How it works
People over 40 who have not met, in one place at one time — coffee or walk. All of it in Capitol Hill, Downtown Bellevue, The Marina and The Mission.
$5holds your place.
It does not pay for the walk — walking is free. It pays for the other people who have also put money down, and for a person, not an algorithm, to put your group together.
The three things you do
Step 1. Tell us about you.
We ask which five-year age range you are in, the part of town you would travel to, and a handful of questions about how you spend your time and what you would rather talk about. Not your date of birth. There is no profile, no photo, and nothing that gets published anywhere.
A person reads your answers and builds each group by hand. There is no algorithm deciding who you go with.
Step 2. Pick a date.
Every open date says what it is — coffee or walk. Picking the date is how you pick what you are turning up for. You pay $5 to hold your place, one date at a time, and nothing renews on its own.
We then pick the meeting point — somewhere strangers can find, park at and actually stand around in — and finish putting the group together by hand.
Step 3. Turn up, and take it from there.
Turn up a few minutes early and introduce yourself. From there it is your group: how far, how fast, how long, and whether it turns into sitting down somewhere afterwards. Nobody from Meet40 is there.
Anything you buy while you are out is yours. Some groups are done in an hour and some carry on — either is fine, and leaving when you want to leave is not rude.
What we do, and what we don’t
Meet40 puts people over 40 in the same place at the same time. What you then do is yours — which is the reason somebody who has not run in ten years can book the running one.
What we give you
- A group of people, every one of them 40 or over, put together by hand.
- A place to meet, chosen so strangers can find it and park near it.
- A time, and a theme everybody there chose.
- A group chat that opens before you meet and stays afterwards.
What we never send
- A route. We do not pick where you go or how far.
- A pace. Nobody is timed and there are no pace groups.
- A leader or a guide. There is no member of staff there.
- An itinerary, a booking or a plan. What happens is your group deciding.
What arrives, and when
Everything you need in order to turn up comes by email — there is no app to download. Who else is coming and the group chat live on your own page.
When you book
A confirmation, and a calendar invite.
An email straight away with the date, the time and the neighbourhood, plus a calendar entry you can add in one tap. It needs no sign-in and no app.
When registration closes
Last call, and the group gets built.
An email saying registration for your date has closed — which is also the moment free cancellation ends. After it, a person starts cutting everybody who registered into groups. If you are coming, there is nothing for you to do.
A few hours before
Everything else, all at once.
We email where to meet, the street address and a map link. At the same moment your own page fills in with everyone else joining you, a line about each, and the group chat opens. That is about six hours ahead — or by eight the previous evening, if you are meeting early enough that six hours would put it in the middle of the night.
Afterwards
The chat stays, and one short note.
The chat stays open for a week, so you can carry on without swapping numbers on a kerb. We send one email asking how it went — two or three questions, no essay.
Every group is 40 or over.
No profiles to browse. No swiping. You choose a date and a theme; we put the group together.
Not “mostly”. Not “usually”. We check ages at signup and never widen a group just to fill a place.
A few things people want settled first
- How hard is it?
- As hard as your group makes it, which on most mornings is not very. If you would like to know what a particular meeting point is like underfoot before you pay, email us and a person will tell you what they know about the place.
- Who decides where we go?
- You do, between you, on the day. The group chat opens a few hours before you meet, which is where most groups settle it — and there is no wrong answer, including standing about for an hour and going home.
- Is this a dating thing?
- No. Meet40 is for friendship. We never match on romance, and we never will.
- What does the $5 cover?
- Not the walk — walking is free. It buys the other people who have also put money down. A coffee or a parking spot is yours.
- Who else is coming?
- People you have not met, every one of them 40 or over. A person — not a program — decides who goes together.
- What if something comes up?
- Email support@meet40.com and tell us. A real person reads it. Please do it as early as you can — somebody not turning up is felt by everyone else.