Dog Dating Email

On this edition of out to Lunch, Peter Ricchiuti and Christiaan
Mader discuss the daily ritual of deleting email, but not dog
dating email.


Email You Don't Want to Delete


Opening this segment of Out to Lunch, Peter says, "I’m always
wary of hosts of shows like this who start off a story with, “If
you’re like me…”  But I’m willing to go for it right now,
because I bet there is one thing we have in common.


"If you’re like me, you checked your email today, and went down
the list going delete, delete, delete, delete. The email from
Amazon trying to sell you something you bought last week. The
email from some company you can’t remember – maybe they were the
people you bought those flip flops from… It’s like this every
day, right?"


Now picture this. A marketing email from a company that sends you
information about something you’re actually interested in. Maybe
it’s the flip flop company, but they’re not sending you
information about flip flops, they’re telling you about an
advance in Alzheimer’s research, which you actually are
interested in. Or a recipe for chocolate cake, which, strangely
enough, you were just thinking about baking.


This would brighten your whole email experience. And on the other
side of the equation, if you’re the company sending the email,
your clients will actually open the email, read it, and
appreciate you. That’s how the A.I-driven email marketing company
RASA.io works.


If you’re thinking, “Well, that’s a great idea,” it’s way past
the idea stage. Rasa.io has 20 employees and they send out 15
million emails a month.


Jared Loftus is Chief Operations Officer at Rasa.io. The secret
to the success of these A.I-generated emails is their
personalization. Peter says, "Suppose Christiaan and I bought the
same flip flops, but I’m interested in brass bands and the oil
business, and Christiaan is interested in progressive jazz and
football. We both get email from the same flip flop company, but
the emails we get are tailored to our specific interests."


The obvious question is, “How does a flip flop company know all
this about me?” Where is this information coming from that allows
a company to target clients so specifically? It's a fascinating
concept and a fascinating company. Almost as fascinating as dog
dating.


Dog Dating


We’re still feeling the effects of the lockdown. There are two
segments of the population that the lockdown had a big effect on:
dogs, and single people who like to go on dates. If you’re a dog,
the lockdown was awesome – you had company 24 hours a day. If
you’re human, single, and looking for somebody to date, well, the
lockdown was challenging. 


In the Venn Diagram of those two populations, dogs and daters,
you can add Leigh Isaacson D’Angelo. Leigh is neither a dog, nor
dating – she’s a married human, with a business called DIG.


DIG is a dating app for dog owners. The concept is, if you love
your dog, and dogs in general, it’s good to weed out - at the
very beginning of the dating process - potential partners who
don’t like dogs. And DIG is big. It’s on the ground in 15
cities across the country. The biggest DIG communities are in New
York and Los Angeles, and they're about to break into Europe.


And breaking news! DIG is expanding into animal loving world,
with Tabby, the cat person's dating app!


Photos from this show by Jill Lafleur are at our website. For
more conversations about dogs, check out this classic
conversation about nutria dog treats, pampered pets, and
prosthetics for pets.


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