Coffee Meets Bagel

Dearest ML,

As posted on your Facebook wall last night (since you are NY-to-be), this is what I found after reading a small column from a Hong Kong newspaper: Coffee meets Bagel

Without signing up (I am not eligible nor in need of such service!) and from the preliminary information I have from their website, here is my feedback:

1. I think the concept is cool because it turns out it is not that easy to meet potential partner in US (surprise!) but the key of success lies on "how CMB consultant can lie up a good match". If it is just random match, the coffee / bagel (which I still cannot distinguish who's who) may lost interests in this quickly and will likely disregard the whole thing. So I will say the first 3-5 matches are really important.

2. I still haven't figured out their business model and revenue income. I think it is fine to charge subscriber a minimal fee to sign up to enjoy the service say for 30 / 90 days if not I am not sure how they are going to sustain, considering there is no ad on their website, and considering how important it is to find a good match for the first few trials.

3. Assuming this charge model, and assuming it is a success within say 10 matches, obviously the benefit is on the spread of words among friends and possibly opt-out of the service. But to have a good match the prerequisite is again manpower to support this service 

4. Sometimes I may see friends of friends that I may get interested to know about but no connection, maybe CMB can tap into this area too as purely customized match instead of "random" match (well I do not know how random that is anyway but I remember Glamour said it is "random").

5. I like the idea of having suggestions on where to date (which may turn into a paying service for bars / restaurants and stuff) but more manpower is needed for the business development.

Right on Arum, I look forward to see CMB flourish in other cities too :)


k  xoxo