Rising Stars: Meet Joe Feminella

Today we’d like to introduce you to Joe Feminella.

Hi Joe, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
“Before I moved to NYC five years ago, I always had a more traditional/old school mindset when it came to my interest in women. If I saw someone I thought was attractive or interesting, I would easily, with no hesitation, approach her and say hello. Once I moved to NYC, I saw that most people my age were using dating apps. At first, I thought it was a ridiculous idea and thought it was mostly for people who did not have the confidence to approach someone in real life. I told myself I would never use a dating app.

Once I started getting acclimated to the city, I noticed it was quite difficult to approach women, and I started realizing that the people on these dating apps were not just people who lacked confidence but it was pretty much everyone, and I started to see it was more of a generational comfortability with the way dating should be. So, I had no other option but to join the crowd and see what this online dating world was all about.

​As I started using different dating apps, I realized it was not an effective way to make a real connection. Whether it was matching with too many people and having a long list of endless conversations or pointless messages with people that didn’t *actually* want to go on a date. Users did not put value into making a real connection. It was always a numbers game and endless swiping. Also, people would message so much back and forth before even meeting, once it came time for the date, it was as if you already knew the person, and you would run out of things to talk about during the date. So, I started asking the women I was going out with how they felt about the current apps, and they all had the same feedback: frustrated. After realizing everyones’ feedback was the same and also experiencing these issues firsthand, I realized I had to try and figure out a way a better way for that people to meet! I wanted people to have the comfortability of using an app, but an app that would allow users to experience a real, old school, classic human interaction.

​And that’s how I came up with the idea for First Round’s on Me (FROME).”

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
It has definitely not been a smooth road and I am sure that is the answer most entrepreneurs will give you. Every day there is a new challenge or hurdle because you are dealing with so many moving parts. One day there can be a technical issue, the next day there can be a legal issue and outside of the issues themselves, you have to deal with the people working on the issues, so it is very important to try and stay calm and keep steering the ship forward. I think one of the biggest challenges is getting funding to keep your idea going, without the money it is difficult to get an idea off of the ground so you have to constantly be ready to sell your idea and market yourself to some pretty successful people. Self-doubt will always kick in and you will have moments where you think, is this really a good idea and should I put all of my time and effort into this, but the obvious answer is yes, keep going, believe in yourself and that will separate you from most of the field.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am the founder and CEO of FROME (First Round’s On Me), FROME is a dating app and we’re bringing back real dating! We want to encourage people to be more confident in themselves and their quest for companionship through face-to-face interactions.

I am most proud of the fact that not only are we starting a company, but the company has a real purpose and it is trying to make real connections for people again. We live in such a technology-based world and the more and more we get addicted to our phones, the less we can actually connect as real human beings, I hope I am doing my small part to bring the world together again.

When users sign on, they can choose “available today” which will filter all users that want to go on a date that day, or “available this week” which will allow users to set up a date within the next seven days.

When a user sees someone of interest, they will send a date request that suggests a date, time, and place.

Once the receiver confirms the date, the two users are locked to each other for that day.

Save the chit-chat for real life, the messaging function will only open up two hours before the date begins.

Once you meet at your location, the rest is up to you and you can no longer communicate on the platform.

You can only focus on one connection at a time which puts more value on the connections.

You will get to know each other in real life without creating a false narrative of the person while they text.

You will not be overwhelmed with a large list of connections in the app history.

You will be forced to get out in the world and have real conversations.

You will not connect with people who never have an interest in meeting and are only connecting because they are bored.

You will have help with a list of places to go which takes some pressure off of what do we do.

Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
Yes, a ton! Covid has helped and hurt us, it hurt us in the sense that the premise of our app is for people to actually meet at bars and coffee shops in person, so not only where most bars and coffee shops closed during covid but people were also very hesitant to see each, so it was a double whammy. But the silver lining was that during this time, people missed interacting with each other and it made us realize we sometimes take each other for granted. During the pandemic, I have heard so many people just saying, “I can’t wait to see people again!” and that is exactly what we want, humans to interact with each other.

Pricing:

• Free

Contact Info:

• Email: Joe@firstroundsonme.co
• Website: firstroundsonme.co
• Instagram: @firstroundsonme
• Other: App Store FROME or First Round’s On Me

Image Credits:
@_Tijanavukovic_