Epic Catch Wants To Replace Tinder With Experience-Based Dating

Do you like skydiving? Do you want to go on a date with someone else who likes skydiving? Do you want skydiving to be your first date? With someone that has been chosen for you?

This is what Epic Catch offers — a booking platform that pairs you with ‘a like-minded individual’ for what is never actually called a date, but is strongly implied to be one. It offers four different categories of experiences: unique dining, theatre/shows, how-to classes and outdoor activities. As a booking platform it’s actually an interesting idea, say for those who have always wanted to go skydiving but can’t convince any of their friends to go along with them. As a dating site it’s a little more dubious.

The problem with dating sites is that by nature they have to have quite a large user base to give its users a good chance of providing a compatible match. The appeal of Epic Catch seems like it would be in providing one-off experiences (skydiving isn’t cheap), rather than maintaining an active dating profile, meaning you’re more likely to be matched with whoever is available at the time. It also looks like quite a process to actually set up your experience — for the sake of finding you a match — especially compared to something like Tinder where you just have to connect to Facebook and start swiping away.

While Epic Catch compares itself to Tinder (“Forget Tinder!” it even claims), the big difference is that you don’t seem to have very much say in the people you are matched with. There’s no swiping involved — you just enter what gender you’re interested in, what categories of experience you would be willing to do, and the Epic Catch team will contact you to discuss your options. There doesn’t seem to be an element of perusing others’ profiles at all. “With Epic Catch, everything is planned for you,” says a user called Rachel, although that fact isn’t necessarily a good thing for those who might prefer to have more say in their online dating.

Still, for those who particularly want to find a partner who likes musicals or pottery classes or paddle-boarding, Epic Catch may prove to be a fun experience to try out. The company seems to be ramping up its advertising in time for Valentine’s Day, a day that most people don’t want to spend alone. Hell, you might even get lucky — but chances are you’ll probably just end up with a cool experience and a new friend with a few things in common with you.

Would you try Epic Catch as a new way to meet people? Let us know in the comments!


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