Checking Out Cheek’d

I love any new take on online dating, and I can't help but be intrigued by something that TechCrunch has called "equally creepy and creative."

Did that get your attention?

Yeah, I thought so.

The site is called Cheek'd, and TechCrunch calls it "a place where business cards meets picking up prospective boyfriends/girlfriends/one-night stands." Sounds like fun, right? It's business and pleasure you can mix without getting into trouble! Well, maybe some trouble...but the good kind of trouble.

Cheek'd works by, of course, signing up for the service online and filling out a profile. It's just like your average dating site, but with questions that are little more unique. Singles are queried about their favorite board games and the most played songs on their iPods, then they upload pictures and are ready to get to the good stuff.

This is where the fun of Cheek'd really begins. Members receive a deck of cards - yes, a deck of cards - with short icebreakers printed on them. There are hundreds of different sayings that run the gamut from "Emotionally available" to "Act natural, we can get awkward later." There's even a Wall Street-specific deck with lines like "Add me to your portfolio" and "All my bank accounts are Swiss."

Every card has an ID code associated with it, and a URL for the Cheek'd website. When you've given the card to an intriguing stranger, said stranger - filled with curiosity about the attractive prospect who just gave them a mysterious calling card - enters the code on the card into the Cheek'd website and is directed to your profile page. Cheek'd calls the process "online dating in reverse."

My thoughts? Points for creativity are definitely deserved. I like the idea, and I love the sleek, minimal aesthetic of the cards themselves. For those who are shy, Cheek'd could provide an easy way to get the ball rolling without risking too much rejection or awkwardness. And yes, I do think that the sayings on the cards would pique my curiosity if I received one.

But on the other hand, handing me a card doesn't tell me anything about a person. Why would I be interested in pursuing contact with someone I knew literally nothing about? If they were really interested in me, wouldn't they want to do more than hand me a business card?

Verdict: it sounds cool on the surface, but I'm not convinced that it would actually work in the real world. Try it out and let me know!