Peared Up: St Andrews’ Dating Culture Cured?

When Gemma Collins said, "It’s hell in there. It’s horror. You have to be a certain type of person to survive," you’d think she was talking about the dating scene in St Andrews. Hell, horror, and a pained existence encapsulate what many singletons experience here – a trilogy of suffering born not just from abstinence, but from actually going on dates.

The issues are obvious. Sixty percent of students are female, so there are simply more women than men. As one student noted, “there are five men and they’re all hideous, and there are twelve hundred beautiful women.” Another admitted, “guys have much hotter girlfriends in this town than they should.”

Then there’s the nonexistence of anonymity. ‘‘Nothing is ever a secret,” wrote another student. “As soon as you go on a date with someone the whole town knows. Everyone starts viewing you as a couple.” Dating here feels like promenading in the 18th century: it’s a public spectacle.

The global issue is that dating doesn’t feel human anymore, but St Andrews’ insularity and gender imbalance make it a particularly fascinating case study. Too many women, too few men. Too much ego, and far too many witnesses. Dating here is abysmal, and every day feels like Halloween.

Fortunately, two girls are actively crafting a solution. Saanvi and Kaina Guliani’s Peared is a student-run matchmaking service bringing blind dates, speed dating, and a much-needed revival of romance to St Andrews.

Peared began as a university project. In her second year, Saanvi took an enterprise module where students had to design a business plan that would also raise money for charity. “Our goal was to pass the class, not to start a business,” she laughed. But the gap in the St Andrews dating world was too colossal to ignore, leading the group to host a launch event in November 2023 – which already attracted 32 blind daters.

The tipping point came when Saanvi attended a dinner hosted at Hatch and met Julie Dalton, director of the Adamson Group. After Julie mentioned wanting to collaborate more with students, Saanvi immediately thought of Peared. “She gave me her business card, and that night I set up an email account for Peared.” The Guliani sisters secured a deal for three events, which have been selling out ever since.

Credit: Saanvi Guliani

Saanvi and Kaina understood the psychology behind this town’s dating apathy perfectly: students want to date, but sometimes need an excuse to do so. “People aren’t scared of hookup culture, but they’re scared of asking someone on a date,” Saanvi told me. “We wanted to create something where everyone’s in the same boat – a night out where you’re dressed up, drinking, but also meeting people who have the same goal as you. It’s less intimidating.”

Their entrepreneurial spirit has undoubtedly made Peared flourish, something that clearly runs in the family. “Our parents are first-generation entrepreneurs, and dinner conversations were about business.” Creating something of their own was always the goal. When advertising to men, Saanvi jokes it’s “the cheapest date you’ll ever go on.” To women, the pitch is more cinematic: “Do it for the plot.”

Credit: Saanvi Guliani

The pair of them runs the service in an authentic yet self-aware way, completely attuned to the culture they’re trying to fix. They don’t rely on algorithms or AI and instead prioritise making Peared “a very human experience”. Every ticket comes with a compatibility form including name, age, course, and niche details like type, dealbreakers, and dating goals. Through this authentic approach, they’re fostering a small but growing community. “Now that we’ve been running it for a while, we’ve noticed repeat customers,” Saanvi said. One couple who met at their Valentine’s Day event is still together – a glowing Peared success story.

Peared offers something refreshingly sincere. It permits students to admit they actually want to date, without the stigma or the swiping. A casual environment with conversation, cocktails, and knowing where everyone stands. St Andrews doesn’t need fewer hopeless romantics, just better infrastructure for them, and Peared just might combat the hell and horror.