To Rival or Not to Rival: A New Strategy for Connection

I wasn’t planning to build anything.

Honestly, I wasn’t even sure this idea belonged in my portfolio.

But that’s the funny thing about strategy: sometimes, you spot the flaw before you realize you’re halfway to a solution. And in this case, that flaw belonged to a startup called TimeLeft.

They help strangers meet over dinner, once a week.

It’s charming. It’s well-designed. It’s social.

But the moment I looked deeper, I saw something that made me pause:

It can’t scale.

Timeleft Version

A Great Idea With a Built-In Limit

TimeLeft organizes weekly dinners where users are matched with strangers for one-off connections. The idea works in theory—until the numbers grow. Once you have hundreds or thousands of users in a single city, the friction of coordination becomes overwhelming.

It’s a classic platform trap:

They need more users to grow, but every new user adds complexity to the system.

Even worse? It only happens one night a week. If a user can’t make it on a Wednesday, they’re out until next time.

I started asking: What would it take to fix this? Not just for TimeLeft—but for anyone trying to build real community in real life.

My First Pivot: Let’s Move Instead

My first instinct was to flip the entire model.

Forget dinner.

Let’s build community through activity—through things like movement-based meetups, social sports, or active experiences.

I imagined a mobile-first platform for sports-centric gatherings, where users could show up for paddle tennis, boxing, climbing, or a group run. Shared energy. Shared action. That’s how friendships are often formed.

Instead of restaurants, we’d partner with gyms and boutique studios. Instead of hosts, we’d bring on local trainers.Instead of “every Wednesday,” we’d offer users real flexibility.

It was smart. It was scalable.

But something wasn’t sitting right.

The Real Breakthrough: Dinner... Done Better

The more I built out the sports version, the more I kept returning to dinner.

Because while activity is powerful, dinner is accessible.

No gear. No performance pressure. Just people showing up and having real conversations over food.

And when I reframed the logistics—pricing, scheduling, filtering—I realized something:

Dinner wasn’t the problem. The system was.

So I rebuilt it.

Donna's Version

A Platform Built for Community Through Dinner

This is a curated dinner experience platform that makes it easier—and more enjoyable—for strangers to meet over food, at scale.

Shared Mechanics We Kept

Just like TimeLeft, we believe in:

• Anonymity: Users don’t know who they’re meeting until they’ve met them at dinner.

• Post-dinner connection: After the event, users can rate their table and optionally reconnect.

  
  

But after that? Everything else evolved.

Key Differences That Make It Work

• Restaurants create availability, not the platform. Restaurants schedule dinners around specific vibes or groups they want to host—think “founders night,” “fiction readers,” or “music lovers.” We provide them tools to tag the dinner, choose the cap, and control the date and vibe. Users browse and book from these, just like you'd book a show or workout class.

  
  

• Each user's discovery feed is tailored. After answering a quick quiz about interests, goals, and values, users receive a curated feed of upcoming dinners that match their energy. If someone’s into poetry and tech, their feed reflects that. But they can still browse freely, too.

  
  

• We don’t force table coordination. Users pick from real-time available events. No surprise matching. No one being slotted in randomly. They choose the event—and by choosing, they also choose who they’ll likely connect with.

  
  

• Flexible scheduling—no more “every Wednesday.” TimeLeft locks all activity to a single day. We flipped that. Events can happen at any time—weekday lunch or weekend dinner—based on what restaurants choose to offer. If a dinner’s full, it locks. If it’s open, anyone can grab a seat. The model scales smoothly.

  
  

• People who’ve already met can rebook future dinners. If users meet someone they vibe with, they can reconnect and book another dinner—at any restaurant of their choice.

  
  

How the Money Works

Originally, I imagined users paying $120–$200/month, which would cover both their access to the platform and their food.

But in the dinner world, pricing gets more nuanced.

People dine differently.

They have different appetites, budgets, and preferences.

So we shifted the model:

• Users pay to access the platform, not the food.

  • A monthly subscription (e.g. $99/month) unlocks the ability to attend up to four curated dinners per month.

  • One-time users can pay a flat fee (e.g. $30–$50) to attend a single dinner.

    
    

• All food is paid directly to the restaurant. We keep it simple. You pay us to be part of the table. You pay the restaurant for what you eat.

  
  

In the future, we’d love to introduce pre-ordering—where guests could view the menu in advance, order and pay ahead, and walk into dinner focused purely on connection. No awkward splitting, no surprises.

What We Fixed (and Why It Matters)

1. We removed the matching burden.

TimeLeft manually coordinates who's sitting where. We don’t.

Restaurants define the vibe. Users choose what resonates—based on their interests and what we recommend. They match themselves.

That means we can scale without stress or logistics breaking down.

2. We removed the Wednesday bottleneck.

TimeLeft hosts all dinners at the same time. If you miss it, you wait a week.

We removed that limitation.

Now, users can book any dinner at any time, as long as it’s available. That means restaurants can host events on the dates that work best for them, and users can browse by their own schedule. The calendar is finally open.

The Features That Make It Work

• Smart event discovery: Personalized feeds based on values, interests, and past bookings.

• Transparent bookings: See available events, themes, and seat counts—no surprises.

• Curated event types: From “tech founders” to “language lovers,” restaurants choose the focus.

• Dual discovery system: Browse what we recommend, or search by vibe, date, distance, or topic.

• Private review flow: Two hours after dinner, rate the experience and reconnect if you want.

• Rebooking freedom: Choose to meet again, on your own terms, wherever and whenever it fits.

  
  

Final Thoughts

This started as a teardown. But it turned into a vision.

The more I built it in my mind, the more real it became. And maybe I’ll build it.

Maybe I won’t.

But this isn’t theory. It’s momentum.

And if you’re reading this and thinking: “I’d try that.” Then maybe we already are.

— Donna Louissaint

Brand & Product Strategist