We hear some pretty crazy stories here at Grouper. In fact, that’s what we’re all about. Grouper sets up drinks between 2 groups of friends: 3 guys and 3 girls (or 3 guys and 3 guys, etc.). We think social software should actually be, well, social, which to us means bringing together people offline, not browsing through photos alone in your underwear :) Offline social networks are a lot more interesting than online ones…

I went on a Grouper the other day, as I often do. All of us here go on Groupers (it’s a tough job, but someone has to do it). I had no idea which 3 girls I was going to meet, because that is half the fun of a Grouper, and even for Grouper employees it’s no exception. Also, I had faith in our matching process (part algorithm, part human), having built a lot of it :)

So we arrive at this cool little lounge in SoHo. The six of us meet under the reservation for “Jen” and sit down. It’s me and my two buddies and Jen and her two friends. We’re doing the usual introduction small talk - “what do you do? where are you from?” One of the girls looks vaguely familiar. Let’s call her Zoey. We’re chatting and realize that we have a close mutual friend. Then it dawns on me. We had never met. But we had seen each other before.

“Do you know where I’ve seen you before?”

[She takes out her phone and opens Gmail].

[She then pulls up a picture… of us… photoshopped together. Courtesy of our mutual friend].

We had both moved to NY relatively recently and our mutual friend had introduced us via email (and Photoshop) because she thought we would be a good match. Apparently Grouper agreed. I had dropped the ball and we hadn’t met in person yet, but fate had other plans.

That was the start of an epic night full of picklebacks and great stories that ended back at Grouper HQ early in the morning, where the girls got a chance to meet my teammates Michael and Challen who were still up working.

Legendary stories like this — and ones even far more ridiculous — happen on Groupers all the time. And those are just the ones we hear about. I guess that’s what happens when you put down your phone and computer and actually experience life :)

If you want to make your own stories you should go on a Grouper in New York, San Francisco, Washington DC or (very soon) in a number of other cities (you can sign up now to reserve your spot waiting list).

Whether you hit it off with the other group or not, you’re pretty much guaranteed an awesome story.