Site Lets Singles Propose Perfect Dates

(CANVAS STAFF REPORTS) - Online daters who aren’t finding their soul mates by scrolling through overly personal essays and even more personal pictures may have found the matchmaking site for them.

HowAboutWe is an online dating site that focuses on, you know, the actual date.

Business Insider said the site revolves around proposing and accepting specific date ideas that complete the sentence "how about we..." Users are then sent possible matches based on their activity preferences.

By focusing on activities rather than online profiles, HowAbout We has set itself apart from other typical online dating sites, drawing mainstream media attention from the New York Times and Time Out New York .

Founders Brian Schechter and Aaron Schildkrout -- former charter school teachers and best friends since kindergarten -- say they wanted to create a new kind of dating site where members could demonstrate who they are, not with personal essays and awkward messages, but by proposing dates. The site launched earlier this year.

“There’s a huge amount you learn about someone based on what they want to do,” Schechter explained to Time Out.

Suggested dates now posted on the site run from the playful (“drink wine and see who can make the other laugh first.”) to the mundane (“cross some errands off our list”) to the highbrow (“check out a gallery open later this week “).

“The whole ethos is about getting people on, getting a good idea, then going out in the real world,” Schildkrout told Time Out.

The “real world” has apparently taken notice.

Venture capitalists – impressed with the site’s new take on Internet dating -- have since pumped more than $3 million into HowAboutWe. Business Insider said the site, which began in the New York market, has since gone national.