Would You Let Your Friend Pitch You to a Room Full of Single Strangers?

As for most meeting trends (for example, racing clubs, wedding contracts, new dating applications), I first learned the concept of presenting a single friend thanks to a PowerPoint presentation from Tiktok. It was a video with the subtitle “It’s 2025 and that’s how we go out” that drew my attention, with comments ranging from excitement (“please it would be so fun”) to cringe (“I would melt in my seat, no thank you”).

Immediately, I was intrigued. At the age of 24, which has been on and out of meeting applications for five years and always single, I concluded that I will not find my partner online. Frankly, I am exhausted. The tireless shift, the conversations that do not go anywhere, and repeatively deleting the hinge only to download it a few months later – it is a cycle that forced me to consider the question: is the matchmatization fueled by friendship the next era of dating? And do these PowerPoint presentations really work?

The tiktok I saw was specifically for the Pitch and Pear event planning site, which, according to its website, is “where PowerPoint meets romance”. Although their events are currently taking place in New York, I discovered that there were similar concepts, like Pitch-A-friend, which occur across the country.

“It is much more difficult to find good activities and good dates and ways to mingle,” explains Joe Teblum, founder of Pitch and Peer. “Many people try all the online dating applications, online events, the person, the standard speed meetings, and none is really suitable for them.”

It only takes a recurring problem for Teblum and his friends, who work full time in technology, that he was inspired to do something. “My friends are worth getting a match and finding someone, but they just don’t get there,” he said. “So I created the pitch and the couple to find a unique and fun way that would allow people to meet people more organically and have this kind of meeting.”

To mix the ease of digital applications and the energy of a gathering in person, each “launcher” creates a slideshow of three to five minutes to sell their single friend to a room full of foreigners. As Teblum says Charm“When people come in, they go with groups of friends, generally all very excited.”

Like a real journalist, I went to a pitch and peer event on June 11 to see him in action for myself. I arrived a few minutes after opening the doors and the room was already close to its capacity. As he started, there were no more chairs available and people stood along the wall at the back of the room. I was curious – who would be courageous enough to stand in a room full of foreigners and be part of it?

Joe Teblum