Woman tired of dating apps bought a billboard to find her future husband — and just got 2,000 responses
It might be unconventional, but the responses show it's definitely working.
Lisa Catalano had reached her limit with dating apps that went nowhere. The 42-year-old from the San Francisco Bay Area decided to take matters into her own hands. In June, she created a personal dating website called "MarryLisa.com" and promoted it through digital billboards along Highway 101 between Santa Clara and South San Francisco, which she documented on her YouTube channel. By early September, she had received around 1,800 responses, and the number has since climbed to nearly 2,000. "I never expected I would do something like this in my life. I'm almost in shock that I did it, really," she told PEOPLE.
What started as a joke turned into a serious project. "I do think the apps can work, really, but in my case, I'm just not getting the results. Every time I would get frustrated with how the dating scene in general was, I would spend another five, ten minutes just typing away on my computer, making the website just kind of as a little creative outlet," she said. Her frustration mirrors that of many in the online dating scene. A study by Stanford Medicine looked at satisfaction among Tinder users and found that many aren’t even aiming to meet someone offline. In a survey of about 1,387 users, half said they weren’t actually trying to date in real life.
The study showed that people’s reasons for using the app — whether for connection, entertainment, or validation — strongly influence how satisfied they feel with it. Her family’s first reaction was mixed. They thought it "was a little bit crazy" at first, but "kind of came around to the idea." Catalano then decided to advertise offline. "I can have this website, but if nobody's looking at it, what good is it going to do? So I started thinking, 'Okay, well how can I promote this?'" she said.
Catalano is no stranger to love — her fiancé passed away in 2023 after battling a terminal illness. "It's a very strange process to try to get back into dating when you've been in a relationship for so long," she said. Her digital billboards contain a photo of her next to the website address in bold yellow letters on a black background. The eight-second ads run during morning and evening commutes. The application form on her site covers education, occupation, hobbies, and personality, with space for photos. "I want somebody who is looking for a committed, monogamous relationship who would like to try starting a family. I'm looking for someone who leads a healthy lifestyle," she said.
She’s also hoping to meet someone between 35 and 45 who shares her religion and politics. So far, she’s heard from men as young as 19 and as old as 78. The response to her billboard campaign has been divided. "It's almost like a 50/50 split on this," she said, "People either love the idea or they hate it. They either think what I'm doing is incredible and inspiring and brave, or they think that I'm just the worst person on earth, and there's no in between." Even with the criticism, Catalano says the support means more, and through it all, she remains hopeful that her idea will lead her to the right person. "I think that there's a guy out there who's a perfect fit for me, and I think I'm a perfect fit for him," she said. "We just have not connected yet. And I would venture to say that his application could already be in my inbox right now."
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