Delightful, The ‘Date Concierge’ Startup Out Of OKCupid Labs, Hits The Deadpool

Just three months after its public launch, Delightful, the startup that helped build “tailored dates” for romantic couples short on time, has shut down.

Delightful was created last year as one of the first products out of OK Cupid Labs, and quietly launched in beta last year. The company’s service, which allowed you to either choose a pre-planned date or build your own itinerary, made its public launch in January 2014 as a subscription service costing $12 per month.

The closure of Delightful’s service was announced in an email to users this week:

“We’re sad to say it, but we’ve decided to take Delightful in a different direction.

If you have a date currently planned and paid for, you’re all good. We’ll make sure that date happens.

If you have a current membership, we’ll cancel it and refund any recent membership fees from the past month. You should see those refunds within the next 72 hours.”

Visitors to Delightful’s website now see a brief message that also points to “changed directions” being part of the shut down. Any new direction may be undertaken by a different set of people, as the Delightful team was said to have had layoffs this week.

In all it might be a simple case of a startup making the tough decision to cut losses early, after failing to gain enough traction. It’s in a competitive market: Dating site HowAboutWe has operated a similar service for couples for some time, for instance.

I’ve contacted Delightful for more details on the closure and what’s next, but have yet to hear back. This will be updated with any additional information I receive.

Here’s a screenshot of Delightful’s Build A Date service:
delightful 2