests and general lifestyle of each groupie, in addition to the profile you create when you sign up. It takes a little bit of time to get a match, but once you do, you’ll receive a message from a member of the team. You won’t find out where you’re going or the first names of the other Groupers until the day before, which makes it exciting.
Initially, I ragged on Grouper (but still signed up). They charge users $20 per Grouper, (which includes the first round of drinks, but still). “Why would they charge first time users who they definitely want coming back (us) rather than charging the place we’d be giving business too?!?!?!” I thought to my poor self. Grouper basically had to be certain that it was going to be worth spending $20+, which I was a little skeptical about…
And.. it was worth it. I went on my first Grouper last night with two girlfriends and had a blast. We met at Four Farthings, a low key bar in Lincoln Park, at 8pm. We were set up with 3 guys who we probably wouldn’t have typically hung out with, but it was soooooo fun. Like so fun. Everyone has to try it. The guys were smart, funny, polite, bought us drinks at every bar we went to (bonus), and by the end of the night we were all besties.
We will definitely be doing another Grouper, along with 93% of Grouper first timers.
