Friend me...No seriously though

Last week was for the lovers, this week is for the friends.

Or actually, those in need of a friend.

The problem:
You move to a new city because you get an amazing job offer. You're making more money, you live in a bigger apartment, and you've got a 401k. You are, to quote Jim Jones, "Ballin".

You.

There's only one problem: you're absolutely miserable. You have no friends, and no idea how to make them.  Sound familiar?

It should. Statistics show that the average worker will change jobs ten times between the ages of 18-38. And according to the New York Times , "One-third of people in their 20s move to a new residence every year." While some of these people are simply moving from their uptown loft to a downtown closet (living the American Dream, obvi), for many of us these moves take us to new cities altogether.

Despite the fact that your facebook page says you have "friends" in 38 states, the reality is, moving to a new city often means starting all over in the friend department.

You, more accurately depicted.

Solution:
A website dedicated to connecting people based on their personalities, interests, and beliefs.

I know what you're thinking: that website already exists - it's called Match.com.

And you're right - there's an endless list of sites that bring people together to date. But almost none of these sites exist for the sole purpose of helping people make friends.  Meetup.com is the only site that comes to mind with a similar mission, but Meetup connects people based on their interests.  That's great if you want a group of people to go skiiing with, but there's nothing to guarantee that you won't be skiing with a group of douchebags.

We love skiing.

One thing I learned the minute I left college was that making friends is hard. In college, you see the same people day in and day out, many of whom are at least somewhat similar to you, and all of whom share your goal of making damned sure college is the best time of your lives.

Post-college, the avenues for making friends shrink considerably. For one thing, going out on a Tuesday night is a lot harder when you have to wake up at 6:30 the next morning, so people spend a lot less time socializing. For another thing, striking up conversations with strangers is...awkward, to put it mildly.

Um...hi.

 That's where the website steps in. We'll call it "FindAfriend.com"

Here's how it would work:

• You log in and create a member profile
• You take a "personality survey" - similar to eHarmony's, but shorter and less annoying
• Once the survey is completed, people whose interests, beliefs, and personality traits are compatible with yours are marked as your "matches"
• You meet, become best friends, and your humorous-yet-touching tale becomes the story of a mid-90's sitcom.

FindAfriend.com spokespeople

 The site would be free, of course, because nobody wants to pay for friends.** So the main revenue for the site would come from advertising, and perhaps, eventually, I'd partner with other companies to offer deals for our subscribers, and take a percentage of the deals revenue. For an idea like this, though, the main focus would be building the user base. It's like Google says, "Focus on the user and all else will follow."

And by "all else", I mean "billions of dollars". Awesome.

So that's the gist of the idea. Holler back with your thoughts.

**

We love paying for friends.

Shoutout to how-to-be, fotolia, puro pedo, rites of patches, janheller,