Category: Founder Story

After my divorce, I thought dating would be easy. I was a good person. That had to count for something.

Boy was I wrong.

Dating again showed me everything I hadn’t dealt with — from the marriage, and from every relationship before it. So I did it the slow way: therapy, the books, meditation. All of it.

Somewhere in there, I started holding myself accountable. I stopped asking what was wrong with everyone else, and started asking why nobody teaches the part before the first date.

That’s why PreDate exists.

I built the first version while I was still doing that work on myself.

That’s around when I met Prais’Jah. We matched on Hinge and took months to actually get to a first date — fried chicken in K-Town, a fight with a bartender at the rudest pool hall, and then back to Brooklyn, where she beat me at arcade basketball.

What made it work with Prais’Jah wasn’t luck. We both showed up with a standard — for ourselves and for each other. We did our own work. We still do. A partner willing to do that was my one non-negotiable, and she was the first person who met it by already living it.

She has a master’s in marketing, so she started to help with PreDate too — and honestly, a woman’s touch is invaluable. She’s always looking out for everyone, and helping me see another side to things. She didn’t just support it — she helped build it.

I talked with three developers about building it. Nothing ever came of the talks. Everyone said PreDate was needed. Nobody wanted to help build the vision.

So I started building it myself.

That first version didn’t survive, and honestly, neither did my ambition to keep building. For a while, PreDate just sat there.

The moment that lit the fire: work sucked, money was tight, and my daughter’s school break was coming — and I wasn’t going to be able to see her. Not being able to see my daughter — that rearranges your priorities. I’ve been working night and day since.

My parents were horrible at this — love, partnership, all of it — and theirs ended in divorce too. My father wasn’t present, and I always thought I was less than. That’s a big part of why I believe families matter, and why fathers matter — I want to be better, and I want to help create better for others. I had to get it out the mud. PreDate is what came out.

I see how a community of people doing this work can change dating culture — and families, and society as a whole. That’s the bet. PreDate is where singles prepare and hold each other accountable: know your patterns, know your needs, hold your standard. Before the first date, not after the third disaster.

Start with the free quiz. Two minutes, and it shows you your pattern.

Founder · PreDate

PreDate. Prepared.

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