Valentine’s Day as a geek can typically be described in one of the following ways: 1) A second Christmas in which both people get a present that can only be found inside the pages of a Previews catalog or 2) A somewhat to extremely lonely night of rereading Twilight* for the umpteenth time.
SoulGeek aims to eliminate fanboy (or fangirl) loneliness by offering a dating site specifically tailored for geeks, according to founder Dino Andrade, who started the network after discovering how difficult it was to meet people in his own experiences.
As a seasoned voice actor of many cartoons and video games, it was only natural that Andrade would fall in love with Mary Kay Bergman, famously known for creating and performing all the original female roles on South Park (including the Blame Canada song!!). When she tragically passed away in November of 1999, the two had been married for over a decade.
It took years to recover from the loss, but eventually he decided to get back on the saddle, according to Andrade, who said the most difficult part about it was being a geek.
“When you’re in your 30s and you tell people you read Batman and watched Star Wars 25 times in the theater, it makes it impossible to connect with anyone,” Andrade said. “You would have thought that being a widower would have been a bigger hurdle to jump. Not the case.”
Now in his 40s, Andrade found love again with his old high school sweetheart — who’s also a fangal. However, he never forgot the difficulty of weeding out the majority of the population to find a geeky soul mate and so he started SoulGeek.com in 2007 with the money left to him by his late wife.
“My dream is to have the children of a happy SoulGeek couple be watching cartoons made by Mary Kay, and then have them know that she is the reason their parents are together,” he said.
The site currently boasts 15,000 users from across the world with another 1,000 added each month. Free accounts let you see who else is in the area and find out about those folks in very match.com-like profile summaries, which are more akin to LiveJournal with links to fan-fiction, convention photos, and rationale for why you are a particular kind of geek. They’ll make their first public appearance at WonderCon 2009, with meet-ups to follow at future conventions, most notably, Dragon*Con in Atlanta, Georgia.
For more info check out the site: soulgeek.com
* Nobody wants that to happen, least of all, Stephen King.
Only 15 girls within a 100 mile radius of Nashville.
Chris, only 15 girls but the site is still new and growing. They’re getting roughly 1000 new members a month. I should know, I’ve been a member since it’s creation. Yeah, I know, I’m an old fogey there but it really is a freakin’ sweet community. And I found my awesome geek man there.
Sadly, my awesome geek man works on Valentine’s day* so I will be reading the night away by my lonesome tomorrow. But not “Twilight”,pshaq! I have higher standards. I will be reading Scott Pilgrim. :P
*we celebrated our birthdays last weekend with a very romantic weekend out in Los Angeles. So, to anyone who is reading this who is not yet a believer, yes, not only can find your soulgeek, but one who knows a little about romance. It just takes a little time, patience and work. And let me tell you, everything is better when you’re with another geek. Believe me, I used to be married to a non-geek. That’s never gonna happen again.
Metal’s right, the site is awesome and continues to grow at quite the rapid pace. I’ve been on board for about two weeks less than she has and I’ve seen it work. Don’t limit yourself to just Nashville, there’s success stories on the site from a few states apart to across the Atlantic.
Exactly as RMB says… it can definitely happen. Spectrum and I met when we lived 4 states away. We’ve been together for over a year, now, so having an open mind about location does count for something. Come hang out in the chatrooms and see what there is to see!
I joined SoulGeek just a few days ago when I saw them get a spot on G4tv’s Attack of the Show on their Attack This segment and they gave it a thumbs up. What no one is mentioning is that the site is cheap compared to other dating sites. Basically sign up for free and check it out. If you like it then it only costs $10.00. Plus even if you don’t pay for it there is a chance that someone will see your profile and they can sponsor you if they so choose. That means make an attractive profile and someone may pay for you because they think you might be hot stuff. Who knows, maybe you are.
Check it out you have nothing to loose.
[...] Geeks Gettin’ Lucky? from Geeks of Doom direct digg link here [...]
There’s also gk2gk.com. (For comparison purposes.)
[...] Dino Andrade, voice actor and widower of the late Mary Kay Bergman, talks with PCWorld.com and Geeks of Doom about what inspired him to start SoulGeek.com, an social network/dating site helping to connect [...]