TIMEleft Dinner CEO Maxime Barbier

My guest today, Maxime Barbier, is the founder and CEO of a really cool app and social experiment called Time Left. Time Left brings together total strangers every Wednesdays in cities all over the world for dinner.
He got inspired by the belief that, yes, our life is fleeting and we all need more human connections and genuine relationships. I tried it for myself.
I went to three dinners organized by time left. And I have to tell you guys, it's a really fantastic idea.
It has nothing to do with dating. It's literally so you can socialize, connect, meet new people, network, interact.
It's really, really cool. And it's completely free to download the app.
And the fee you pay to attend the dinners is super, super affordable. So I hope you guys enjoy my really cool conversation with the amazing Max.
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Maxime, welcome to Cat on the Loose. It's such an honor to have you.
That's my pleasure. Thank you for having me.
And I know you're in New York City. Are you having fun out there? Yeah, the weather is not the best, but yeah, I enjoy New York and Bizarre.
You should be in LA because the weather is perfect here. Yes, I will.
Okay, so let's talk about time left because as I was saying to you before we got started, I found out about it through Instagram a few months ago. And I was like, this idea sounds amazing.
I'm going to try it out. So full disclosure, you guys were not paying me.
You didn't ask me to do it. I decided to go and try it out for myself because I live in LA.
I work insanely crazy hours. It is very difficult to meet people for like personal relationships.
And I love the idea that it has nothing to do with dating. And I tried it out and I loved it.
So the first question I have for you is explain in a nutshell to people that never heard about Time Left what it is. And Left is a really easy and simple way to meet people wherever you are.
So now we are in 185 cities and it's happening every Wednesday. You go on timelift.com, you do a personality test and when you're ready, you just book your seat and the only thing you have to do is to show up to a restaurant.
You're going to receive an address on Wednesday morning. You don't know anything about the participant.
You don't know anything about anything. You just know it's going to happen there.
And you go in the restaurant on the time and five people are going to sit next to you to have an amazing time. Right.
Okay, I did that. So let's dissect that because I know even my friends are asking me, but what do you mean? You don't know where you're going to go.
You don't know who you're going to go have dinner with. time left is an app right and you connect so let's say i'm in la i'm in los angeles maybe somebody who is visiting los angeles maybe somebody who is lonely right in los angeles has nothing to do with dating they go on the app and you said the first step is we have to answer like a personality questionnaire? Yes, to know a bit more about you.
Okay, I don't even remember that I did that. It's like for the fluctuation, are you like a morning person or are you like a night person? Do you like to talk about politics? Do you like veggie food, vegan food? All this kind of simple question and it's super fun.
Okay, yeah, it's super fun. So basically basically to know your preferences so you try to match people that have similar interests correct yes because you have an algorithm who do the matching for us and so the basic was to give a bit of information to make sure the algorithm can play its role um when we started one year ago we just asked like what can be the basic question or really simple and fun and fun personality can have? And so that's kind of what we do.
And that's the only thing you have to do. And there's no swiping, no profile, no DM.
Right. Yeah.
We want to make it clear. This is not about dating.
And this is why it really intrigued me because I'm single. A lot of people that listen to Cat on the Loose are single, but it can be exhausting.
And sometimes you want to go out not to meet a date. You want to go out to meet friends, to network.
And this was your idea behind Time Left, correct? When you created it. Yes.
When we created this idea one year ago in May last year, we wanted to actually be the opposite of dating app. I just, I think you're tired that you're not the only one.
A lot of people are exhausted by dating app because you know you spend a lot of time, a lot of expectation, and you're like, you talk for hours, then you meet and you didn't click and you, you know, you spend, you go from this century to this century. So, and then when I was struggling and I don't know your age, but I'm going to be 40.
And when you are 40, then it's more hard to meet. I'm a teeny bit older than you, just a little.
Just a little. And so it's a bit hard to meet new people when you start to get more old.
And so when I was traveling, I just realized, wow, the only option we have is dating app. But if you're single, okay, it makes sense.
But if you're not, then you can't go on this app. And actually, even if you're single, using dating app to make friendship, I think it's not a good strategy.
And so we just wanted to create something simple. And actually the success of Timelift, I believe now after 18 months, is really rely on the fact we don't ask what people want and you have to just be open to what's going to happen.
Of course we have a lot of single people doing Timelift, but because we don't ask people what they want, they are more open and there is less pressure in a sense Yeah. No, I completely agree.
And I love that. So let's do step by step by step so people understand.
So you go on the app. It's free, right? If you download it for free, it's called Time Left.
Then you answer this really fun questionnaire about your personal opinions, what you like to eat, blah, blah, blah. Then you said it's one dinner every wednesday night is there a specific reason why it's on wednesdays yes it's only wednesdays and for two reasons the first one is like because the time of experience is in the restaurant and we know restaurant can be busy on friday and saturday so we decided to choose a day who are like more easy for us to be able to have some table because Because to give you an idea, in two days, we're going to be 15,000 strangers having dinner together.
So we need a lot of restaurants. So we wanted to make sure we can have them.
And then the second thing is, is also a day who I just discovered that in the US, we said the under day, is like, it's not too soon during the week and it's not too late also. So of course, Friday looks like on like on paper a better option, but it's not because you have so much for us to do on Friday.

And so that's why we came with the Friday and now we are sticking to this.

We want to own the Friday. We want to have people understand that wherever you go, you know, on Wednesday you can meet people in one click.

Yeah.

And, you know, I say my opinion when I saw that it's Wednesday, I loved it.

Because, like you said, if it's Friday on Saturday, most people have plans, right? You have dates or if you're married, you're going to go out with your husband and your wife. If you have a family, it's family oriented stuff.
It's a lot harder. Monday and Tuesday, at least for me, are insanely hectic.
Like if it was Monday night, I probably would never do it because I work until late hours like most people. So when I saw that it was Wednesday, the first time that I went, I was like, that's perfect.
It's usually a very chill night. It's the middle of the week.
So I think you guys really nailed that. So now we go on the app.
It's Wednesday night, and you confirm the dinner. So you pay a fee, which is very affordable, by the way, right? And then your name is confirmed.
Now, you guys don't tell us where we're going to go or any details of the dinner until the day off. So let's say today is Monday, I confirm oh yeah, I want to go on next Wednesday dinner.
But I don't know who I'm going to have dinner with and I don't even know which restaurant although it's within our certain price. Yeah, you can define in which part of LA for example.
Yeah, exactly. By the way, because I don't want people to think they got to drive like crazy distances.
So but why don't you let us know ahead of time where we're going to go? So, so, so it's everyone's there. You can book for this one's there.
You can also book for in two weeks or in three weeks. You, of course, in big city can change, can choose where you're going to have dinner.
We don't want you, as you said, to travel for two hours to get a dinner. And then the thing is, we just realized the less information you give to people, the more they are likely to attend, actually.
And why do you think that is? Because we gave way more information at the beginning one year ago. And we just realized it makes no sense because if you give too much information about, you know, how many women, how many men, like what they do for a living, all this kind of thing, people start to, you know, to judge beforehand.
And so that's not the point. Like the beauty of some of this is like we really don't know what's going to happen.
And you've been there and I've been there many times. I did 60 dinners myself.
It's like on the first 10 minutes, you're like, what am I doing there? Like, oh my God, I don't feel this person. Oh my God, it's going to be so boring.
And suddenly something happened because the magic of it, because you're sitting with someone, you share a meal, you share a drink. And then, so yeah, we just, we just reduced the information to the minimum.
So you have till Monday night to book your seat for the week. Then on Tuesday, we give you some basic information, like what language you're going to speak at the dinner, like what's the zodiac sign of the table.
So come, you read just some bold stuff. And then on a Wednesday morning at 9 a.m., you have the address of the restaurant.
Yeah, true. So I have to say, the first time I went, like I told you, I had not even reached out to you guys.
I'm like, I'm going to try for myself. You know, I'm always trying to find interesting things for the podcast.
And for a lot of people, it's intimidating, right? To go, oh my God, I'm going to go to a restaurant with a group of strangers. That's weird.
I'm very outgoing, but I know a lot of people are not. But I have to say when I got there, and by the way, it was a restaurant that I love.
It was very close to me. So you guys are picking amazing restaurants, at least here in LA.

But when I got there, there were already three people on the table, and I was the fourth one.

And they were so nice and so friendly.

And I asked them this question.

I was like, were you guys intimidated about coming here?

And they all said the same thing to me.

The first time we were intimidating.

But the minute you get to the table, everybody's on the same boat. Everybody's there because they want to meet someone new.
They want to socialize. And that made me feel like maybe that if somebody is listening and they're like afraid of trying it out, maybe that minimizes the stress.
If you think that everybody's there is kind of, you like i said on the same boat trying out the same thing yeah like everyone is stressed at one percent and it's a good stress uh you know like on timelift our baseline is like a lot of strangers because what we want to help people to understand is now we live in the world where we're afraid to say hi to each other we're afraid to talk to each other yeah when go to the co-working space, no one says hi. It's kind of strange, you know? And so what Timeless does is like when you sit and you just say, hello, hey, hi, my name is Kate.
That's it. And all the pressures went down.
And you can see they are human. And I think that's the beauty of it.
We just want to create simple human connection. Exactly.
I agree. And I it's interesting because so my so my first dinner we were four people because two people didn't show up which by the way i think it's kind of rude like if you make a a commitment and you confirm and on wednesday you guys ask again actually you send an email and everything you're like are you showing up like i personally think you know just go for it because there's a group of people waiting for you there yeah but that's a good point so now we try to also make people understand you're not going to a festival so if you go to the festival and you don't go out and if you don't go to the festival the festival will be the same for everyone it's like you're going to the cinema the theater but this experience you're part of the experience so if you don't show up it's going to not going to the same experience for people that's like you're going to the cinema, the theater.
But this experience, you're part of the experience. So if you don't show up, it's not going to be the same experience for people.
That's why we want to be able to understand like if you take a ticket, you are the experience. You're going to be part of it.
So you have to show up because six, if you're like five, that's okay. Four, that's okay.
But sometimes, if you're three, that's really painful. So we really try to fight the no-show.
Yeah yeah no i agree and i and i'm saying if there is any no shows out there listening to me or if you guys want to try to do this like i did to myself make a commitment to yourself and push yourself because i know the first time can be like oh my god this is weird but i promise you if you go through it and you go, you're going to have a great time. Because it's always really interesting people, people with good intentions.
A lot of people, and I want to talk about the cultural differences in a second, but a lot of people that do this kind of stuff, they travel the world, they're very open-minded when it comes to meeting new people. And I think that's what makes this time left experience amazing.
Yeah. Also, now we are in 40 countries and 185 cities.
And we can quickly also know it's not only about people who travel. We have a lot of global people in the US.
We have a lot of people from the US. They are not only like, it's not an expat digital nomad kind of thing.
In French, we have 80% French people. In Brazil, we have like 95% Brazilian people.
So even if you don't travel that much, you can just... Actually, I just want to comment, like, time left is for everyone.
It's clear, like, we have people from 20s. My dad, no, go to time left dinner.
Everyone's there. He's 72.
So if I have loneliness with time left, I'm happy. That's my dream.
yeah it's literally for everyone for sure yeah and the second time I went uh it was another restroom that I love right here in West Hollywood called Tess and my table was full everybody showed up and it was such a fun group it was such a good mix and like you everybody was from LA. It wasn't really people that were traveling, but I think it includes, right? Some people travel alone and they don't want to dine alone, especially women.
Like when women travel alone, they don't feel comfortable sitting in the restaurant. So it could be for that person.
A lot of people are business people that leave the office really late at night and they're like, man, I don't want to go home and be alone. I'm going to go to this dinner and have a good time.
A lot of women, by the way, who are single, just going through a divorce or are not ready to date yet. And I think that's such a welcoming environment for women who want to meet new people and not be alone.
So it's like a really, really cool mixture from all walks of life. Yes, and you have really good guests.
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Wow, guys, I'm like in the middle of my interview with Max and I just felt a really strong earthquake here in LA. So I took a break and I'm trying to rebuild myself.
But Max, you're helping me. We were talking about like single, newly divorced women that it's just a great safe place for that.
It is.

That's why we have musty women attending time left. By the way, if guys...
Yes. I'm going to try to convince my guy because it is true.
The first time I went, it was three girls and a boy. The second time, it was four girls and two boys.

And the third time, I have to tell you, it was this big, fabulous rooftop dinner that you guys organized here in West Hollywood, like two weekends ago. It was like, I think, for 80 people, 85 people.
So it was a bunch of tables. and my table and I don't know why but my I don't know if your algorithm did that because

my table. And I don't know why, but I don't know if your algorithm did that because my table was the only table that had one guy and seven women.
So he was really cool about it, but he kind of felt uncomfortable, you know, because he was like, look at all the other tables. There is such a good mixture of guys.
And I'm the only guy at this table. And we were trying to make him comfortable.
But, you know, it was kind of funny that it happened. No, no, for sure.
Like, the goal we try to do is to have a good balance of gender. And, of course, you know, seven women, one guy.
Or even the opposite, one woman, seven guys is not comfortable for, you know, people who is who is a blonde um but yeah we have mostly women and and especially if we go up in the age so like the participant from 30 20 to 30 is like kind of 50 50 but like above 50 and 60 years old is mostly women 70 to 72 percent wow okay so guys out there if you're listening come on it out. It's so much fun.
And like we're saying from the beginning, it has nothing to do with dating. It's not like you're not expected to go there and flirt with someone or if it happens, it happens, right? But like you were saying to me, you met your business partner on time left.
Yes. And it can be businessman.
You can be an older guy like your dad, somebody retired at home who is maybe you're bored, whatever the hell is going on. Or like I was saying, this guy that was in my group, he said he lives in downtown and he works in West Hollywood and he finishes work really late at night.
So instead of like hitting traffic, he goes to the time left dinner and by the time it's done, there's no traffic for him to go home. So there's all kinds of great reasons.
Yeah. And also we match people by kind of age groups.
So the algorithm try to put groups with seven years, different maximum between the youngest and the oldest at the table. So don't be afraid.
If you are like 70, you're not going to be with people from 20. And if you're 20, you're not going to be with people from 70.
So you know. Yeah.
So what is the age bracket? Like it's we have most of the people are like between 30 to 45. And then we see an increase of people from 50 to 60.
And the algorithm try to put people within a certain certain bracket so basically 10 years of difference

maximum yeah between the youngest and the oldest i think that's fair yeah i think that's good um

10 year difference because you want to have something in common right you want to have

common interests you want to talk about it no let me ask about the cultural part because

i think and tell me if i'm wrong you know i'm half brazilian half french like i was saying to you

you're french i think the latin cultures and even europeans we are very open-minded when it

Thank you. me if I'm wrong.
You know, I'm half Brazilian, half French, like I was saying to you, you're French. I think the Latin cultures and even Europeans, we are very open-minded when it comes to meeting new people, sitting at the same table.
A lot of countries in Europe, you go to a restaurant and there is the common table for strangers to sit together. I don't think Americans are as much.
I think Americans are more like uptight, they're shyer socially. And a lot of the Americans that I talk to, including the Americans that I met on my Time Life Dennis, they agree.
Do you see the cultural differences when you start opening up new cities and new countries? The funny story I tell often is,

when we started in Portugal,

people said,

oh, Portuguese people are so close,

it's never going to work.

And it was a success.

Then we went to France.

And my friends said,

oh, French people, we don't need that.

We don't talk to strangers.

And it was a huge success.

Then we go to Brazil.

And Brazil, they are so open to talk

and so friendly, they don't need this. And it's the fastest growth we have.
And Brazil is country number two. And the U.S.
is the biggest surprise. The U.S.
is our biggest market. New York is our biggest city.
The U.S. people, they love it.
So I think it's just not about what you just said. I think it's just we need human connection.
We live in a society where we are so disconnected from each other and i think no matter who you are you need to talk to people at one point you need to be open to just have a share food with someone you know i met some people along the way and they say i wake up you know i walk remotely from home i just walk all day and i go to bed repeat every day you know for five days a week and i'm I just I just in the loop. So in one click, you can have a dinner with people.
And, you know, it's great. No, it's so true.
I think especially after COVID, right? We were stuck at home during COVID. A lot of us gave up our offices.
We started working from home. A lot of us work crazy hours.
And I gave you myself as an example. I have a few friends, a small circle of close friends, but 99% of the time when I go out, it's business related events.
It's like with my clients, it's networking. And the rest of the time, I'm like literally just home.
And I don't feel like going on dates all the time because like we were saying, it's exhausting. Sometimes I just want to chill and have a nice dinner.
And I love talking to new people. I want to make new friends.
And that's the aspect of it that I really, really liked. But I know for a lot of people, taking that first step is really tough.
Like they're shy. They're embarrassed.
So what would you say to them to encourage them to give this a shot? I think the first step in time life is pretty simple. You just book a seat so you don't have a lot of things to do.
I think the second step is to show up to the restaurant. And I think just go to the restaurant.
And if you don't feel like it, you can go home anywhere. But just go and just see the table.
And you will see that we're going to smile at you. They're going to say, welcome.
They're going to say, have a seat. They're going to say, what's your name? You don't have to be.
It's not a keynote. It's not public speaking.
You're not like 300 people and you have to talk about yourself. We have a lot of introvert people who love to be there, you know, and they are quiet.
And that's okay. And then people talk a lot and that's okay.
So you don't have to prepare for anything. You don't have to think about anything.
You just literally, you just have to show up. That's the only thing you have to do.
And the rest, you will see it flow pretty easily. Yeah, I would say show up with an open mind.
Even if you don't love those people, like, oh my God, I don't want to be friends with these people. It's just a dinner.
Like you were saying, it's not a job interview or anything. Now, if you don't like them and you leave, let's talk about this part.
And after the dinner, which I think is really cool as well, you guys send a little questionnaire asking, like, let's say if you and I were in the same group, they send you a questionnaire like, hey, did you like Kat? Would you have dinner with her again? Right. So you kind of have the opportunity to rate in a way the people that you were with.
And I think that's really nice because i think people should at least try make an effort to be nice yeah but it's not exactly a rating in the sense yeah what have you been rating or you say you know like five star it's like it's just a simple question it's like do you want to see this person again and if this person says yes and you know it's mutual agreement like we want to see each other again, then the algorithm will try to put you in the same table in the following week. Because what we believe at Timelift is people don't want to meet strangers.
People want to meet strangers to find someone they like and to have a friendship, have a love relationship, whatever. So we really want to have people to see each other.
We believe in Timelift, you need 10 dinner to 10 dinner to really know someone 10 dinners so the goal is to help you to get 10 dinners with this person in within the group to feel comfortable to say i don't know like the example like if most of the time is like we have a dinner with you and me and and we find you know we like each other right but then if i talk to you the next day hey cat do you want to have brunch with me you You're like, one and one brunch. I don't know.
You know, and then I'm not available ever. And then, you know, life goes on and we never met.
So what we want to do is like you show up, I don't know, in three weeks. Oh, Maxine was at the same table.
Love it. Cool.
Then you have a better connection with Kat and Max. And then at one point, maybe after five or six dinners, you will be comfortable to have a brunch with me or to go to my house party with some friends, you know, and I would be also comfortable to invite you to something more meaningful to me because now we know, you know, we're on the same line.
Yeah. Well, I think it depends on who it is.
Like you could hit it off. My first dinner, there was a lady on my table.
She had lived in Sweden for so long and we were talking and she was so nice. She was back in L.A.
She from LA originally. And I have a lot of Swedish friends here.
So we had a lot in common. And through the app, by the way, after dinner, we have the option of communicating with those people that we had dinner with.
We can text each other and say, so me and this lady, we exchanged cell phones and we're like, oh, it was so nice nice to meet so it could happen that if you really like someone you can become friends with that person outside of the app yes we have people who find love on the first time we have i find my one of my best friends in this one so yeah you can have amazing stories that's for sure and also we create this this thing of like do you want to see this person again? Because if you say yes, then you create a chat in the app. And we have these features for everyone to make safe.
But, you know, like you don't have to ask the number at the end of the dinner. You know, this uncomfortable moment.
I'm like, can I get your number? Oh, I don't know. No, no.
You just go and do your thing. And then at the end you say, I like it.
Can you like me? Boom. You can have a chat.
Then you exchange WhatsAppapp and then you do what you want to do yeah now I personally think and tell me if you disagree because again I don't know I don't even think this is a cultural thing this is a very personal opinion I think these dinners and there is a game by the way there's a really cool game on the app like a question and answer game to break the ice. And I love that.
It's fun, silly questions that really help and make the whole experience fun. But I personally think people should avoid talking about politics and religion on a dinner like that, because I think these are very heavy duty topics that can get people very fired up especially like let's say here in the United States it's election year you know half of the country is divided one side the other after that I feel uncomfortable if people start getting fiery during dinner discussing politics because I don't want to get into that I want to have a good time do you agree with me yeah I with me? Yeah, I agree.
I think it's, you know, the people at the table is the first time you're going to see this person. So talking about heavy subjects or civil rights who are really polarizing politics and stuff, it can be interesting, but it can be also super risky.
Of course, we don't want to be so superficial, but there is a lot of questions you can talk about yourself, you don't have to talk about

the news or the politics, you can say what is the last thing you did for the

first time, what is something you're proud of, what's your biggest challenge next

year. So there is so many good questions we put in the app to help you to have

deeper conversation without having to talk about risky stuff.

Yeah exactly and so on the third dinner this big rooftop party my table was it

Thank you. but having to talk about risky stuff.
Yeah, exactly. And so on the third dinner, this big rooftop party, my table was, of all the three groups, it was the group that I enjoyed the least because I felt bad, to be really honest with you, Max, because I felt so bad for this guy.
I was talking to him the whole night, but I noticed that he was uncomfortable. And one of the ladies, all of a sudden, she started ranting about politics, like really fiery.

And everybody kind of stayed quiet, you know, because nobody wanted to argue with her.

And that's why I said at the end, like, would you have dinner with this person again?

I'm like, no.

That was the only time.

That's okay.

Like, it's not a bad thing to say no to someone, you know.

The goal is to say no if you don't want to see this person again. That's okay.
I mean, you don't have to be friends with everyone. Right.
You know, we say we have only maximum is five plus one in our life, and it's maybe 30 friends in our life. So you don't need 30.
You don't need 200. Yeah, exactly.
You can't say no when you don't feel like it. And I think that's okay.
A lot of people say no, you know. Yeah.
No, I totally agree. But like I said, to me, that's what major would make me say, like, I don't want to see you again.
Like, if you start getting too aggressive about a subject, too radical about a subject, or talking about inappropriate things. A few questions that I know people are going to ask.
The rest, right? Because it's a group of six. And how do we split the bill? Each person pays what they want.
It's not like a set price. It's nothing like that.
You can order what you want, yes. Yeah, we pay a fee two time left to attend, which is very, very affordable.
By the way, it's nothing crazy. 16 USD for the single ticket and 24, I think, for the membership.
Right, agree. With the membership, you can book every week if you want to.
Amazing. So it's super affordable.
I think everybody can pay for that. And then you go to a restaurant and whatever you eat, right, you pay for your own food.
And if you decide to drink alcohol, which is another thing, do you guys have guidelines to people like, hey, don't go crazy, don't get drunk? Yeah, we have safety guidelines on the website. Yes, we recommend to not go drunk on the first dinner, not for sure.
Yeah, you know, like we connected more than 300,000 people since the beginning of the year. And we didn't have any big problem because it's a dinner in the restaurant.
You know, people behave. I will never do this concept in the home.
Like dinner with strangers in the home? No. Liability is too high.
Yeah. It's a restaurant.
You're in the picnic space. You have waiters.
You know, it's a group. You're not alone.
It's not a one-on-one um so yeah people behave and you do offer something called like the after hours so you have dinner and if you choose to continue your night then you open up the address of where you're gonna have like a an after dinner get together, right? Yes. We, in most of the city, Los Angeles, of course included, we have a last drink.
So after the dinner, so to give you an idea, if you put on the concept, so in New York, in two days, we're going to have 1000 people having dinner together and they're going to be spread across like 80 restaurants. And so we say to all these people, hey, you want to have a last drink? Go all together in one place.
And so it's an opportunity to see more people, you know, in the same night and to see people you already know from previous dinner and to have a last drink. That's why Wednesday is better than Monday because Monday people don't want to go crazy.
Oh, yeah, no, I completely agree. Now, how do you choose the restaurants? We have a team of operations in each country.
So we have people in the U.S. who are managing the 45 cities.
We are in 45 cities in the U.S. now.
And they're managing us. We have some guidelines.
Wait, wait. You said 45 cities in the U.S.
alone? Yes. Wow, that's incredible.
We are in Austin, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, San Gervais, New York, Denver, Boston. Everybody can.
So if somebody is listening, you can go to your website and find out all the cities. And if you sign up, you choose U.S.
and you will see all the cities we are. Yeah, all the major cities.
So your team reaches out. to the do you reach out to restaurants at all price points or do you try to find no no we we guarantee a certain price point uh we guarantee or so uh if you're like a veggie or vegan you're gonna have like this option at the restaurant you're gonna be uh sent um no we try to we don't go to fancy restaurants we just like to find this really cool restaurant.
People have a good time. There is no live music and there is just you can talk and exchange.
We don't send people to super specific. We don't send people to sushi place or barbecue place or pizza place because it's really specific.
It's more about restaurants with plates to share, appetizer like you know medzi tapas yeah yeah no i i've been very lucky because the first one that that i went it was a vegetarian restaurant here and i'm not vegetarian but i love the restaurant so much has a great bar a lot of options on the menu so i really enjoyed it the second one was great the third one that you guys you guys did a group on was a beautiful rooftop in Hollywood. So you guys are doing an amazing job.
At least my experience here in LA, you guys are picking really fun, fabulous places. And like you said, the thing you did on the rooftop is we do that only on the big cities.
So now we're doing only in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York. Itork it's once per month uh instead of having uh only two or three tables per restaurant we find a restaurant and we we like 80 to 100 people to have dinner in the same restaurant at the same night and we do a party on top of it yeah which is awesome because yeah you you were sitting on your table during dinner and then if you want to socialize after dinner you stay there and then you can stand up and go to the bar whatever the other area and you hang out and then instead of meeting six eight people you're meeting 85 100 people even more at the same time so that's and they're all open-minded exactly they're all open to meeting new friends like you are now you said you would never do this in a private residency.
No. But do you think about doing different things?

Like let's say a happy hour or a lunch or anything like that, brunch, or are you going to stick to dinner on Wednesdays? I believe now we need to do something simple and to do it really well. And so the goal now is to, we're going to be in 300 cities by the end of the year.
We are expanding quickly in Asia, Pacific, and Middle East and all this in Africa. We really want people to understand it's Wednesday and it's a dinner.
Dinner, I believe it's an amazing thing to connect people. So, you know, some competitors try to do the drinks with strangers, for example.
And the problem with the drinks is like, you can easily disconnect from someone. You know, oh, sorry, I need to go or I need to go to the talents and whatever and you just vanish.
And so, the restaurant is an amazing technology to connect people. Also, I think the restaurant, they need us.
You know, they are struggling. They need people and they need clients.
So, they so happy to work with us. So I think it's a sweet spot, you know.
Wednesday, dinner at night is kind of a sweet spot. I completely agree with you.
I love it. I think you guys are doing an amazing job.
How many countries are you in now? We are in 40 countries. 40 countries.
So you guys can go to timelaf.com, right, Max? Yes. And on Instagram.
And on Instagram or download the app on the app stores. There is a city for sure where you live.
And there is a dinner everyone's there. And you just need to click on one button and that's it.
And that's it. You click, you pay the fee, you go to a fabulous restaurant, you meet a great group of people and you expand your...
And it could be networking, it could be good for your business, it could be good for so many different things. It might end up, like you said, flirting, dating, whatever, because it happens, right? But that's not the main goal of TimeLive.
Exactly. Congratulations.
So when is this thousand people dinner in New York, in case there's any New Yorkers out there that want to participate? So we're going to be 1,000 in two days. It's meaning in the whole city.
The next big party in New York will be the first Wednesday of September. Oh, wow.
And in LA, I think also it's going to be the first Wednesday of September. Okay, so all this information is on the website.
Yes. And the app is Time Left.
Time Left. You didn't ask me why Time Left.

Oh, yeah. And you know what? I got so rattled with the earthquake.
I'm trying to get back focused because that was like the last question on my list. Like, how did you pick the name Time Left? Thanks for reminding me.
My brain is fried right now. So Tim Left, the first idea of Time Left was before this concept of dinner with strangers, which was something different.
It was to connect people who have the same dream in common. So it was not you can swipe dreams and every day I'm going to match you with someone who has the same dream.
And so then the concept was Time Left. What do you want to do with the time you get left it's like go after your dreams you know like you know you have only one life all this kind of thing and i'm kind of really obsessed not obsessed but i'm like really aware of like we're gonna die one day and life is super short and and and i think everyone should realize that so that's the name time has come for that.
We give it. Some people think it's depressing.
Actually, I love it. Yeah.
I love that because I have kind of like the same mindset. I'm very immediate with my life because I had a lot of losses.
I lost a lot of people that I loved. And I agree with you.
Life is so short. It's so finite.
And I love the concept because so many times we stay home i know people suffer from depression from loneliness they sit in front of the tv like they they defrost the frozen dinner the microwave literally because they don't have anybody to go out with and it's just so beautiful how much you guys are uniting total strangers that and making a difference in their lives. So yeah, I like how you came up with the name.
We don't have

all beautiful how much you guys are uniting total strangers there and making a difference in their lives. So yeah, I like how you came up with the name.
We don't have all the time left, but we have some time left. No, we have time left.
It plays on people who have depression. I want to comment on that.
And talking to people is an amazing way to go outside of depression. You know, you can take, you know, medication and stuff but talking to strangers it's it's what make people live healthy and longer it's proof now and if you feel lonely or depressed just go and talk and actually talking with strangers is it's sometimes more easy than talking to friends they don't know who you are maybe you're not gonna see them again i have interesting conversationLift dinner where people are like, wow, super open themselves about what's not going well in their life.
And they have some feedback. And it's honest feedback in a sense.
Because, you know, your friends, when you ask something, they're like always saying the same stuff. So if you go to therapy or so, you can just try TimeLift.
It's an amazing way to really... I agree.
One million percent. I'm living proof that it's so much fun.
I've met so many fun, interesting people. Great conversation.
I highly recommend you guys try it out. Every Wednesday is Dinner with Strangers.
Cat on the Loose has audiences in 54 countries and more. So I hope there is one in your country.
And you guys are growing fast and furious. you have plans to expand all right i met a girl here in la she lives all the way in long beach and she's done more than 10 her name is laura and she drives because you guys you should open up by the way long beach orange county because this girl is gonna be opening yeah there you go i told her I said, I'm sure they're going to do it.
But she loves it so much. She literally drives every Wednesday.
So, yeah, you guys should try to find the time left and go for it. Don't be shy.
Don't be embarrassed because you are going to be so glad you did it. And I'm putting the link of the website here on this episode so you try it out.
Max, thank you so much for your time. Thank you so much, Ken.
Next time you come

to the United States

or you make your way

to LA,

please let me know

so we can do another one.

We can have dinner.

It's not a legend.

I go to Time Left dinner

every Wednesday in Cognito.

So maybe on the night,

if I go to Time Left

and you go to the dinner,

maybe I will be at your table.

There you go.

I hope I meet you in person.

Congratulations.

You're doing something

really amazing

and it's an honor to have you. And thanks for winging with me during this crazy earthquake.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Max. Guys, be safe out there.
Time left.

Big shout out to the Burrata House, one of my favorite casual dining places in the heart of West Hollywood. They make authentic, delicious, fresh Italian food, sandwiches, pasta, salads with the delicious, delicious, fresh burrata on top on 161 South Crescent Heights.
So if you're looking for a place that you can have a quick bite for lunch, dinner, takeout for your family.

This is it.

And I love, of course, supporting local businesses.

So if you guys are in the Los Angeles area, West Hollywood, go check out the Burrata House. If you guys want to see pictures, burrathouse.com on Instagram, burrathouse.

I love, love, love their food so much.

Everything is really, really amazing.