{"id":412784,"date":"2025-11-29T12:04:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T12:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/412784\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T12:04:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T12:04:13","slug":"dallas-most-viral-matchmaker-is-an-entrepreneur-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/412784\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas\u2019 most viral matchmaker is an entrepreneur now"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this year Abbey Hagan inadvertently sparked a local dating revolution. The 28-year-old sales specialist, personally frustrated with the app scene, organized an in-person dating event on the Katy Trail without much more than the help of a couple friends <\/b>and the viral power of social media. <\/p>\n

That first \u201cDatey Trail\u201d event was a smash hit<\/a>, drawing nearly 800 D-FW singles \u2014 and Hagan kept going, organizing and hosting more events. Since that first balmy June evening her events, which now take place all over town, have drawn more than 5,000 attendees, and Hagan has become something of a local media sensation in her own right, with more than 10,000 followers on TikTok. <\/p>\n

Hagan \u2014 who has rebranded her fledgling enterprise as Datey<\/a> \u2014 recently spoke with The News about the venture and her even bigger ambitions. <\/p>\n

(This interview has been edited for length and clarity.) <\/p>\n

Datey has obviously been making a big splash. What is it exactly? Is it a company, or an events platform? A side hustle? <\/b><\/p>\n

Business Briefing<\/p>\n

Become a business insider with the latest news.<\/p>\n

By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n

Yeah, so I always say that Datey is a singles community group, and that Datey really facilitates an environment for people to come and meet people. And so we just have been popping up at different bars and restaurants in Dallas now, but I always say it\u2019s a singles community group. <\/p>\n

Is it a company? <\/b><\/p>\n

We\u2019re an LLC now, yes. But I don\u2019t really think of it that way, I guess? I still just think of it as a community group. <\/p>\n

So technically a company. <\/b><\/p>\n

Technically a company, yes.<\/p>\n

Obviously, you\u2019ve struck fire \u2014 people are really interested. So kudos to you for being the driving force. <\/b><\/p>\n

Thank you so much. It\u2019s definitely exciting, and it\u2019s something that is far bigger than I really could have ever imagined. But now I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh I\u2019m going to be doing this forever.\u2019 <\/p>\n

You told me a while ago <\/b>that fun story about how you started the Datey Trail event<\/b><\/a> \u2013 you were running on the Katy Trail and were like, \u2018Oh why don\u2019t we just do something [related to dating].\u2019 I\u2019m wondering if there was a moment when you decided to turn the Datey Trail into something a little bigger? <\/b><\/p>\n

It really came after the second Datey Trail event. I had just kind of been thinking that if we are going to be really focused around walking on the trail that limits us so much. And if we open it up \u2014 if we don\u2019t just keep it to one specific part of Dallas, then it can go so much further. <\/p>\n

And the website\u2019s<\/a> still something that I\u2019m figuring out, how it kind of plays into everything. But I think that after hearing from so many people about how impressive it was and that I was really onto something, I thought, \u2018Ok, I should really take this really seriously.\u2019 And so that\u2019s why I trademarked it. My cousin helped me file the LLC. I opened a business bank account, and I just tried to be as strategic from the beginning as possible. I thought, \u2018Ok, before I get behind the eight ball, let\u2019s just cover all of our bases so that I\u2019m not scrambling when it\u2019s bigger than I could have imagined.\u2019 <\/p>\n

\"Bailey<\/p>\n

Bailey Turner (left) and Abbey Hagan greet guests and hand out wristbands during a Datey event at Tequila Social on the Katy Trail in Dallas in July.<\/p>\n

Juan Figueroa \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n

It sounds like you\u2019re handling it pretty well, because your life has really changed, right? Is it all good? Are there negative things too? <\/b><\/p>\n

I mean, to be honest there was a patch where I was like, \u2018I cannot do this. Like I need to quit my job or something,\u2019 because it got to be a lot. And there was probably a month[long] period where I was really struggling, but now I feel like I\u2019ve found a good rhythm with balancing it with my normal nine-to-five and really figuring out ways to take care of myself and be social and date and run Datey and work, and now I feel like I\u2019m in a really good spot. But it was a lot of trial and error. <\/p>\n

Do you consider yourself an entrepreneur? <\/b><\/p>\n

I think now I do. I probably wouldn\u2019t have when we first talked [months ago], but now I definitely do. <\/p>\n

Was that something you always had an interest in? For you this is sort of a personal transformation, right? I mean does this feel pretty new? <\/b><\/p>\n

This definitely feels really new. It\u2019s interesting: I\u2019m on my third, like, corporate job \u2014 I\u2019ve always enjoyed my roles, but always felt like I still wasn\u2019t using my best skills. And I always was kind of trying to think of a way to be creative, and be with people, but I didn\u2019t really know what that looked like. And so it\u2019s shocking to me how big it is, and how it\u2019s now like, so all-consuming of my life, but I\u2019m not surprised that I ended up doing this because I just knew there was something more out there. But discovering it for myself, and now just having this big company, essentially, that I run every day, is for sure beyond my wildest dreams. But I feel like, I don\u2019t know, I always knew there was more for me. I just didn\u2019t know what that would look like. <\/p>\n

Where do you see it going, or where do you want it to go? Obviously this is not a quick thing, you\u2019re putting a lot of time in. <\/b><\/p>\n

Yeah, I mean my goal would be to expand to as many cities as possible. I really was wanting to be in Austin and Houston by the end of the year, but I think now with the holidays coming that probably won\u2019t happen. So by spring I would love to be in the major cities in Texas. I think that is really what\u2019s next. But then long term \u2014 I think in the next few years it could really be in a lot of major cities. I get DMs all the time saying \u2018Come to L.A.,\u2019 \u2018Come to Miami,\u2019 \u2018Come to New York.\u2019 And so I think it really has potential to go national, but I think for the next year [I\u2019m] really focusing on having Texas be Datey\u2019s home base. <\/p>\n

\"Datey<\/p>\n

Datey founder Abbey Hagan having her photo taken on the Katy Trail, as Morgan Finch stopped to ask if she was the \u2018Datey girl\u2019 in Dallas, November 1, 2025,<\/p>\n

Tom Fox<\/p>\n

What can you say, or what do you want to say, about the financial side? Obviously it takes a lot of resources to run something like this. Are you profitable? <\/b><\/p>\n

So at first we were not profitable, and I was quickly finding myself in credit card debt over everything that I was pouring into it. At first I was very hesitant to charge for anything, and just didn\u2019t feel right about that, but then as time went on and so many of the attendees were like, I would pay to be here, you\u2019re putting so much work into this, I really thought about it for a long time and then started slowly charging for tickets. So now we\u2019re profitable with the ticket side, and then oftentimes we also do a revenue share with the venue that hosts us. <\/p>\n

You saw <\/b>our story <\/b><\/a>on the challenges of the dating app industry and app fatigue. Can you talk about how intentionally you\u2019re responding to this bigger moment in dating culture? <\/b><\/p>\n

Yeah, I think that where Datey\u2019s fitting in is really being a solution to a lot of people\u2019s problem, which is they\u2019ve been on the apps for so long and they just haven\u2019t worked. We started [at the] end of June \u2014 we have officially three confirmed relationships, like boyfriend girlfriend, from Datey. And so every time that somebody messages me like, \u2018I now have a boyfriend or a girlfriend,\u2019 I make sure to post about it and tell people like, \u2018Datey is working, and it can be the solution for you too,\u2019 and so I think that\u2019s really where it\u2019s fitting in. It\u2019s a natural conversation at Datey anyways of, \u2018Oh how long have you been on the apps? Or when did you get off?\u2019 and then people are showing up in person and actually paying their hard-earned money to be there because of how over [the apps] they are. <\/p>\n

Do you see yourself as almost a challenger or a competitor to Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, whatever? Is that sort of how you\u2019re positioning yourself? <\/b> <\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know if I would necessarily say we\u2019re a competitor \u2014 I guess kind of in a way we\u2019re a competitor. But we\u2019re just in a completely different world. I feel like [Datey], it\u2019s really kind of in a league of its own, and really bringing something to the table that\u2019s really special. It\u2019s interesting: Bumble hosted an in-person dating event in Dallas a couple weeks ago, and I had so many people send it to me. So I don\u2019t know if I view them as competition as much as they maybe view me as competition, but I\u2019ll take it. <\/p>\n

How did you react when you saw they had an event in Dallas? Like, they\u2019re on your turf. <\/b><\/p>\n

I definitely thought like, \u2018Ok I see you, I know what you\u2019re doing.\u2019 But I just feel so confident in Datey that it\u2019s so different. How I heard about [the Bumble event] was influencers were posting that they went to this event. Whereas my event is real people who found me the real way are putting their hard-earned money into a ticket to be there for something that I created. And I just don\u2019t think you can compete with that when you\u2019re a corporation. <\/p>\n

Do you feel \u2014<\/b> because of what you\u2019ve created, and sort of this local phenomenon \u2014<\/b> do you feel like Dallas\u2019 new matchmaker? <\/b> <\/p>\n

I kind of do. I do feel that way. It\u2019s interesting because now I get recognized when I\u2019m out, which I love. It\u2019s like my childhood dream is to be recognized by strangers, and so I love when people are like, \u2018Are you Abbey?\u2019 And I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh my god I am!\u2019 So it\u2019s exciting. But yeah, I love taking on that role of \u2018Dallas\u2019 matchmaker\u2019 and that people know me for that. I mean, I\u2019ve always known my biggest skill is people and relationships, and Datey\u2019s now letting me use that every day. <\/p>\n

Ok, so then as a prominent matchmaker, what\u2019s your advice to Dallas singles? <\/b><\/p>\n

[Laughs]. Well, for Dallas singles I would say: \u2018Get off your phone and get to Datey.\u2019 One. And then two, when you\u2019re at Datey, make conversations. I get so many people saying they\u2019re so nervous, or \u2018I\u2019m shy.\u2019 Every single person that is there is nervous in some way, and you\u2019re there because you want to meet people. So I would just say, \u2018Talk to people.\u2019 The worst that can happen is that they say no. And even if you\u2019re not at a Datey event, challenge yourself to say hi to somebody that interests you, because the worst that can happen is that it either doesn\u2019t go anywhere or you get rejected or something, but you tried. I think we\u2019ve lost the art of trying \u2014 so just bring back trying and getting rejected and making it be normal. It\u2019s not a big deal. <\/p>\n

You\u2019re kind of pushing an old school interaction \u2014<\/b> meet each other and talk. Get off the apps. <\/b><\/p>\n

Oh my god for sure. Yeah, get off the apps. It\u2019s interesting, because I was telling my friends the other day \u2014 I said, \u2018When we were growing up and when you would talk about, \u2018Oh how did your parents meet?\u2019 it was always through mutual friends or at a bar or at work. And sometimes that does still happen, but our generation, it\u2019s going to have all these second graders saying, \u2018My parents met on Hinge, my parents met on Bumble.\u2019 And there\u2019s nothing wrong with that. If you found success in that, that\u2019s so great. But I think that we\u2019ve been relying too heavily on them, and so there is just that need for in-person dating again. <\/p>\n

And here\u2019s the most important question: Abbey, what\u2019s your own situation? Have you met somebody from your events? <\/b><\/p>\n

It\u2019s so funny \u2014 that\u2019s the question I get asked the most, and I love that people are interested. But yes, I have met people. I\u2019ve probably been on four dates through Datey. I have two more next week, which is exciting. None that have stuck, but none that I can say anything bad about. They were wonderful. It just didn\u2019t work out. <\/p>\n

So I guess you\u2019re using your own product? Or endorsing your own methods. <\/b><\/p>\n

Somebody asked me last night \u2014 I was catching up with a friend, and she was asking me, \u2018Oh have you approached anyone?\u2019 I was like, \u2018Yeah, I approach people all the time at Datey.\u2019 And she was like, \u2018I could never.\u2019 And I was like, \u2018Well this is my event! Like if I\u2019m not using it, what am I doing? I created it because of my own need. Like if I\u2019m not trying, then there\u2019s no point! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Earlier this year Abbey Hagan inadvertently sparked a local dating revolution. The 28-year-old sales specialist, personally frustrated with…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":412785,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,64,1596,9604,9207,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-412784","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-entrepreneurs","12":"tag-small-business","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-tx","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115632896089554048","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}