The dating game is an important facet of human life. For both men and women, it starts the day a young lad learns to shoot your shot. But like all other games, this game is no fun if you end up losing. Although it’s often referred to as the dating game, the truth is that if it involves your heart. You certainly do not want to be playing games. Or do you?
This article features a brief interview with and entrepreneur and professional in the dating industry. He shares his experience, knowledge and solutions with us today.
Dwayne Foreman (Founder and CEO of ShootYourShot Dating App)
The advancement of technology has changed the way how people find their perfect mate. But despite the increase in the number of dating apps, many singles still find it hard to navigate the trajectory of this ‘dating game’.
But Dwayne has an idea and will share it here today. He is a young man who is actually in the dating game and thinks there’s a way out.
“Based on my experiences in college and what I’ve observed around, I believe we can improve dating if we blend technology and psychology well enough” He began. “If singles can create a perfect line up of potential partners before taking a chance and start shooting their shot, their chances of finding partners would increase drastically”
“So, basically, I had been thinking about the possibility of creating a four-step process of scouting, drafting, try-outs and cuffing. Singles could search through dating profiles and decide whether to curve (swipe left) or cuff (swipe right) the user’s profile. If feelings are mutual, the user will invite members to ‘try out’ or get ‘cut’ from the team. From there, the user will ‘shoot their shot’ and initiate a chat with the user, potentially resulting in a match”
But this is no longer a possibility. It has come true or at least will be a reality soon. The young IT Analyst, is quoted explaining his motivation for creating the app. Dwayne continues “The concept started in 2014 shortly after graduating from college. Mutual guy and girl friends within my circle gave subtle hints of crushing on each other; however, neither parties had the courage of approaching one another. That’s when it hit me.”
In 2014, with not much money on hand and a his company’s website already in place, Dwayne set up a ‘Contact Us’ form field labelled ‘Shoot Your Shot’ which served as a dating/communication service, where he’d charge kids within his town to go online at their convenience and send messages which he could then relay to the designated receiving party. That is how Shoot Your Shot Dating was born. Fast forward to a couple years later, Dwayne began putting together all of the pieces to prep what we now know as the Shoot Your Shot Dating App & Services.
The Urban Dictionary defines ‘Shoot Your Shot’ as “letting go of your pride and pursuing someone you are interested in”. But Dwayne puts it like this, “Whether professionally or personally, someone who decides to shoot their shot puts caution to the wind and goes for what they want.”
In the dating game, there’s always the risk of getting shot down. But it get better if everyone gets the opportunity to have the ball in their court. It gives a lot of options to make critical moves on the Mr/Mrs Right of choice. Of course, the market is so saturated with dating apps, it can be quite daunting knowing which one to choose. But as most of the top dating apps employ an algorithm that limits matches by race, ultimately reinforcing biases, will things get better with a solution that eliminates all of that algorithm? Dwayne says yes, and we wait to see for ourselves when this solution goes live.