Last Chance Charlie

So, Kirk, let’s start off with who you are…

I am from New Hampshire in the United States and graduated from Dartmouth College in 2012. Last year after graduating from University, I played a season of professional basketball in Luxembourg and this year I have continued to play for the Durham Wildcats in the British Basketball League.

I am currently also studying to earn my Master’s degree from Durham University Business School. In a module I am taking called New Venture Creation, I developed the business model and plan for Last Chance Charlie and wanted to implement the business model to deepen my understandings of the materials we’ve covered in the classroom while helping to provide a great service to Durham students.

What’s Last Chance Charlie?

Our company was created as a unique alternative to give university-aged students (18+) the opportunity to find out more about the sexual or romantic feelings of those people they already know or are familiar with. Essentially, each participant provides a list of 1-10 people they are interested in, and our program confidentially cross-matches the lists of all participants and the names of crushes they entered.

It then provides the results to the participant if any of the people listed him/her as well.  Students are smart and can recognize if someone is eyeing them from across the bar, or can see an enticing smile at the library, but there is always that element of doubt, or uncertainty, or maybe just a lack of confidence that prevents them from acting on their intuitions.

Last Chance Charlie has your back

We feel that Last Chance Charlie eliminates doubt and bridges the gap of uncertainty to promote confidence in students to make a move.

Sometimes what you are looking for is right in front of you, and we’re trying to provide young people with the opportunity to better understand or recognize the feelings of those they are interested in.

How did you come up with the idea and name?

Last Chance Charlie was at first just an idea we were playing around with, but the more we thought about it, the more we realized how much of a need there was for something like this specific to the university level.

The idea expanded as we thought about the times when students would have the most fun or need for our program, and decided to implement it right before the end of term to give participants a last chance to act confidently in the University dating scene. The name itself was created when one of my friends jokingly mentioned Charlie as a name that is often used in old sayings and adages.

And so was born: Last Chance Charlie.

You might be lucky enough to take one of these athletes home

How can you guarantee anonymity?

Last Chance Charlie is completely confidential.

We’ve developed a software program that is able to cross-match the names and regenerate results without anyone manually going through each participant’s information. Our company is founded on respect and integrity.

I’m also a post-graduate student, so the chances are quite slim if I saw the submissions that I would be familiar with any of the names of students that participate.

What’s the £5 charge for?

Expenses and costs associated with developing our program and the service we provide.  After researching the cost of socials, formals, and events throughout campus, £5 seemed like a very cheap and reasonable price for the best social of the year.

In addition, if you bring a match with you to Fabio’s, you’ll receive a free drink!

Plans for the social?

We simply plan on everyone having a great time. The idea behind the Social was to culminate Last Chance Charlie and the end of term in a big celebration. We wanted to give students the opportunity to act on the information provided by our program in a fun environment.

As students turn in their final assignments on Thursday the 20th, what better way to head into Easter Break than partying with your friends and crushes?!

The start of something big?

Getting bladdered at Fabio’s will be the perfect way to help facilitate the annual gold rush or lay the foundations for a post-exams fling.

What makes it better than Tinder?

We think there are a lot of great online dating platforms out there that have become very popular in the last decade, but Last Chance Charlie is different. We have been compared to Tinder, but Last Chance Charlie is unique in being specific to university students and only occurs once a year, right before the end of term.

Sometimes Tinder can have a comical or ambiguous aspect and leaves it limited to the people on your screen; our program is more open to all students and makes it personal because you have to be somewhat familiar with the people you enter. The way that our program asks that participants generate a list of people they are interested in also forces participants to be deliberate, intentional, and really think about who they are actually interested in.

For this reason, when a match occurs, you know it is genuine. Lastly, Last Chance Charlie allows the participants to decipher and act on the information provided in their own way.

Just choose your ten names…

Sounds like good fun, how can people get involved?

We have had a lot of positive responses so far and are excited about how many people want to get involved. We are trying to expand our reach primarily through word of mouth and social media, so we encourage all students to inform their friends, post, like, share, comment all over their Facebook and our pages.

The more people that get involved the better!

Any questions, ideas, or insight please feel free to email them at: [email protected].

Register at their website and like their Facebook page