Our Story

My dating app story started back in 2002 or 2003, I was newly single after an 11 year relationship and only 27! It was new, it was exciting, it was a thing that people were doing and I tried it out. Back then, you'd get so excited chatting to someone online. The first ever online date I organized was sat next to my mate in her flat (we were looking online together), I was very excited, the prospect of a love connection. It was so thrilling, dopamine fueled.

We arranged the first date, and I was safe — I arranged to meet him in a pub that I knew my friends were going to be in. I met him and, classic, within about three seconds it was a 'NO!' We sat through quite an awkward drink then I was super honest with the guy and said, “By the way, all my friends are in this bar upstairs — should we go and join them?” He actually came up as well and had a drink, and it was fine, and then we went our separate ways.

It's been a similar story ever since. The shag-marry-avoid question in the moment when you meet someone. The question.... do I literally want to run away right now? Would I consider jumping into bed with you?(99.9% never) Or, wow, I think I've met the man of my dreams. That's only actually happened once since I first started doing this, twenty-four years ago.

The main issue for me is that you project what you want onto a two-dimensional image. Someone says a few nice words, there's a nice exchange, you get all excited, and then you meet. Out of most of those dates I went on I just never found them attractive in real life. It was all in the chat. I've had a couple of long-term relationships from meeting people on dating apps, but ultimately the dating app scene just seems to have got worse and worse over the years. It's a normal way to meet people these days, so everybody's online, everybody's bored, everybody's tired, everybody's apathetic. Sometimes you get a meeting, sometimes not.

It feels more and more that people are getting their needs for a connection or a relationship met just by chatting online, just by sending messages back and forth — and that is not it for me. We are here for the ones who want real human connection, not a cyber one. We want to meet real people and have real life experiences and the foundations of any connection to come from a foundation of sensory compatibility.

Married and divorced and single.

Been searching for someone to sweep me off my feet for over a decade but the reality is I joined all the dating apps and migrated from one to the other and at times had multiple profiles and became a serial first dater.

After swiping for hours on end late into the evenings. I would fall asleep dreaming of my matches and sometimes create the entire happy ever after fairy tale. Without wanting to exclude anyone I would go on dates with pretty much anyone who matched with me as long as the messaging didn't drag on — I didn't have the bandwidth for endless messaging. Anyone can say all sorts of botox online and be completely different in person, literally. Disappointment after disappointment as the wrong types and possibilities, matched with me.

It was exhausting, 2 or 3 dates a week sometimes more. I ended up creating my own rules and boundaries:

• No swapping numbers till I had met them and liked them
• Agree to meet for a 20 min coffee or quick drink
• Never commit to dinner

It became a bit of a joke with my besties who would check in after each date and ask what was wrong with this one.

It was relentless and constantly disappointing. The truth is I might have overlooked the fact that within 3-7 seconds you get the vibe of a person, and but on many occasions my date wasn't my person, still I chose to overlook this and sometimes got caught on a second drink just to see if my instinct was correct, before learning they voted for Brexit or other values that didn't align with mine. One guy a little older than me asked me if I liked cock then quickly told me he couldn't get a hard on… his tone loaded with judgements. I cried all the way home confused. Another guy a little younger than me blew me out on our 4th date to go and rearrange his Tupperware cupboard. I had a few dalliances with younger men, which I soon realised wasn't what I wanted. And so back to apps and the relentless scrolling continued and the dates continued with few progressing past the first date, I became chronically picky, sometimes scrolling / swiping left without even looking. There seemed little hope of finding my one true love.

And then on a night out with a friend we stood swaying at a bus stop drunk, waiting for the nightbus from Shoreditch, with a hundred other pissed folk on their way home from a festival. I caught the eye of a guy in the line who smiled a dazzling smile that kinda caught me off guard. The bus came, I said goodbye to my mate and boarded the 149 bus. The bus was packed and I went upstairs to find a seat and as luck would have it, only one seat left next to Mr Smile separated by the aisle. We started chatting about our evening, it was natural, easy and we got so engrossed I missed my stop — but we both happened to get off at the same stop. Still chatting we walked up the same road (which seemed strange) but then he stopped on the next corner to say he lived down the road at 140 Fairfield Road. We were both incredibly drunk and a part of me nearly invited him home but I didn't, we hugged goodbye and peeled off in different directions — he literally lived 2 streets away from me. Memorising the address and repeating it in my head multiple times, I got home and fell straight to sleep. When I woke up the next morning with a stinking headache, I caught sight of a scribbled note I had written down before passing out — 140 Fairfield Road!! OMFG genius.

It took me a couple of days and a lot of courage but I wrote a postcard addressed to Martin from Zimbabwe: “Would love to meet up — Vicki from the Isle of Wight.” And that's it (I think). I hand delivered it and waited.

A few days passed and I was around a mate's house relaying the whole story when “I GOT A TEXT!!” It was Martin asking me out for a drink!! I was ecstatic and so excited, woohoooo.

I think the point is these chance meetings are precious and sometimes we don't have the confidence to ask for numbers, are too drunk, or we don't have time or the foresight to write down details that can connect us. I was lucky this time and we had a lovely year together and still remain friends.

The online dating community, no matter what gender or sexual preference you desire, have become blinded by swiping and forgotten how to flirt — so we at WOO sat down and chatted about what we wanted out of dating, and our overriding app apathy.

Question: do I hang out at men-heavy activities, go to various dating events? All of which seemed desperate and cringe and actually cost a lot, in time and investment.

Here at WOO HQ we just want to make it as simple as possible to find love and new friendships, handing you the tools to connect in real life and most importantly get you meeting up again as quick as possible.

No app, just a tap. What have you got to lose?