Swiping left and right, judging photos, and deciding whether someone is worth meeting has become the standard rhythm of modern dating. But for many singles, that rhythm has led to exhaustion. A new platform launching from Tampa Bay is proposing a different path: stop dating for a minute and go live.
Single Social Club, an activity-first social platform, opens its initial community in Tampa Bay with a simple premise: what if singles focused on doing things they enjoy alongside other singles, rather than making every interaction about finding a date? Created by professional matchmaker Felicity G. Morgan, founder of Assured Matchmaking, and co-founded with technology lead Greg Miceli, the platform was born from Morgan's conversations with singles who felt burned out by dating apps.
"I kept hearing the same thing," Morgan said. "'I'm taking a break from dating. I'm focusing on myself. I'm tired of the apps.' And I thought, okay. Focus on yourself. But why should focusing on yourself mean sitting at home?"
That question became Single Social Club. The platform removes one of online dating's most familiar features entirely: there is no swiping. Members aren't presented with an endless catalog of photos. Instead, they begin with an activity. The platform currently includes more than 157 activity options, from kayaking and pickleball to dining, trivia, fitness, attractions, and entertainment. Members choose what they would genuinely like to do, indicate how far they're willing to travel, select age ranges they feel comfortable socializing with, and enter their availability. The technology then finds the overlap.
"If you're free Saturday from two to seven and somebody else is free from three to six, we don't need six text messages asking, 'What time works for you?'" Morgan said. "We already have the overlap. Now let's find the other people who wanted to do the same thing."
When compatible participation exists, Single Social Club brings members together in small groups, generally building toward groups of approximately six to eight people. The platform also uses code names—such as Bee, Fox, Moon, or Turtle—rather than immediately displaying full identities to the group. This allows participants to coordinate and communicate without automatically handing strangers their personal phone numbers or contact information. Behind the scenes, a verification process is used before members participate, with privacy, verification, and member safety as core considerations.
"We wanted people to have some breathing room," Morgan said. "You don't need to know someone's entire dating résumé before you've even bowled a frame with them. Go have the experience. Talk. Laugh. Pay attention to how people actually show up."
The timing is deliberate. Popular dating formats have increasingly turned the mechanics of modern dating into entertainment. The viral Pop the Balloon format makes rejection immediate, while Love Is Blind became a cultural phenomenon by testing what happens when people form connections before seeing one another. Single Social Club isn't trying to recreate either show, but Morgan believes both point toward an important question: are singles sometimes eliminating people before they've had enough information to know who they're eliminating?
"We've gotten incredibly efficient at disqualifying each other," Morgan said. "A picture. Height. Shoes. A job title. One sentence in a profile. Sometimes we're deciding what somebody isn't before we've had an opportunity to experience who they are."
Single Social Club flips that sequence: activity first, person second, romance only if it develops. It is also designed for people who are not actively searching for a relationship—those coming out of a breakup, newly divorced parents rebuilding a social life, professionals whose friends are married or busy, and anyone taking a break from dating. Research on dating-app use has increasingly examined dating-app burnout and emotional exhaustion among users, and Morgan sees that fatigue regularly through her matchmaking work.
"Sometimes you don't need another date," Morgan said. "Sometimes you need to go live. Go do something you've always wanted to try. Meet some people. Maybe you make a friend. Maybe you discover something about yourself. Maybe somebody catches your attention. And maybe nobody does."
If a connection does develop, Single Social Club provides a private opportunity for members to indicate whether someone in their group stood out. One-sided interest remains private. When two people independently express genuine interest in one another, the platform can recognize the mutual connection, and Morgan's other business, Assured Matchmaking, can optionally step in to help participants explore what might come next. There is no public rejection board and no popularity counter.
For Miceli, the challenge was building technology whose success ultimately means people put their phones away. "Most technology is designed to keep you on the screen," Miceli said. "We're building something that's supposed to help you get off the screen. The technology handles the coordination, finds the overlap, and helps form the group. Then the real experience happens in the real world."
Single Social Club is a web app, accessible through a phone or computer browser without an app-store download. Mobile users can save it to their home screen for app-like access. Starting in Tampa Bay, the founders plan to watch where interest develops and expand active communities as participation grows in additional markets. To make trying the concept easy, Single Social Club is launching with introductory access for $1 for the first 30 days. After that, unless canceled, membership automatically renews at the applicable rate. The Basic membership is $20 per month and includes up to five activity opportunities per month; individual activity, venue, food, ticket, transportation, or other third-party costs are separate.
For Morgan, the invitation is simple: "Don't join because I promised you're going to meet the love of your life. I can't promise that, and neither can anybody else. Join because there's something you've been wanting to do. Go do it. Let life surprise you from there."
