Susannah Schaff is a speed dating aficionado, or as she would put it, a “speed queen”. As someone who doesn’t enjoy dating apps, the single 33-year-old makes a concentrated effort to get out there IRL, whether that means going to in-person dating events in Manhattan, Jersey City or Hoboken. On the night I met Schaff in a crowded East Village basement, we were at Date My Friend, an event series where people get on stage and pitch their friends to a live audience. Think Shark Tank or Dragon's Den, but if your best friend was the startup founder, you were the product, and dozens of potential suitors were the judges. Schaff wasn’t one of the eleven duos taking to the stage that night, but had decided to come and watch as a bystander. “I’m not pitching. I’m fishing,” she said. 

Date My Friend was started in January 2026 by Brit O’Brien and Petro AP, two Californians who, fittingly, are longtime friends themselves. The idea stemmed from O’Brien seeing a similar event take place in San Francisco, and wanting to throw one in Los Angeles, where she and Petro are both based. Since their first event, the pair have hosted seven more, the most recent two taking place in New York City last week. “The common thread is that people just don't want to be online,” says O’Brien. “They want to meet in person and get to know each other.”

At Nightclub 101, the live music venue Date My Friend chose for their first New York showing on March 25, Schaff’s proverbial pond was quite full, with 125 people in attendance. Over 40 people submitted pitch applications in the week leading up to the event. As the clock inched closer to kick-off on the night itself, the relatively small space was swarmed with eager attendees.

Under the dim glow of a disco ball, eleven pitchers got on stage and, for three minutes straight, sold the crowd on their friend. Some read from a sheet of paper, while others had their speeches memorised. There was at least one person who came with a prepared slideshow presentation, and another who, to their friend’s complete surprise, concluded their monologue with the announcement that they had business cards with their friends’ contact information on them. 

The event was one of many increasingly creative in-person dating events that are cropping up across the city, but one of the first to tap into friendship as a resource. It’s a play that, if the opinion of an expert like Schaff is any indication, has resonated with daters. “I wanted to hear the best parts of a potential partner from people they have really close platonic relationships with,” Schaff said of her reasoning for coming. “I like the idea of hearing about someone who’s already vetted, and of a person whose friends are so passionate about them that they're willing to talk them up a bit.”

“I wanted to hear the best parts of a potential partner from people they have really close platonic relationships with. I like the idea of hearing about someone who’s already vetted, and of a person whose friends are so passionate about them that they're willing to talk them up a bit”

Because everyone stays and mingles at the bar after the pitches end, there’s ample opportunity at these events to approach someone in real time. And, though dating apps have made hitting on someone in real life feel unnecessarily intimidating and foreign, the inherent cheekiness of events like Date My Friend provides a natural entry for conversation. “Talking about the speeches is such a great icebreaker,” O’Brien says. “There’s a lot of deep, platonic love in the space, which I feel disarms people.”

Platonic love was certainly the case for Brandon Epstein and Nicky Khor, both participants of the Night Club 101 evening. Epstein was there to pitch the “amazing, lovely, fantastic, but tragically single” Khor, whom he met through his wife. “At first, I was thinking ‘How can I embarrass him most entirely?’” Epstein joked to me about his pitch writing process. “But really, it was about why I think this person is special, why they are important to me, and how I can share that in a way that’s accessible.” 

Epstein succeeded, as his pitch seemed to be one of the most popular of the night. While he rattled off his friend’s professional accolades, he also shared more personal sentiments about Khor. The fact that he “takes really good care of his mom”, in particular, earned him a chorus of “awws” from the crowd. 

Next up was Joyce Kang, who was there to pitch her friend Mandy Castellanos. “I'll always sing her praises, but I want to see her flourish, have a good time and have fun with her dating life,” said Kang of Castellanos, pre-pitch. “The intention out of this isn’t to anchor down a boyfriend, it’s just to see her become more social and make more connections.” For her part, Castellanos cared about hearing her friend’s speech as much as she cared about the actual dating. “I want to know what she’s gonna say because I think it’ll bring us closer as friends, and it’s also nice to see how other people see you,” she said. 

As Castellano hinted at, the feeling of being seen – really, truly seen – by your friends is pretty unmatched. While there was plenty of flirting to be found as attendees puttered about after the pitches, the most touching points of the evening came when each duo embraced at the end of the speeches, the pitcher often looking dumbstruck by how heartfelt their friend’s case for them was. My favourite pitch of the night came from Nirosh Ratnarajah about his friend and fellow finance bro, Pat. Like others, Ratnarajah’s speech had notes about his friend’s successful career and personal pros, but stood out because of his booming, TV-level-smooth delivery. 

Towards the end of the night, Ratnarajah confessed to me that he spent his entire work day crafting the pitch, even getting his coworkers to help him workshop the speech. “It was an iterative process, a real nine-to-five hustle,” he joked. Then, he emphasised how much he loved his friend and that he would do anything for him. “If he finds someone tonight, I’ll be the happiest guy ever,” Ratnarajah said. “Plus, it means I get automatic best man.”