A founder’s note · November 2026
Who’s behind The Dalloway Project, where it began, and why it became something bigger than a night out.
It started with a breakup, a few bad ideas, and a summer spent trying to meet people without another app in the middle.
In March 2026, I went through a breakup. Genuinely unexpected. I was starting to belong to someone—or thought I was. A text ended that, and the plans that came with it.
I did something unusual for me: I went to therapy. To be frank, I still don’t fully understand why it ended. But therapy taught me a lot about myself. Without it, this might be a completely different story.
I looked for distractions. I wrote a 40,000-word book and sent it to publishers (I apologise to everyone who had to read it). Then I decided to build a dating app and become the next big thing. Both fell flat.
So I gave up on apps entirely. I genuinely cannot look at another Hinge notification. I started going to events around London instead.
Some were terrible: questionable gender balances, venues with no business hosting a singles night, and speed dating formats that felt like rapid-fire job interviews.
But a few rooms were good. I met interesting people—some I’ll always be grateful for. That mattered. It proved to me that the problem wasn’t getting people out from behind their phones; it was what happened after they arrived.
By August, I realised something: standard mixers and speed dating don’t solve the problem—they just delay it.
I spent a lot of hours working out what a real answer might look like. The one I landed on was an offline culture experiment in London. No swiping, zero profile photos. A real human reads every application, and the room format does the heavy lifting.
To design a better room, I had to understand why the usual ones fail. I started writing it down. The notes became Field Notes, and the reading behind them became the Human Connection Index: a library of everything I could find on urban loneliness, app fatigue, and real-world connection.
Before a single event had run, more people found Dalloway through the research and writing than through anything else.
Dalloway isn’t just a dating night you apply to any more. We study how people meet, write about what’s changing, and build the rooms where connections actually happen.
The events remain the heart of it. That’s where we test what works. An operations co-founder joined to help execute the nights, and a strategic advisor for growth is on board. We’re still looking for a co-founder for growth. We start in London. We don’t plan to stay there.
Why Dalloway
In Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway, Clarissa spends an entire day preparing for a party. The novel takes bringing people together seriously.
That was the bit I kept. Not the costumes or the literary pretension—just the core belief: a room can matter, if the conditions are right.
Most singles events ask people to perform being likeable. I am interested in what happens when the room gives strangers something real to do together.
Speed, polish and performative confidence win out, because the answer has to arrive instantly.
A task, a position or a shared challenge makes curiosity, humour and generosity visible immediately.
The personal story is why I started. These are the things I want the project to stand for if it earns the right to continue.
The structure should give people something to do, not just someone to assess. It should alter the conversation, not simply organise it.
This is for single people who want to meet someone. We will never disguise that intent as “networking”, a running club, or a lifestyle brand.
The project should send people back out into the world. No endless regulars. No keeping anyone trapped in a funnel forever.
The pledges
Dating apps make money when you stay single. We make money when you don’t need us any more.
You apply through Nell; Emma manages the queue; a person makes the call. Always will.
Nobody is left standing by the bar rehearsing an opening line.
Never sold, never shared with partners, deleted the moment you ask.
Anything we learn from events is anonymised and opt-in. Nothing is ever recorded in the room.
The honest bit
The space is crowded. But I think a new voice is needed. Someone outside the industry who actually cares about connection. Someone willing to do something a little different.
That’s me. I think.
It won’t stay just me. An events and operations co-founder has joined to run the nights, a strategic advisor for growth is on board, and there’s still a third seat for a co-founder for community-led growth and partnerships.
Sam Cope Founder, The Dalloway Project
Hold me to it