Female Founders and CEOs | Valerie Brennan of Three Day Rule
Everyone needs a date at some point, why not get it right the first time (or three). We all have our types of attractions and it’s a difficult dating world out there. The women at Three Day Rule have set out to change that for all of us. And luckily I was able to catch up with Valerie Brennan the CEO and Co-Founder of Three Day Rule for some Q & A.
Val, tell me a little about yourself.
I’m an event planner turned lawyer turned entrepreneur. Back in college, I started throwing large events for charities and such. As time went on I began to realize that it was something I was really passionate about. Soon after launching, we started doing crazy monthly singles events and match making and I began to realize that what I had enjoyed as a hobby could now be a full business.
What type of law did you go into?
I was a litigator for five years. I was representing banks and structuring large deal, among other things. It was all an amazing experience. I had the opportunity to go all the way up the Supreme Court.
How did you and your partner Talia come together?
Funny we were both setup on a friend date through a mutual friend. She wasn’t able to be there, so we met on a blind friend date at the premier of Borat. I knew from there that she was a nice and cool person. Within one or two months of meeting, we started working on the Three Day Rule together. That’s why we believe so much in match making because we were match made as friends. The concept transitions over to all of our clients.
How did the Three Day Rule get it’s start?
Talia and I were sitting around on friday night complaining about the difficulties of meeting the right guys. We both had different types and interests in men and thought it would be great if there was a Citysearch for women based upon types. Because as women we were spending all this time on prepping, going out, and not finding our desired types.
We spent the time researching and gathering all the data we could. Took some time to crunch the numbers and evaluate our findings before re-circling back in 2009 and beginning what started as a blog. A blog with our reviews of the scene, locations, etc. We started seeing a demand for what we were doing and from there began throwing singles parties, doing match making, and date coaching. Since we’ve grown to more of a social utility than a blog. What started as a site for women has molded into a place for both genders. Currently we’re seeing about 40% of our readership coming from males.
**After this question, Val and I went on to discuss the dating scene in Los Angeles from both the males and females prospectives. We found an interesting amount of similarities between the views of both genders.
How does Three Day Rule work for a prospective client looking for a date?
With clients we guarantee three days. As a client that entails we’ll actively search for you whether we’re hanging out at conferences to find your specific types, or going downtown (for the more corporate types), and scouring the town, then present you with each of the potential match profiles. From there its up to you to select those who you want to take out on a date.
How did you both come up with the name? Did it spark from the three days rule, where a guy isn’t suppose to call a girl after getting her number, going on a date, etc. for three days or it’ll look desperate?
We struggled coming up with a name in the beginning and didn’t want to be so literal and be called something like “wheretofindyourtype.com.” We found that one of the larger problems with finding someone is the lag time between the initial meeting and the actual contact made. The three day rule is annoying for girls who have to sit there and wait for contact (my response to that waiting period, is that guys don’t always enjoy this rule either and feel that it’s a rule that we have to wait the three days or else. Don’t worry guys out there, I’ve got your back.). The inspiration came as a result to the anti three day rules. **ATTENTION GENTLEMEN** – We like to be contacted…pass it on.
As a an entrepreneur what has been one of the more difficult hurdles for you to arise over?
One of the most difficult things I had to learn was patience. When you’re starting anything you want to build the most awesome product and you want it to be perfect and ready. However sometimes what we ignore is there’s a lot that goes into testing your product, the demand, etc. At the end of the day the important thing is that no matter if you are a B2C or B2B is whether or not there is a demand for what you’re doing. Also the understanding that your product is going to change. It’s going to change based on customer feedback and just be patient, grow it and iterate upon it. It’s tough cause we always want to have the end product in front of the customer right away, but its never going to be a finished product cause it’s always going to growing and evolving.
When you wait and continue to build this perfect product, you get it to market with all these features you’ve spent massive time on and no cares about them. When you could’ve spent that time on something else more worth your customers time. Listen to your customers.
“Launch broken. Useable of course, but it doesn’t have to be perfect.”
What issues/hardships do you feel that women founders face in today’s entrepreneurial world?
Speaking to the LA tech scene as that’s where I am. I don’t feel much of a gender gap or challenges based upon gender again per the LA tech scene. Any woman entering a predominately male field being it law, business, or entrepreneurship, I think the biggest challenge is the communication factor. I was lucky enough to have worked in the fields I have and learn early on how to communicate across genders, personalities, etc. It’s important to learn how to adopt to the various communication styles a particular field.
What advice do you have for women as entrepreneurs and those just getting involved with the business and entrepreneur worlds?
My number one advice is the need to support other females in tech. One woman’s success is another woman’s success – help, mentor, guide them, etc. We need to start mentoring more women in high school to get excited about the tech scene. There’s the feeling that the tech world is for males only, but it would be so great to help see more women developers, coders, etc in tech. It’s something that is critical to the communities success and to everyones.
What’s next? What does the near future hold for yourself and Three Day Rule?
We’ve listen to what our customers and fans had to say and now we’re going to build out a new feature set to help caters to those wants and desires. We’ll continue to have awesome singles events and match making for our clients. All while helping take the Los Angeles dating scene to another level.
Personally, I’ll just be working with Talia to dominate.
For those Ruby developers out there, Three Day Rules is looking to hire. Contact them with a link to your portfolio and let them know you’re interested – http://threedayrule.com/contact/
