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CNBC
2 hours ago
- CNBC
This 30-year-old founder was so fatigued by dating apps, she started hosting IRL events: ‘I got to dating burnout'
Lucy Rout is not your typical entrepreneur. The 30-year-old Londoner — known for going viral for skiing off an icy slope in a bikini and for consulting her Instagram followers on whether she should fly 10,000 miles for a fourth date with a man — has used her eclectic experiences to develop a new dating model that's all about making meaningful connections. Rout told CNBC her confidence had never been lower when using traditional dating apps. After years of being ghosted, and what she describes as a "strange dopamine cycle of downloading, trying some dates, experiencing bad behavior, writing them off, and vowing to never do it ever again, and then starting the cycle again," — Rout determined that people were hungry for in real life (IRL) connections. She came up with the idea of Haystack Dating in a bid to increase the chances of people building romantic connections. "What we absolutely can do is increase the chances and put people in the right environments where they feel safe and included. Use a bit of tech, use their similar interests and bring them together, and just make it less of a needle in a haystack and more of a needle in a sewing box," she told CNBC Make It in an interview. Rout doesn't just expect her customers to show up at an event and attempt to strike up conversations at random. Instead, attendees fill in a form that inputs their data through an algorithm that matches them with a small group of people based on similar interests and personality traits. "I researched the parameters that lead to meaningful connections and tried to understand a lot more about the psychology of how people work — introvert versus extrovert, effort levels, career ambition. I spoke to hundreds of people about it and I came up with this current algorithm, which we're always optimizing," Rout said. Attendees commit to an activity such as cricket or touch rugby for an hour, and then spend the rest of the evening with the full group of guests. So far, as many as 200 to 500 people have shown up to a single event, and 92% of customers show up alone, Rout said, with events in London costing around £30 ($39.85). Rout has been documenting her entrepreneurial journey and her distaste for men's poor behavior in the dating world on Instagram for years. A cancer survivor, she created a pill case called Tabuu that secured investments on BBC's Dragon's Den in 2023. Before Haystack, she was working on Tabuu remotely in Colombia, while posting snippets of her life, reminding women to never chase a man "unless he is the ice-cream man." Three years of using dating apps severely deteriorated her confidence, Rout told CNBC. She's not alone, with dating app users becoming increasingly disenchanted with online dating. Frequent use of dating apps can contribute to a decline in mental health and negatively impact a person's body image, according to a study published in April. Increasing the number of available partners on dating apps lowered self-esteem, the study found. Across heterosexual and LGBTQ + connections, ghosting and online sexual violence were factors that contributed to psychological distress. These experiences are leading to a decline in dating app use, according to an OFCOM report from late 2024, which tracked how U.K. adults spent time online. From 2023 to 2024, Tinder lost nearly 600,000 users, Hinge saw 131,000 less visitors to its app, Bumble shed 368,000 users, and Grindr users were down 11,000. As millennials and Gen Z leave online dating behind, IRL events are making a comeback, and even dating apps are trying to tap into the hype. Hinge announced a $1 million fund in March, for social groups across New York, Los Angeles and London to put on events for young people to connect in person and build relationships. Bumble IRL was founded in 2022 with a range of exclusive in-person events centered around fitness, food, music and charity. "Yes, you can meet 5 Hinge dates in a week, or you can come to one pub once and meet a few hundreds. I think people do want to find love, and they're just no longer willing to put themselves through the crap that comes with dating apps. "That's exactly where I got to. I got to dating burnout. And I just thought to myself, you know, I'm not going to do this anymore, I'm actually going to try and fix it for other people," Rout said. It was at an entrepreneurial networking event that Rout met her now-boyfriend in December 2023. In a turn of events that she documented on Instagram, she flew 10,000 miles as he was travelling to South-East Asia to meet him again for a fourth date. While she was navigating her new relationship, Rout was developing Haystack to help others find love. With nearly 50,000 followers, it was Rout's Instagram community that drove the initial sales for Haystack, with word-of-mouth reviews and recommendations helping spread the word. "Whilst I'd say initial sales definitely were driven by my Instagram community, you don't go back if you've had a bad experience. I am not going into the numbers, but we have had a very high return user rate," she said. Haystack is set to launch in Leeds, and together with her team of six, Lucy is bringing her events to the rest of the U.K. "In IRL events, there's a hell of a lot more accountability, and people behave very differently in person than they do virtually. There is no way in hell that people in real life would have said to me some of the things they said on dating apps. People behave better. They're kinder."
CNBC
2 hours ago
- CNBC
From lipsticks and Labubu dolls to concerts, the 'treatonomics' trend is booming in uncertain times
"Treatonomics" — a consumer trend that covers spending on 'everyday luxuries' to larger, life-affirming experiences — is booming as people look for a mood boost in ongoing unsettling economic times. Spending on small-item 'pick-me-ups' is a well-established recession-resistant trend, with consumers often turning to purchases of modest personal items such as make-up, perfume and candles — or even collectible rubber ducks or Labubu dolls — for a morale boost when times are hard or uncertain. It's no wonder then, that the consumer trend has long been seen as a bellwether for how consumers feel about the wider economic backdrop, which is currently typified by inflationary pressures, persistently high interest rates and concerns over growth and jobs. The phenomenon is not new; the "lipstick effect" — the theory that lipstick sales increase during economic downturns — has been around for almost a century, for instance. First documented during the Great Depression in the 1930s, the term had a renaissance in the 2000s when Leonard Lauder, former chairman of makeup brand Estée Lauder, noticed a spike in sales after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. "The lipstick effect means basically, buying yourself small treats when you're under financial pressure," John Stevenson, retail analyst at Peel Hunt, told CNBC Tuesday. "You can't afford a new dress or outfit, but you can always get a new lipstick. You can't afford to get a new sofa, but you can get a throw or some cushions. You can't redecorate the house, but you can get a new tablecloth," he said, noting this was why the homewares retail category is "much more resilient than people imagine." The Covid-19 pandemic, and a re-evaluation of personal wellbeing and what makes for an enriching and memorable life, has spurred the trend of treatonomics with consumers willing to make everyday sacrifices in order to have "experiences," particularly one-off events such as spending $200 or more for a ticket to a Taylor Swift concert or the Oasis reunion tour. "Treatonomics is almost another step further [than the lipstick effect] where you are cutting back on on everyday living costs, you're cutting back on basics, maybe you're buying more own brands in the supermarket, but by the same token, you'll go and do an Oasis concert for the weekend and spend £500-£1000 (up to $1330)," Stevenson said. Economists agree that the treatonomics trend has been able to flourish in an era of economic uncertainty and shaky consumer confidence. "This rise of 'Treatonomics' — also called 'Little Treat Culture' by Gen Z on TikTok — is less about 'guilty pleasures' and instead about injecting moments of guilt-free joy into life," Meredith Smith, senior director at retail analysis firm Kantar told CNBC Tuesday. "It's like the 'Lipstick Effect' on steroids, because consumers have this heightened sense of uncertainty coupled with more options and access than ever before to turn life's everyday decisions into an opportunity for a treat. As a result, people are romanticising their water intake, how they dress and decorate their homes, buying themselves treats as a 'mental health' boost and more – all to inject joy into fraught times." Smith said life's traditional milestones, such as marriage, home ownership, workplace achievement and retirement, looked different now for "nearly every living generation" and were being reinvented or disappearing, "out of desire or because they're no longer attainable." That has prompted a shift from being able to celebrate 'milestones' to celebrating more 'inch-stones,' resulting in this rapid rise of treatonomics. "For example — for those who can't afford a home before 40, treating has been a welcome respite and a way to express themselves in their environment when a milestone passes them by," Smith said. "For those without a partner or children, instead of celebrating weddings and baby showers, they are throwing their energy into breakup parties, dog birthdays, high-effort wellbeing-driven treating routines and more. We've seen a rise in 'Resignation Parties' in China, 'Divorce Parties' in the U.S. and Europe, and people treating themselves to cakes or even diamonds after a breakup or when they don't get a promotion at work," he noted. On a similar note, Millennials and Gen Z have turned to 'Kidulting' – enjoying adult versions of joys from childhood -- which has "catapulted LEGO's adult offering, seeing some spend up to $1,000 on kits," Smith added. In the U.K., GfK's Consumer Confidence Index measures a range of consumer attitudes, including forward expectations of the general economic situation and households' financial positions, and views on making major household purchases. It fell to -19 in July 2025, down by one point from June. Meanwhile, in the U.S., consumer confidence saw a slight increase in July. Overall, however, consumer confidence levels remain subdued "below last year's heady levels," Stephanie Guichard, senior economist of Global Indicators at The Conference Board, which produces the consumer confidence data, noted in a statement last week. That lingering pessimism feeds into the treatonomics trend, economists say, meaning that more affordable and perhaps more gratifying purchases and experiences, will remain attractive. Kantar's Global Economic Policy Uncertainty Index, a measure of the degree of uncertainty surrounding economic policy at a global level, "has declared the current era as one of 'Great Uncertainty', relative to the last 40 years. Life feels uncertain, with no light at the end of the tunnel – yet," Smith said. The volatility and uncertainty we are experiencing are not likely to dissipate for the next five to eight years, Kantar predicts. "This gives us a strong indication that treatonomics will persist for at least another three to five years – though we can expect to see trends in 'Little Treat Culture' to move faster and become more fragmented by geography and cultural niches. This is a challenge for brands, who will need to be agile and attuned to how these micro-trends are developing."
CNBC
7 hours ago
- CNBC
CNBC Markets Now: August 8, 2025
CNBC Markets Now provides a look at the day's market moves with commentary and analysis from Michael Santoli, CNBC Senior Markets Commentator.
