it’s 2025, why is dating still sh*t?!

Hey, I’m @lucyrout, a hopeless romantic and the founder of Haystack Dating. Aged 27 I ended things with my long term boyfriend and found myself in a cycle of downloading apps, hating them, vowing to never do it again then repeating.

In between running my business, seeing friends, travelling and generally trying to keep my sh*t together, I found no time to date and I quickly become bored of the rubbish options available to us. Despite their being millions of amazing single people in London, it literally took me flying from Mexico to Vietnam to meet my boyfriend and fall in love (how dramatic, lol).

I think love is the best thing ever, but the lack of options available putting people before profits is absolutely wild, so I’ve made my own with the genuine hope of helping the world fall in love, not help men in a glass board room buy their next ferrari ;).

Since starting out as a team of one in Jan 2025, I’ve since now been lucky enough to hire a small but incredible team to help support the mission to make dating more fun, more inclusive and simply less sh*t for everyone.

We combine tech, human instinct and IRL events to get people together in the best venues in your city, and everyone just so happens to be single. No forced fun, no weird speed dating, just really friendly people and a lot of fun.

Our values are kindness, respect and community and if that sounds like your energy, we would love to meet you soon!

Lucy and team haystack xxx