Coffee Meets Bagel The Ideal Dating App For Women

Online Dating

Coffee Meets Bagel: The Ideal Dating App for Women

Hayley Matthews

Written by: Hayley Matthews

Hayley Matthews

Hayley has over 10 years of experience overseeing content strategy, social media engagement, and article opportunities. She has also written hundreds of informational and entertaining blog posts. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including Bustle, Cosmo, the Huffington Post, AskMen, and Entrepreneur. When she's not writing about dating news, relationship advice, or her fantasy love affair with Leonardo DiCaprio, she enjoys listening to The Beatles, watching Harry Potter reruns, and drinking IPAs.

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Edited by: Lillian Castro

Lillian Castro

Lillian Guevara-Castro brings more than 30 years of journalism experience to ensure DatingAdvice articles have been edited for overall clarity, accuracy, and reader engagement. She has worked at The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, The Gwinnett Daily News, and The Gainesville Sun covering lifestyle topics.

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TL;DR: If you’re a woman looking to try dating online but are unsure of the process, then Coffee Meets Bagel is the dating network for you. With a model that puts privacy and safety before anything else, CMB will always have your back.

Online dating can be an intimidating pool to jump into, especially for women. Some questions that may run through your mind include “Is he who he says he is? How much information should I reveal? When should we meet in person?”

If this is you, then Coffee Meets Bagel is the perfect site to dip your toe into the dating water.

Made for women; built by women

Sisters Arum, Dawoon and Soo Kang started Coffee Meets Bagel in 2012 in New York City. Just like many single women out there, they kept asking themselves, “Where are all the good ones?”

They’re all pretty, intelligent, funny and nice, and New York City is full of millions of people and millions of opportunities to make a connection. Why was meeting someone special so hard?

That answer is time.

We now live in a society where people basically work 24/7 and sleep with their iPhones. How are you supposed to meet someone and have a successful career at the same time? That answer is Coffee Meets Bagel.

“It’s for single people who are very busy with work or whatever it is and they don’t have a lot of time to go to bars to meet people,” Dawoon Kang said. “I really think online dating, and technology in general, should be used to make everyone’s life easier – do things you already do but in an easier manner.”

sisters

Coffee Meets Bagel co-founders and sisters Arum, Dawoon and Soo Kang ring the “wedding bell” every time a member announces he or she is engaged or married.

Most of the hundreds of thousands of members on Coffee Meets Bagel are educated, young and busy professionals. Seventy percent are between the ages of 18 and 30, almost 100 percent are college graduates and more than 35 percent have a bachelor’s degree or higher.

But the stat that really stands out? Fifty-five percent are women.

While the sisters wanted to create a service that caters to the needs of busy professionals, with three female co-founders behind the wheel, they couldn’t help but also create a service that caters to the needs of women.

“It is the best service that caters to the needs of women and what women are looking for, which is safety, privacy and a meaningful connection. [But] that doesn’t mean we don’t serve men,” Dawoon said. “We actually did really want to make this brand a brand that everyone, especially women, can get excited about.”

Oldest sister Soo Kang added that she’s grateful that she gets to work with her sisters because the trust and support is already built in, which also produces a better and more high-quality product for users.

“I think trust among co-founders is one of the most difficult and essential elements in creating a successful company,” she said.

How CMB is different from other sites

Coffee Meets Bagel follows three guiding principles:

  1. Unless you want to tell others, your dating life should remain private.
  2. Your friends are the best conduits for your dates.
  3. Meeting quality people doesn’t have to be so awkward or complicated.

To better stick with their model, Coffee Meets Bagel delivers its members just one “bagel” (or match) a day at noon. Members then can either like or pass their bagels.

Dawoon said not only does this system give members something to look forward to every day, but it also takes out the need to swipe through thousands of people just to find one good match.

“We focus on making meaningful connections, and that’s why we make our introductions just one match a day,” she said. “People do take more time to think about that person than treating it like it’s just a picture.”

meaningfulconnections

Coffee Meets Bagel also doesn’t have a search option, so profiles aren’t as easily accessible to the masses as they might be on other sites.

“You don’t have to worry about your profile being out there for people to see, which is kind of the case for most dating services,” Dawoon said.

Members also are matched with friends of friends through Facebook, so it helps foster a more comfortable environment than the awkwardness of being set up with a complete stranger.

Dawoon said since most people don’t encounter thousands of dating prospects every day, the company wanted to keep the matching process as close to real life as possible.

“We are encouraging people to actually treat people that they come across online as real human beings,” she said. “If you’re the type of person looking for meaningful connections and a safe, private way to connect with people, then our app is probably the best one out there for you.”

Why you should try it

Coffee Meets Bagel is a great site for people who are afraid to take a leap of faith into online dating because it’s not as overwhelming as some other sites can be.

“Don’t be afraid dating apps in general. If you want to meet new people, just do everything you can that will get you to meet new people,” Dawoon said. “We really believe our model is enabling people to easily connect and make more connections with the people around them,” she said.

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