
Matt and Karo interview Jordann Lubliner, the founder of Doubles Social, the hit friendship app for couples to meet, to find out what the hype is all about. Would you and your partner go online to make friends? We explore all the pros and cons of a new way to make friends. manoftheyearpodcast.com
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A
Man of the Year. Man of the Year. Man of the Year. Welcome to the number one friendship podcast in the country. I'm Matt Ritter.
B
I'm Aaron Caro.
A
Guys, please check out our Audible original, the Buddy System. You've been keeping it at number one. Let's keep it there.
C
It's.
A
It's great. I mean, we're winning, and you guys are learning about how to make friends, how to maintain friendship. It's exciting. So keep. Keep downloading. Okay. We have a special guest today. We don't do that all the time.
B
Very exciting.
A
Yeah. So we wanted to welcome to the man of the Year podcast Jordan Lubliner. She is the CEO and founder of Double Social. So if you guys are out there meeting couple friends and failing miserably, or it's going, eh, which is probably the most of us, you got to check out the app. We're double dating in a new way. And she's also a publicist, and so she's joining us here to talk about friendship. So welcome to the pod. Jordan Lubliner. I think I got it right.
C
Yes. Thank you so much. It's an honor to be on the number one friendship podcast in the country. So I'm excited.
A
Yeah, well, you know, I saw your app, and I. You know, my. Truthfully, my wife and I double date a lot. We're pretty good at it. I'd like to. I'd like to say. But I'd love to know what. What made you come up with the idea to do this?
C
Absolutely. Yeah. I'm in my late 30s, and I just kind of felt a shift in friendships just due to different life stages. You know, a lot of people get married, have kids, move out of the city they're in at that point. And I just felt like it was getting a lot harder to coordinate plans as a couple. I'm a very social person, so I like to go out and try new things, do activities, and just kind of like, getting it on the calendar was becoming a bit cumbersome. So I thought of a way to make it easier to connect with other couples that have similar interests in life stages and also help schedule and track your double dates.
A
Carol's been the biggest advocate. Get it on the calendar.
B
Get it on the calendar. Do you want to just tell us what does the app do before we get into breaking down this couple's date? I'm being excluded from this conversation as a single person.
C
Okay.
B
You know, why. Why am I even here? Matt Just.
A
Just done this without. We could have. We definitely could have just had.
B
Just didn't even send me the link to record. He just maybe, maybe I show it, maybe I don't.
A
I thought maybe he would just tell.
C
But yeah.
B
Can you just tell us what the app does?
C
Yeah, absolutely. So you have a joint profile with your partner, which is unique. You know, a lot of other apps are focused on one person. And once you create your profile, you can show off your interest. You know, where you work, what you like to do for fun. Every day you'll get a curated handful of couples to show, choose from that you know, you want to maybe meet up with. And then once you match, you can start a group chat or you can just schedule a double date straight from there. There's something called the double date request feature where you can pick the date, time, type of double date. We have 25 different types to inspire you and the location. And you kind of send like a digital invite to the other couple so it reduces the friction and awkwardness. Sometimes when you don't know what to say, maybe, or you're like, how do I do this? I don't know this person too well. So we kind of give you those templates to do it. And then once you plan a double date, you can actually see the upcoming double dates in this double date tracker we have. So rather than pouring through your calendar to try to remember what you're doing in two weeks, you actually have it right in there for you and it gives you reminders as well. The other piece of the app is actually we're doing monthly events as well. Right now we're in New York City and we're soon going to expand in other cities, but we are doing actually a wine and cheese tasting event on Wednesday with a sommelier. And we kicked off the app launch with a tennis themed couples happy hour because the app has a bit of a tennis, you know, vibe to it.
A
So can you just be out there double dating everybody on the app?
C
You do have to match first, but, you know, yeah, but it, what you'll see the people that are in your kind of vicinity. So it is location driven. So every day you'll get these new couples. So at a certain point you'll end up seeing who, who else is on the app.
A
And are you finding, you know, this is what I'm curious about. Are you finding that people are mostly driven by, you know, activities based dates or are they just going to dinner? Like, what is the connection being built on?
C
Yeah, I would say mainly to start, it has been a lot of like the traditional dinners and drinks, but I think that what's great about having the events that are showcasing different, unique activities is that hopefully people will feel more inspired to kind of branch out. Like, I'm a huge tennis and, you know, I tennis player, I love Padel and things like that. So that's kind of. Kind of why we have the different options in there. But yeah, I think usually people just kind of want to suss out the other couple with a more traditional type of double date. But yeah.
B
So in the. When you guys. When the couples are chatting in the chat feature, is it. Is it just the wives who are actually talking or the man? I mean, every once in a while.
C
Right now it is, I would say majority wives, to be fair. But I'm. I'm definitely hoping that will change soon. I'm, you know, we're going to offer some incentives to get the husbands more active because I think ultimately my inspiration is to sort of change that stereotype. And the New York Times wrote this whole article on man keeping where a lot of the emotional and social planning labor is on women these days. And I do think that that should hopefully change because when the husbands do get involved in the group chat, they're very into it actually. And one of. One of the users is the one actually driving the ship on using the app. He, like, loves it. So once they get exposed to it, they're really into it. So. Just getting over that hump sometimes. But, you know, I'm. I'm confident that that will change.
A
So how many times did you get that article sent to you, Kira? I got that article sent to me like 100 times.
B
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Matt, what did you call. What do you call the thing? It's. It's in our audio original of like when you're the other. When the wife is making the plans and you just have to hang out with some random dude because you didn't even engage.
A
Yeah, I. You're asking me what I did? I coined a term for that or.
B
Yeah. Pizza boys or something.
A
Oh, cake and pizza dudes.
B
What does that mean?
A
CPD's cake and pizza dudes are just these guys that, you know, you're just around because your wife is friends with the wife and they're not really your friends. So I think what you're telling us is you're essentially running into a bit of a similar log jam, a little. A little bit of a friction point again, where it's like our whole theme is that men have to take an active approach to their friendships, even if they're married, because you end up in the same boat. App, real life, whatever. If you just let your wife drive the train, then, look, maybe there's a chance that, you know, the wife's friend, husband is for you, you know, and maybe not. Right. So I'm curious, are you running into scenarios where they have a good time and then like, you get reports back, like, how do you get the feedback?
C
We have a survey actually, after each double date. So you can. It's not necessarily about ranking. Like, you know, it's not like mean girls. It's more just to say, would you go out with this couple again? Were they late? You know, did they show up? Just kind of basic things to see that they're using the platform respectfully. We do have like, guidelines are we say our rules to kind of make sure that you're, you know, I think there's a little bit of a. Sometimes when you're on an app, you don't always necessarily have the same expectations or you don't necessarily prioritize the relationship sometimes in the same way. I'm speaking from the perspective of dating apps, which I was on back in the day. Well, not that long ago, to be honest. But I want to also try to, like, make sure people are being respectful and, you know, know, proactive in the same way they would if you met this person in real life, you know, versus an app. But yeah, so that's sort of how we're getting that feedback through the survey.
B
So when you're c. Can you. Oh, so there's no searching because it's two people. So I don't know how you would search. They're being served to you by some algorithm.
C
Yeah.
B
You, you see who the husband. I assume it could be same sex couples.
C
Yeah.
B
Yeah. So you see the part. Yeah. You see who the partners are?
C
Yeah.
B
What'd you say again? I'm sorry.
A
Keep it.
C
No, I, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. I just. More so saying, like, we love, we would love, you know, more LGBTQ vip. It's very inclusive and like, this is an open invitation. Check out double social because, yeah, I have a lot of LGBTQ friends and it's absolutely perfect for everyone. So that's all.
B
So if you. So your algorithm, you see who the, the, the two partners are. You see who the other partners are. You them by what you think their interests and age and location and stuff is, and you. And you give them some choices.
C
Yeah, exactly. So you can also set preferences, but the algorithm does take into account age, location, interests. You know, you could mark Certain things as more important than others if you'd like to. But it sort of, it's a platonic app. It's not romantic, but in, in the sense it is somewhat similar to the UI UX of a dating app, but it is not for romantic connections. Yeah.
A
Are you, are you finding that it's people with kids or not kids like partner up and are there people like. I'm just curious because I, I have a two and a half year old and a six month old and I'm finding I spend a lot of time with people whose kids are exactly the same age. Yeah, like exactly the same. But are you finding that that's what people are looking. I'm just curious what people are looking for, you know, because you're getting to look under the hood of what people are wanting in their friendships.
C
Yeah. So I think it's definitely a combination of both couples with kids and without kids. And we do have the option to, you know, that is one of the features of the profile to mention whether you're expecting or you have kids or if one of the partners had kids from a previous relationship. You can actually say all of that and you can mention in the reasons for joining section, you know, that you want to meet other couples with kids. So that also ends up in the matching algorithm too. But you know, we have a couple that just applied that actually said in their submission that they want to be couples without kids because they're not planning to have kids. And they're also a similar age as mine. So what I think is nice about the app is you, it's, it's charting your own course. Like there's no one rule or there's no one thing. And that's what I kind of like about it. It's for all types of couples and you can decide what way you want to take that.
B
But yeah, pretty interesting that a couple without kids would give a. If they matched with a couple who does have kids. What do they don't want to hear?
A
They don't want to hear my. You. You don't want to hear my bs, Kiro.
B
But we'll just keep it, Keep it to yourself.
A
I mean, that's all. No, but I think there is something to that. Couples, you know, with kids can learn about like from some statement like that. It's like when you go out with another couple, don't make it about your kids. You have things going on in your life, like, make it about yourself. I think that's a good sort of like note there. I'm curious you know, did you, have you had any. How long has the app been around?
C
So the app is two months old. It's a, it's fairly new.
A
Yeah, because I was gonna say, have you had any good success stories of people, you know, kind of already, but I mean, it could happen already that people have already kind of bonded.
C
Yeah. I mean, what's interesting, an interesting piece of feedback actually is the networking side of it too. One of the users on the app is used to work in big tech law and then met another woman through the app who is currently in big tech law and then they kind of connected up from a networking standpoint. So that's another thing about the app is like it's not intent, its intention isn't. Isn't really networking, you know, first and foremost. But it's a nice side effect that like we are sort of attracting ambitious and driven couples. So there is that piece of it, which is some feedback I've gotten.
B
Matt, let's talk about couple, couple friendship in general for a second because, you know, we usually think that guys who have a partner are a little bit better off in the friendship game because you literally have somebody else out there trying to make friends for you. But this, this seems to a situation, you know, where the board neither, neither person, you know, has somebody to go out with, like.
A
Right, Yeah, I see. So, yes. So the question is, are these couples people who are you finding? Most of them don't have couple friends. Are they trying to augment, like, do you know whether it's people who already, like my wife and I already have a lot of couple friends.
B
Right.
A
Is it really just for people who don't have any or a few, or do people already have kind of like a thriving social life have any, you know, sort of need for this?
C
I would say it's both. I think a lot of people that are on the app have moved recently to New York City, so they are looking to expand their social circle. But then in terms of the people I know who have a pretty good social life, it's. It's more the activities piece of it. So taking advantage of doing interesting things on double dates and also the events we're doing and kind of leveraging that. But for example, we're doing for our next event in December, after the wine and cheese tasting, we're doing a BYOB comedy show called Leg Day Comedy, which is actually at a high end gym. It's a unique and interesting concept. They reached out to me about it. So we're trying to not also do just like generic meetups. We're really trying to help you find cool, cool things to do in your city. And as someone who just likes to do that, I think I want to bring that to the app.
B
Hold on. This is a comedy show in a gym.
A
We've done comedy shows in every hole.
B
No, Matt has. Matt has. I mean, if there's a pizza place with a bas. Basement, he's headlined, oh, I've done it.
A
Ice cream.
C
Ice cream.
A
Stop. With a freezer. The room behind the freezer.
B
Matt ever tell you I did a show? I think it's, I think it's been condemned or burned to the ground. Orlando, bonkers with a Z. It's in a bowling alley.
A
Show it bonkers.
B
So it's in a bowling alley so you could hear people bowling right behind you.
A
Orlando, the bastion of stand up.
B
Wait, wait, but so this is. You said it's leg day.
C
It's called leg day comedy. Yeah, they're really nice guy who is producing these shows, Skyler Holzman. But I just love the concept. I think it's cool and different. I'm actually gonna check it out on November 22nd. But yeah, so, you know, this isn't. We're not just saying come meet up at a bar and drink and we're. We're giving you some ideas, hopefully. I know you guys have talked about racket sports a bunch, so that'll. It is a little more difficult in New York City than in LA to play pickleball. I've heard it's not as challenging over there, but here, you know, there are some more members clubs and pickleball places opening, so hope to take advantage of that too.
A
Yeah, obviously we've talked a lot about how racket sports is kind of a low hanging fruit of activities that are social sports. Right. I mean, very much so. I'm curious, you know, you've been thinking about this, studying it, you know, what do you think a couple should be doing to kind of make a good impression on these states?
C
Yeah, I think a lot of it comes down to like as kind of cliche as this might sound like. Treat others how you'd want to be treated in the sense. Because like, again, I think that you may not be as cognizant of like when you meet someone through an app to be as like courteous. But I would just say that be open minded. Like, you know, it does take people a little bit out of their comfort zone to meet people they don't know at all, especially with your partner. But it also relieves A little bit of that nervousness or tension when you have your partner with you. And it could always turn into a funny story if it doesn't go too well. But at the end of the day, I think people who are in this community, they do want the same thing overall. Like, they do want to expand their social and enjoy, you know, a night out. So with that in mind, I think just have fun with it. And. Yeah.
B
Matt, have you ever been on a double date with Jess and that she set up and you're like, oh, I just. I don't like this guy. Or reverse where you sat at the double date and she was like, I don't like this woman, you know?
A
Oh, that's a really good question. I can't think of anything because I'm just like, we're both easy, so it's like, I don't know. Nobody's really rubbed us the wrong way or anything, but I do. I'm sure that they've been on the. In the history of our double dates, I'm sure there were a bunch where it was like, meh, moving on. You know, there's definitely been a lot of that where it's like, okay, I don't. I did that. I don't need to do that again.
B
Didn't you have a double date? I think we might have talked about it where, like, they wouldn't leave your house.
A
We've definitely had a lot of that. So, Jordan, Short Jordan. We do a lot of, like, in the home, especially now with little kids. And, you know, if I go like this, I put my hands together, that means get the F out of my house. You know, like, sometimes halfway through dinner, I'm just like, well, that was fun.
C
Is it just like a single clap, or is there, like, just one clap? Do you keep your hands like this?
A
If I do the one clap and I mush them exactly together in line, that means everybody. That's my.
C
I'm begging you to get that.
A
Yeah, that means get that. You know, it's like, oh, yeah. Is your coat upstairs? I'm like, go get it. I think as you get older, there's, you know, like, when you're younger, you want people to stick around, you know, late night.
C
Yeah.
A
You're older. You're in your 40s. You're just like, I hate lingerers. So. Yeah, I've had a few lingerers. And you just never know. You're like, is this. Are they propositioning us for a, you know, orgy? Or they just are not getting cues, you know? Yeah, it's it's always hard to tell. Yes, we've had a few. We've had a few.
B
This will be a good time to plug our YouTube where you can actually see what Matt is doing which is he's kind of putting his hands together in a prayer motion with a clap.
A
Prayer. Yeah, but yeah, but you know, you have to start wide. You know it has to look like.
B
Yeah, yeah.
A
So yeah, the door is closed on this evening.
B
So what about couple. Because this is New York City. Right. And Matt and I are from New York. Like, you know, you probably have some couples with a pretty big age gap, you know.
C
So funny you mentioned that.
A
Actually.
C
Actually it's very funny you mentioned that because. Yes. Ironic. Like I, I have noticed that mainly couples are within around the same age. But I, I have had, I have noticed some age gap couples. Yes.
B
And so is there, is there a different matching thing for this? You need to find another sugar like daddy situation. Like does it matter? Maybe it doesn't matter.
C
No, that, you know, it's not as specific as that for now. Yeah, we try to keep it open minded. But yeah, I mean whatever floats. I, you know, my husband's younger by a year which is not too great.
A
Oh, he's a baby. He's a baby right out of the cradle.
B
She never lets you forget that. Yeah.
A
So I'm curious, you know, what do you think? You know, like easier. I guess it's like a weird like I guess with dating apps too, right? Akira. I've not. It's Akira's. I've never been on dating Up. I guess the goal for a dating app is to get you off the dating app. Right. Like success looks like getting you off of it. So I'm just curious, are you? But I guess it's a little different here because like you could theoretically have a good match and stay on the app. So that's what's cool about it, right? It's like, okay, so you could get a good one and then keep going. Right?
C
Yeah. I mean and I'm, I really actually. And just circle back to your question about like for the people who have a lot of friends, you know, I actually think they should join it because yeah, first of all the events are really fun. But also this double date kind of scheduling tracker is really convenient especially for people in like their 30s and above when they have the kids and just because like it also is it built so it looks really visually appealing and like easy to see. But I think this is a great feature. No one likes to pour through Their calendar and try to search for what they're doing and when this is all your social plans are all there in front of you. And plus, sending the double date request, it's kind of. It brings us like novelty to the situation. You're not just like having one way text the other wife. You're sorry, my AirPods here, you're, you know, you're basically sending like an invite on a silver platter to both members of the couple. It's a little unique and different. So I think. I think everyone should join.
A
Are you in a group chat? Is that. You guys go into a group chat?
C
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're in a group chat too? Yeah.
A
Oh, that's cool. I like that. And can you. Because, like, I have a couple coming over tonight, but we're cooking for them because we have the two kids. They have two kids. They're coming over. Like, do you suggest. Get that? No, they know because they have a little kid too. They bedtime. It's time. Do you like, is there. Can they have it in the house or is that like, creepy or weird? It's like. Or you wouldn't suggest that for a first double date.
C
I got an invite. I got it. My husband. I got an invite for a double date in the house. In the other couple's house. We. We do know them though.
A
Yeah, but.
C
But yeah, you can put in your own address technically.
A
Yeah. Because I'm an advocate of that. Like, I just, I'm very. I'm a big fan of like, once you, like, that's part of being good friends with somebody is like, not having to always go out and do stuff.
C
Totally 100. And if, you know, if the couple is good at cooking and wants to do like a mini dinner party. Yeah.
A
Well, that's my biggest tip. You know, I always say, and I think we talked about this in the audible, it's like, do what you as a couple shine at and it'll be good. Like, my wife and I are cooks. Our go to. She's doing her famed Caesar and I'm doing my famed chicken parm tonight.
C
Oh, my God. Can I fly to LA and come?
A
You're in LA with your husband. Come on over. You can't beat it.
C
I'm not even kidding. That is his favorite food and I am a huge Caesar salad person. So anyway, I've just invited myself to.
A
Yeah, there you go. Exactly. But I think my point is, like, I think, you know, because we did talk about this, like, I think couples, you know, don't maybe don't Even think about their strengths as a call. I think they should think about like, hey, what's our strength? What make what gets us excited as a couple and do that. Because I think again, Cairo and I talked about this in the audible in the context of all friendships, not couple friendships, but it's like if you're looking for friends, do an activity that you enjoy because you will light up and that energy is appealing to people.
C
I wholeheartedly agree with that. It's so true. Even, you know, it's a bit of an, I guess, nerdier racket sport, but ping pong is. I actually think it's a great double date idea. It's really light hearted and, like, easy for people to play. It's a little less intense than pickleball. You can, you can have a beer while you play it. I don't know if you guys ever heard of Spin. It's like, yeah, opened it, I think like a decade or two ago. But yeah, that's a really fun one. I love a good ping pong situation.
B
I thought she was gonna say, have you ever heard of beer pong? I'm like, come on.
A
There was a different stamp of his.
B
Toes in the profile. Do we have the same issues that people have in romantic profiles? So, like, is both people in the couple wearing sunglasses? You gotta skip over there. Or there's a picture of the couple, but then there's another couple in the picture. So you don't know which couple is the couple matching with? Like, how does that work?
C
Yeah, I actually, we put some guidelines not to do that, believe it or not, because it's. I mean, I do think at this day and age, most people know not hopefully know not to put pictures like that, but.
B
No, they don't. They absolutely do not know. They don't know what this. I'm, I'm there.
C
You're. You're like, you're on the apps. Just check.
B
Yeah, I know what's going on. It's a blurry photo. It's a picture of you and a much more attractive person, which I don't know why people do that. Like, do not see that your friend is hotter than you. I take every picture I have with a hotter friend and I slice him out of or just sunglasses. I just don't understand why people have so many pictures of sunglasses. Like, that's fair.
C
That's fair.
B
It's ridiculous.
C
But people are following the rules mostly. I, I think they're doing a good job with the pictures. Yeah.
A
No, but this is a good question. This Is a good, like what not to do? Because I think this is important for us to talk about what not to do right now because there's a performative. Carol's right. There's a performative aspect of online dating, online friendship, whatever. But there's also a performative aspect in real life. Like I find, you know, as a performer, as comedian, like my, my tendency is to perform when I'm meeting new people a little bit, you know. And I'm just curious what your thoughts are in the sort of double dating world of like do's and don'ts of these dates that you found.
C
Yeah, I would agree with that. You know, I think I would probably say they actually are similar to dates, believe it or not. Like you don't necessarily want to lead maybe talking about politics into the first two minutes unless you both have the same political views. Right. You know, I think it's maybe just easing into that. But also when it comes back to the photos thing, I would just say show off your interest and what you like. Bring you back to what you said about do something where you have skills in like you're great cooks. Like maybe you and your wife would put a picture up of you cooking some chicken parm or having a, you know, something related. So show off your flare. Because people also don't like to read too much. That's they're gonna just go straight to the picture. So if, if they're like, oh, that person is also a tennis player, that person also is into cooking, you might connect a little more quickly in that way.
A
Carol, isn't that amazing? Was that your whole stand up bit? Even in, even in double dating it's the same.
B
Well, I said that there should be a dating app where, where men have to write things and, and, and the women, it's just pictures. So it's two different apps in the same. Same thing. But it's kind of interesting in a double dating app. Like who cares what they look like?
C
Yeah, it doesn't really matter. I think it's more just like I think that will probably pop off the page more quickly. So that's why I just think like it compliments. People do will end up reading the responses but usually people are more visual. So it's, it's just good to show off your. What makes you tick in both ways.
A
I think I'd be looking for. Do you have a boat? You know, if there's somebody with a picture of a boat or a summer house, will you be my friend?
B
You know what, you know what the, the Ladies write. They'll write in the dating app. If you had a boat, what would you name it? That way, guys who have boats go, well, I actually do have a boat.
A
Oh, that's cl. Is that true or you just made that up? Yeah, that's true.
B
Yeah.
A
That's brilliant.
C
Do they say boat or yacht, though?
A
That's a good question.
B
I mean, beggars can't be choosers here.
A
Well, you know, for the couple's version of that. Right. So the couple's version of sneaking that in there would be like, what's your favorite summer vacation? Right. It would be like, what's your favorite vacation spot?
B
If you had a second home, what would you name it?
A
Yeah, yeah. Would you name it? If you had a second home, what would the address be?
B
Jordan, as we wrap up here, can you, like, where can we find you? Where can couples, you know, do this?
C
Absolutely. So Doubles Social is available in the app store, and you could also check out the website Doubles Social or on social media at Doubles Social.
B
I love it. Amazing.
A
So much for. For being with us. You know, maybe what. My wife and I will try it. Even though we have. We're inundated with double dates already.
B
So busy. Oh, my God.
A
We need to cut down our list, and then the people who get cut down will then join Double Social.
B
All right, thank you so much, guys. Make sure to check out Double Social. Thank you for listening. Always remember, be good to yourself. Be good to your friends. Love you, buddy.
A
Love you, buddy.
Episode #164: Is Double Dating Online the Future of Friendship?
Hosts: Matt Ritter & Aaron Karo
Guest: Jordan Lubliner, CEO & Founder of Double Social
Release Date: December 23, 2025
This episode dives into the emerging world of online double dating as a way to combat the “friendship recession” among adults, especially couples. Hosts Matt and Aaron welcome Jordan Lubliner, founder of the new couples social app Double Social, to discuss how technology is reshaping the pursuit of friendship and social activities for couples. The episode explores the challenges of making couple friends, the gender dynamics of social planning, the unique features of Double Social, and practical tips for successful double dates.
Where to Download:
Jordan encourages all couples—regardless of how busy or socially active—to give Double Social a try and expand their social circle in meaningful, organized, and fun ways. The hosts sum up the value of being proactive and intentional in adult friendships, leaving listeners with actionable tips and laughter.
Final Words:
"Always remember, be good to yourself. Be good to your friends. Love you, buddy." – Aaron [30:03]