The owners of a novel, New York City-based dating service that set up a “Love Wall” in a Brooklyn park say they hope to bring the concept to Toronto in the not too distant future.
Pique co-founders Cyrus Belsoi and Vaish Sesetty are long-time friends turned business partners whose recently built dating app is catching the attention of New York City singles with a simple and impactful concept.
In Brooklyn’s Mccarren Park sits Pique’s “Love Wall,” a once uninspiring stack of bricks that now boasts the photographs of smiling singles looking to date.
The Pique app launched about 10 months ago, but the wall has only been around for six weeks: It works as follows.
People who want to be featured on the wall pay Pique’s on-site, freelance photographer to get their photo taken. (he keeps all the proceeds from his photos). He then gives participants a picture to take home and one to pin to the wall alongside some basic details, including their age, gender, what type of romantic relationship they’re looking for and a few personal tidbits.
They are then welcome to peruse the wall for people who pique their interest.
Belsoi and Sesetty are on hand monitoring the wall and to facilitate meetups between singles who opt to use it.
Being there in person helps to instill trust in the idea and the process, the pair told Now Toronto on Friday, who are on a mission to inject humanity back into New York City’s playful but infamously brutal dating scene; a trait it shares with Toronto.
And, to maintain safety and privacy, the photographs are taken down every night and re-pinned in the morning by Belsoi and Sesetty.
“We’re honestly just trying to make this process of dating and human connection simple, not easy, but simple,” Sesetty said.
As for the Pique app, it doesn’t involve any swiping and runs in tandem with its in-person events that app and wall users alike can choose to meet-up at if they wish.
In this sense, the inception of Pique and the Love Wall is a manifestation of Belsoi and Sesetty’s wish to help foster genuine connections over baseless online ones that often leave daters feeling fatigued and low on self-esteem.
“We’re saying f**k swiping,” Sesetty exclaimed.
“Instead, every day, [the app] gives you a question at a random time, and it’s a multiple choice question with four answer choices, and then you automatically get matched with up to six people who answered the same thing as you on that day,” she explained.
The app includes a similarity score so that people can see their matches’ previous answers, and if they’re not keen on any of their matches for the day, there will be an updated set the next.
Belsoi went on to explain that Pique is a stepping stone for putting yourself out there, and that its Love Wall has a refreshingly broad appeal spanning many age groups, sexualities and genders compelled by the wall to make a move in real life.
“We’re a helping hand to the people when it comes to human connection and dating, and that is all we’re trying to serve. I’m not trying to take over your love life. I’m not trying to control it,” Sesetty explained.
“We’re that little guide that you have, by your side, on your shoulder as you go through your journey of dating, romance and human connection,” she continued.
Pique’s Love Wall serves a uniquely modern purpose. In a dating landscape saturated by technology and where singles are deprived of meaningful interactions, it provides a straightforward answer to their search for face-to-face meetings.
If you’re wondering if there’s a catch, well there isn’t. Those featured on the wall have no obligation to download the app. However, Belsoi and Sesetty did say that people who choose to join the wall often end up on Pique.
As for when Torontonians might get a taste of the wall, Pique has plans.
“Canada, I don’t know if I can promise you, within the next year, but in the next two years, OK,” Belsoi and Sesetty said with a smile.
