Thanks to the more than 70 people who came out to party with us last Wednesday night, our soft launch happy hour was a great success! Eric and I learned a lot from talking with people about the app and anything else that came to mind. We’re very grateful for the insights, ideas and general feedback. And now we have a lot of work to do LOL.

A huge thanks to Elise Oras for organizing the event, and many thanks to Pintxo, Del Rey, Bedlam Coffee, PopChips, Stylus Salon, Crown Black Car, Kyri Eagle and everyone else who donated or helped out (including @BMW and @ShanThor…for last minute poster arrangements )

Also, here are some expert photos of the party, courtesy of the talented Greg Mushen.

Wingman was originally conceived to help people break the ice in social situations or to help recoup missed connections. To make this happen, people who use Wingman must upload photos of their face. This way, you can see someone across the room, find their online representation right on your phone, and get in touch if you want. However, if people upload a picture of, say, what they ate for breakfast, it’s exceedingly difficult for other people to recognize them and get in touch.

Another really good way to prevent the Wingman dream from being realized is to show a bunch of photos of bare chests or….other things. While certainly impressive, a photo of your six-pack abs isn’t going to do much for the person who saw you on the street, wanted to get in touch, but couldn’t find you on Wingman because you were unrecognizable. Unless, of course, you were walking down the street with your shirt off. Again, a respectable move, but not really what we’re designing around.

Still another way to reduce of your chances of getting noticed is posting a photo of you and a friend.  What message are you trying to convey here exactly?  Two for one?  How is someone supposed to know which person is you?

This is why we delete photos of anything other than your smiling face. We’re not trying to be mean – we’re just trying to build a community of people who want to bring online dating back to the real world. By leaving your smiling photo around town, you make it possible for someone who maybe crossed paths with you at, for example, the bus stop, to connect with you at a more convenient time.  And by ensuring that the photo is of you, and you only, you’re increasing the chances that someone you haven’t met and who hasn’t seen you in real life will want to strike up a conversation.

So go ahead. Upload a face pic. You have a beautiful smile .

We got a few extra tickets to Fremont Oktoberfest, running from Friday thru Sunday this weekend.  To win, re-tweet our tweet and follow @wingmanapp.  We’ll announce the winner at 5pm!

For those of you who’ve never been,

“Fremont Oktoberfest is your fall kick-off celebration in the “Center of the Universe” Fremont, Washington. Voted by USA Today and Orbitz.com as one of the top places to toast Oktoberfest, this three-day event has an activity for kids and adults of all ages!

And, it’s all for a good cause! The Fremont Chamber of Commerce is the beneficiary of Fremont Oktoberfest. A portion of the proceeds goes toward funding local schools, art groups, community events and promoting Fremont as the “Center of the Universe.”

Come Run, Drink and Play at Fremont Oktoberfest!”

After quite a long time staring at iPhone application code and fighting about things like whether we should capitalize the word “Spot” (we totally should), my co-creator Eric and I are excited to get this party started next week.

Literally.

To introduce Wingman to the community, we’ve planned a little event in Belltown, and it’s shaping up to be one helluva party. We’re lucky to have teamed up with some great partners, including PintXO and Del Rey. We’ll even be giving away some door prizes, with proceeds benefitting a fantastic local charity, Seattle Works. The guest list is shaping up, and we’re excited to meet all the great people who plan on attending!

And to think that’s just the beginning. The very next day (and the day after, and the day after) we’ll be…well, bar-hopping. We’ll take off our party hats, put on our founder hats, and talk with people out and about to show them this great product we’ve made. Yes, it’s true…never a moment’s rest. Life in in the business of social networking can be downright demanding!

My friend told me this story yesterday I just couldn’t believe. She was on a date with this guy – first date – and she made the interesting decision to head back to his place after dinner.  While she thumbed through his DVD collection, he hastily announced that he was fresh out of weed, and that he’d need to head out really quickly to refresh his supply.

Oooookay.

Before my friend could react, respond or participate, the gentleman ran out and locked her in from the outside.  She sat in his apartment for about two hours waiting for this guy to score some smoke, and eventually ran out of patience (and what patience, right?!).  Deciding a DVD or two was fair and reasonable compensation for her trouble, she tucked away some feel good comedies and excused herself via an unlocked window.  Luckily, this man was on a first floor apartment.

I’ve had some pretty crappy dates in my time, but this was dumbfounding.  And hilarious.  And tragic.  And I couldn’t wait to tell all of you about it.  In fact, I ran right out and asked my social network for horrible dating stories.  They delivered some whoppers without hesitation.

And so the “Dating Tip” segment of our Twitter account was born.  We’ll be sharing the real dating calamities we hear, delivered as “tips” – tips people probably should never really need, but apparently at least one person could have used.  Maybe we’ll even hold a contest to identify the 10 “best” dating tips…but we’ll see about that later.  For now, we’ll just share the unbelievable stuff we hear about, edited for 140 characters.

I remember throwing my first party at age seven, at my day care center. The lady who watched over us, “Miss Barb” (why did they go by their first names at day care?), promised to bring in her strobe lights if I promised to bring my Michael Jackson and Expose 45s. The results were explosive. At 15 minutes running time, it ended up being the longest dance party the day care center had hosted to-date! And….if I recall correctly, after the party a young girl named Julie cornered me for a kiss in the Housekeeping section. Heh. Good times. Wonder what Julie’s up to now…

Anyway, I thought about all this midway through developing Wingman. There’s not really much difference between demanding a disco party at one’s day care center and attempting to launch a product that brings complete strangers together in social settings. Plain and simple, I’ve always enjoyed helping people have a good time. In this context and reckoning, my life’s path suddenly made so much sense.

And now the really fun part of Wingman is about to start. I’m spending my days planning small and large parties to celebrate the completion and launch of this new product. With just a few promotional events already in the pipeline for September, I’m hoping the word about Wingman will spread among friends, transforming it into one big (free) party throughout Seattle, bringing just a tad more happiness and laughter into many lives. But no matter what happens, no matter how many people come to the party, how big it gets, or how long it lasts, I’m kinda hoping Julie keeps her distance this time.

In a few short weeks, Wingman will be popping up all over Seattle. Although the application is technically available anywhere in the world, we chose Seattle as our launch city because of its unique combination of scene and scenery. It’s a great city – not too huge, definitely not small, and filled with great people who love new technology. Although I’ve been visiting friends here regularly since the turn of the century (whoa, does that sound weird to anyone else?), my more recent visits have focused more squarely on learning more about the Seattle nightlife scene.

And whenever I learn new subjects, I’m sure to be thorough .

Thanks to some great new friends, I spent this past Friday night hustling around Belltown learning just as much as I could about the scene. From 6:30 until last call, I naturally had to sample the fare at each and every establishment to ensure its offering was up to my company’s standards . And what an offering! Sangria, home-brew, fancy champagne cocktails, mixology, and….well I forgot the rest.

It’s kinda neat to have a job where making new friends and bar-hopping is a legitimate and necessary part of a day’s work. And to think….we’re only just getting started.

Throughout the month of July, Wingman ran a iPad Giveaway open to our very first users in Seattle.  Those who participated checked in all over the map in Seattle, liked us on Facebook, and/or followed us on Twitter.  We got some great feedback from people, and we recently picked a lucky winner to end the contest!

Although it took a couple weeks for her new toy to arrive direct from China, we’re proud to finally announce Taylor Peterson as the winning entrant .  Taylor snapped a photo of herself with her coveted prize so we could share it with you here:

The iPad Giveaway was fun!  But in the future, we’ll probably be focused more on events and parties to get people more involved with each other…which is, after all, the whole reason we created the product in the first place.  So thanks to everyone who participated, and we hope to see you at some events in the near future!  We’ll let you know more when we know more…

It’s hard to send your baby out into the world after having him (or her) all to yourself for so long.  So after months of planning and thinking and doing, with equal parts apprehension and pride, we’ve sent our baby out into the world. Today was Wingman’s first day at school.

I’d like to think we, as his parents, don’t have to worry about him. We’ve raised him to be charming, polite and magnetic. He thinks quickly, and he has a genuine desire to do good in the world. He has the utmost respect for people’s personal space, as we always found the opposite quite annoying in other children we’ve met.

But, as with all parents, sometimes what we see is not what other people see. Maybe other people will think he’s annoying, intrusive or disrespectful. Worst of all…forgettable. But all we can do is help Wingman as he makes his way! We’ll listen to what he tells us about his experiences with other people out there in the real world, and we’ll help him grow and adapt to be the best he can possibly be.

Good luck, Wingman!  Don’t forget to call your father…

Wingman has been brewing for a couple months now.  In mid-March, we held our first testing party in a beer garden in Brooklyn.  We invited a bunch of unacquainted friends to the event, and we had them play around with the development version of Wingman.  They gave us tons of feedback, but they also generated our first success story!

Two of our friends, while testing the chat function, struck up a conversation from across the room and then introduced each other.  It was hilarious!  Eric and I were furiously scribbling user experience feedback on our Moleskins, but had to stop and appreciate the ironic beauty of our vision realized—in a test environment!

Although our friends only went on a couple dates, that’s part of the mission—Wingman is a fun, clean and low-pressure way to meet new people in the real places you go.  It’s not always easy to meet people in real life, and it’s not much easier doing it online!  So much pressure, so much back-and-forth.  So many expectations that, really, can never be met.  Our goal is to change all that.  We want to combine the social with the antisocial, the offline with the online.  We’re genuinely excited about bringing it to life!  It’s only a few weeks away!