Pitch Perfect: How PowerPoint Became New York’s Newest Dating Strategy

For years, the wingman was relegated to the margins of nightlife, a loyal friend hovering near the bar, armed with small talk and strategic nods. At Pitch and Pair NYC, the city’s buzziest new dating event series, that same wingman now steps out of the shadows and onto the stage, clicker in hand, PowerPoint deck queued, ready to prove why you deserve love.

The concept is deceptively simple: you bring a single friend, prepare a three-to-five-minute presentation on why they’re the catch of the century, and pitch them to a room full of strangers. Think “Shark Tank,” but the only equity at stake is your best friend’s romantic future. Each deck ends with a slide of the single’s Instagram handle and hope that you did a good enough job to convince a bunch of strangers to slide into their DM's.

It’s matchmaking, sure, but refracted through the cultural moment of memes, slideshows, and self-aware performance. It provides an opportunity that modern dating online generally doesn't allow. The pitches swing from comedic roasts to genuine endorsements, often both at once. There’s laughter, applause, and then mingling fueled by cocktails once the formal presentations wrap where you get to shoot your shot.

That hybrid of spectacle and sincerity is exactly why the format works. Apps reduce dating to bios and swipes, and more often than not, looks. Speed dating gives only a few minutes to get to know someone, meaning you have to jump right in with the juicy questions, lest you be stuck in a tiresome loop of discussing why you're there, if you've ever been speed dating before, and what you do for work. Pitch and Pair adds back the essential missing ingredient: community. Here, your reputation comes pre-validated by someone who knows you best. Vulnerability becomes entertainment, friendship doubles as credibility, and suddenly the prospect of talking to a stranger feels less like a gamble and more like joining an inside joke.

The timing is no accident. According to Eventbrite, singles’ events spiked by 42 percent between 2022 and 2023. After years of algorithm fatigue, daters are flocking to IRL formats that prize playfulness and personality over carefully curated profiles. Pitch and Pair thrives on this appetite for something both low-stakes and communal.

Of course, there’s a risk baked in. Being “pitched” by a friend isn’t for everyone; the spotlight can feel uncomfortably bright, and there’s an inherent absurdity to having your romantic résumé broken down into bullet points. But perhaps that’s part of the charm. Modern dating has always been a performance; this one just happens to come with slides.

Pitch and Pair is quickly emerging as a breakout trend, with events selling out across NYC, it speaks to where dating is headed. Love is no longer imagined as an individual quest. It’s a collective sport, staged for an audience, buoyed by your inner circle, and increasingly, designed to be a story worth telling.