Mixing Business with Pleasure in New LinkedUp! App
Contributed by: kellyseal on Friday, May 23 2014 @ 06:58 am
Last modified on
Have you ever thought about asking out one of your LinkedIn contacts? Maybe the idea of mixing your professional and personal life seems sketchy at best, terrifying at worst. Or maybe you’re already a networker, and have been waiting for a dating app to make things easier when you’re wondering if that new vendor or client is single.
Your new answer is LinkedUpApp.com, an app based on your LinkedIn profile. Visually, it works like Tinder where you see photos and basic information, then you accept or reject your matches. The difference? It's based on your LinkedIn profile, not Facebook. You get to see the more career-focused side of matches – like what they do for a living and where they went to school.
While it could be awkward to run across a work colleague or boss on Tinder – daters who use apps always run that risk – LinkedUp! is willing to bet people want to take those risks. Let's say you send a flirtatious note to someone who could end up being a client or recruiter. Would the object of your affection be offended, or since they are on LinkedUp! is it to be expected that sometimes business connections can get a little flirtatious?
It makes the line between work and play a little more murky, kind of like out-of-town conferences or happy hours on Friday night with your work pals. What do you do if someone rejects your advances, or if you reject theirs? What if you have a one-night stand that ends badly, but you still have to interact professionally? Or does LinkedUp make networking and work in general a little more exciting to know who is single and looking?
Luckily, LinkedUp! has thought of all the awkward ways this kind of dating app could go wrong. Developers have created the app so that you can anonymously like or pass on the profiles you see. Nobody has to be embarrassed the next day at work or wonder how to get past the rejection and have a purely professional relationship.
Obviously, work is a way for people to meet each other. Office trysts happen all the time. LinkedUp! is just expanding that office pool to your career social network.
Max Fischer is LinkedUp’s CEO, and says he got the idea by seeing so many people using LinkedIn as a way to find dates. “LinkedUp! users get a very true sense of who someone is, where they are from, where they go to school and what do they do, giving users a sense of comfort and trust,” Fischer said.
LinkedUp hasn’t revealed how many people are using the app, but it does seem to get more traffic in cities where there are a lot of networking singles like L.A., San Francisco, and New York. The app is currently available only for iPhone users.