Cupid may be a crack shot, but can he make you a match in under three minutes? Dan Abelon and Simon Tisminezky can. Last fall, the two '07 Business School graduates founded SpeedDate.com, a dating site that combines the snap judgment of speed dating with the unflattering distortion of a webcam. With the timer running, users chat via online video. If both parties feel a love connection, they can follow up by IM or e-mail. Abelon and Tisminezky claim responsibility for some 20,000 virtual dates since the site launched. But how do you get to know someone in just a few short minutes? We posed a few questions to help break the ice.
Q: If you could meet anyone, living or dead, who would it be?
Simon: Albert Einstein. He was smart and faced hardships from the war and moving to the U.S.
Dan: Jeff Skoll, MBA '95. He was a successful Internet entrepreneur and now is a strong supporter of social entrepreneurship, two of my own objectives.
Q: If you were a car, what kind of car would you be?
Simon: A Fiat convertible. It's unique, but not showy.
Dan: I'd be a Tesla electric vehicle because they are fun, innovative and good for the environment.
Q: If they made a movie about your life, which actor would play your character?
Simon: Oh wow. I'd say that Michael Vartan would probably play me.
Dan: Uh, Matt Damon?
—Marie Cannizzaro, '06
