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Meet Yue Xu and Julie Krafchick of Dateable Podcast in Culver City

Today we’d like to introduce you to Yue Xu and Julie Krafchick.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Yue and Julie. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Yue: In the spring of 2015, I moved to San Francisco on a whim after being a TV host and dating coach in NYC, Beijing, LA and a myriad of other places. I soon realized my advice about “winning” over dates and traditional gender roles did not hold true in the modern age. It was time to re-examine everything I knew about dating to find love in my own life and also help others! This started by expanding my own social circles and views which is how I met Julie…

Julie: I, on the other hand, had lived in San Francisco my entire adult life. I experienced the ups and downs of dating from when online dating wasn’t a “thing” to when dating apps exploded. After feeling frustrated by the dating apps, I used my technology and research background to create 500 Brunches, a platform that connected people with similar interests to meet in real life, over brunch. One fateful day, I met Yue at one of the brunches and we became fast friends. We often found ourselves talking about relationships and questioning why we date the way we do.

Yue: So one night, after a couple of glasses of wine, we decided we would start a podcast to document all the craziness of modern dating and try to figure out what the f*ck was going on…

Has it been a smooth road?
Instead of struggles, we would consider them challenges along the way. We started the podcast for fun, out of Yue’s apartment, using a shared microphone and Yue was editing in iMovie. As soon as we decided to run the podcast like a business, we had to switch up everything. Upgrade equipment, figure out a monetization strategy, have an editorial calendar, Julie learned how to professionally edit in Adobe Audition, and we had to have a marketing and PR plan. While listing all this out seems simple, this all took three years to accomplish, and we still have so much more to do. In addition to all this, we had to learn how to hire the right people. We’ve had a few people we’ve brought on who ended up not being the right fit. This cost us so much time and money! As a result of this, we really had to re-think our company culture and hiring process. The biggest challenge of all has been how to run this podcast like a company while still having full-time jobs. We both still feel like we work two jobs but it is extremely rewarding.

Please tell us about Dateable Podcast.
On the surface, we have a podcast. But beyond that, we are a media business built around dating, love and human connection. We specialize in featuring stories, experts, and interviews that really get into why people behave the way they do. Through our platform, we are able to recommend and feature services, books, products, and other related business to our very engaged and active community of listeners who are so willing to learn, grow, and explore! What sets us apart is that we are the anti-“dating sucks” podcast. We believe by understanding people’s actions and intentions (and your own), you can have the love life that you want. We’re also taking a macro look at how dating trends are changing and how that feeds into future behavior. Some people would say we’re kind of “dating in the future.”

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
The podcast industry changes by the second! Even though it seems everyone and their mom has a podcast these days, there is still so much room to grow in this industry. One of the biggest trends is that podcasts are quickly making their way into other media such as books, film, & TV. Podcasts such as My Favorite Murder and Call your Girlfriend have recently released popular books. Two Dope Queens, Pod Save America, Homecoming and Limetown are great examples of podcasts that shifted to television. If you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Podcasts are basically proof-of-concept with built-in audiences. We predict more and more unscripted and nonfiction podcasts (such as ours) will also be adapted for TV and book deals. So if anyone’s interested in a series about two elder millennials navigating the dating scene through a hit dating podcast, give us a call!

Contact Info:

Image Credit:
Larry Wong

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