#shalene

530date spent a rainy spring evening listening getting the lowdown on the state of the online dating world from e-dating expert Laurie Davis.

And even though it was last night, you can attend too without having to leave the comfort of your own home because we live-tweeted it for you.

Check it out.

Tweets about "#530datelive"

530date was spending the night tweeting in their pajamas, when they happened to stumble into a twitter exchange with Brandon Luong, the CEO of Datelytics, one of the latest dating apps to hit the market.

He salsa dances, he runs a dating app, and, did we mention, he’s single?

530date got the inside story.

[Note: Transcript lightly edited with Brandon’s permission.]

530date: Tell us what your app does and why we need it.

​Luong: Datelytics gathers events and daily deals from popular websites based on your Facebook profile, and matches you with someone… Once a user signs onto the app, we analyze their liked pages, check-ins, hashtags and activities to find events and daily deals, such as those on Eventbrite, Meetup, Groupon and Livingsocial, the user would enjoy. ​Once the user selects an event, we ping other attendees that have similar interests… 

We want you to enjoy the things you like, and share it with someone. Why force yourself to setup a coffee date when you really would prefer meeting up at the restaurant down the street you been wanting to try?

530date: What made you decide to start Datelytics?

Luong: It all started when I was researching user experience on mobile applications when I stumbled upon dating apps. Being adventurous, I decided to give it a try... The things I ran into were:

- Pain in the ass subscription fees to chat with other members. C'mon, you're seriously going to charge for the most basic human need?

- I spent more time answering butt load of questions than actually meeting people. I could've gone salsa dancing and met someone there by the time I finished 69 similar questions on eHarmony.

- Gave permission to access my Facebook when it didn't do anything other than take my photo, name, location and age. Kinda pointless to grant you access to my huge amount of data to only pull that up. 

- Lastly, the most annoying thing were the amount of bots and spam. That was exactly what I wanted from a dating app: chatting with bots who will ask for naughty time within the first two minutes. 

I discovered I wasn't the only person having bad experience on these apps. After attending a few conventions on social media, big data and analytics, I decided on my birthday to start this venture to see if I can change the online dating scene. Thus, my story on how I became a single father.

530date: What’s your favorite part of your job?

Luong: Favorite part of the job? Too many to list, but I guess my favorite part so far would be when I get to tell people about the product, and see their reactions on the idea, value proposition, design and other things. ​I loved interacting with my potential consumers, gaining feedback and understanding how I should approach the market down the road.

530date: What’s the weirdest part of your job?

​Luong: Oddly enough, I haven't ran into that just yet. Probably just jinxed myself. However, I occasionally have people ask if I will be using the app to get dates for myself. My thing is that I'm trying to get for my users, so I may be too busy to date myself. Then again I'm also building this app because I saw the problem I experienced, so I guess we will see.  

530date: How do you think technology impacts dating?

Luong: …It is the thing enabling us to meet new people we wouldn't have met otherwise…People realize they enjoy time efficiency.... If you look at Tinder, that is their value proposition. They don't really offer much other than saving time on hunting for booty.

530date: How does running a dating app affect your dating life?

​Luong: Running a startup has basically taken over my life, but not in a bad way. It is something I am passionate about, and want to see it through. In terms of my dating life, I don't think it has affected it what so ever. Haven't found the one yet, and not sure what will happen once I do find her. I would probably continue working on Datelytics and level up to one of those couple apps.

530date: And lastly, give us some dating tips!​​

And you can come too, even though it's over.

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Because what's sexier than dating yourself? Share your boyfriendtwin photos with us:...

Two theories:

1) Cynical: Dating is pain, so why not just date yourself?

2) Romantic: One of the joys of relationships is when you spend lots of time with someone you become like them. Maybe a little bit of both?

So, last weekend 5:30date went online and decided to do some deep rumination about the ailments of modern society: too little time, too many options, an aversion to long and potentially awkward conversations….and thought, what represents all of this, packed up with a pretty red bow?

Speed dating!

And the next thought was: let’s go!

Okay guys, we’ll be honest. Our prof said, livetweet something, yo, and we were like, speed dating? Let’s do it.

And we did it. We brushed ourselves up, meandered down to the East Side, and sidled into The Watering Hole, introduced ourselves, parked ourselves at the bar, and live tweeted.

And—get this—our very own Kimberley Ammiano was asked to step up because the event was short on ladies.

... and landed this trophy wife.

Love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast. But what is love today in a world where people use dating aps to find each other? How do you find love between the spaces of messages exchanged on okCupid? And what is love like for each and every single one of us, regardless of our race, sexual orientation, number of partners, religion, and preferences?

We are a team of Columbia Journalism students who are devoted to exploring the different permutations of modern relationships.

Every week we’ll bring you profiles and site reviews from a certain theme. In the interim we’ll sprinkle in news updates for anything that sheds light on loving and living in today's world.

You can follow us on twitter @530date.

Keep loving. Keep living. Keep dating.

Cheers.