Reference
The consumer tool landscape
Clients ask which app to download, and commissioners ask why a referral list is all church halls when there are products that do this now. This is the category, sorted by what each tool actually does rather than by what its makers call it.
Seated with strangers
Produces contact with new people, and asks nothing of the client socially before they arrive. The only group that addresses the organising barrier directly.
| Product | Repeat contact | Client cost | Coverage | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 222 | One-off | Paid | LA, under-28s | None published |
| Buffet | Only if arranged | Free tier | Los Angeles | None published |
| Pie | Only if arranged | Free tier | 5 cities | None published |
| Timeleft | One-off | Paid, plus the bill on the night | Many cities | None published |
Recurring interest groups
Produces repeated contact with the same people, which is the mechanism the evidence supports. Asks the most of a client on the first night.
| Product | Repeat contact | Client cost | Coverage | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meetup | Built in | Free | Worldwide | None published |
One-to-one matching
Produces a match, not a meeting. The gap between the two is where most of these referrals fail.
| Product | Repeat contact | Client cost | Coverage | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buffet | Only if arranged | Free tier | Los Angeles | None published |
| Bumble BFF | One-off | Free tier | Worldwide | None published |
| Hinge | One-off | Free tier | Worldwide | None published |
| Peanut | Only if arranged | Free tier | Worldwide | None published |
Finding and hosting events
Introduces nobody to anybody. These are logistics tools. Referring an isolated client here as a connection intervention is a category error.
| Product | Repeat contact | Client cost | Coverage | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eventbrite | One-off | Free | Worldwide | None published |
| Luma | Only if arranged | Free | Worldwide | None published |
| Partiful | One-off | Free | Worldwide | None published |
Before you put any of it on a list
- Check coverage and eligibility first. City limits are the binding constraint on the whole category, and 222 is capped at 27. A client who gets keen and then finds the app does not serve their area has been handed another small failure.
- Check the cost, including the second one. Timeleft charges a booking fee and the restaurant bill lands on top. Recommending a paid product to someone whose isolation is partly financial is not a neutral act.
- Say which group it is. Label every digital option in your directory A to D. It stops the Partiful error at the point of use rather than relying on each worker to know.
- Record it as untested. When commissioners ask which parts of your pathway have an evidence base, your own notes need to separate the tested components from the plausible ones.
- Follow up at week four, not week one. Ask whether they went a second time. The second visit is the outcome worth recording.