Finding the right person in life can be like assembling the silver monkey in Legends of the Hidden Temple, a challenge requiring wits, luck, and passing knowledge of primate anatomy. Skip the confusing steps of pick-up artistry with today's icebreaking Groupon. For $12, you can attend any one of OnSpeedDating.com or SingleAndTheCity.com's events (a $25–$40 value). This deal is not valid for events co-hosted with other singles companies.

OnSpeedDating.com offers speedy dating events to match any time-strapped or highly specific taste. Globetrotters can find the buddy of their dreams at Have Passport, Will Travel. Size Matters pairs tall drinks of men 6 feet and over with equally long babes. SingleAndTheCity's Cougar Hunt lets the cubs pick their predators. Out-of-towners, Jewish gay men, tattoo enthusiasts, dog lovers, blonde lesbians over 5'9” from out of town, and Jewish gay men over 6'1” from out of town with tattoos and a love of dogs and traveling can all find an event geared specifically to them. And if you're just looking for a she-fling, a man-thing, or a chance to revel in your lust for a particular ethnicity or body part (the knees, for example), you can be refreshingly forthright about it at either service's specialized events.

This smoldering, lash-batting deal lets you and your flock of wing-people play the field—as well fields you've never played before—for a fraction of the time, cost, and intimacy it would take in real life. If you're not sure whether Mr. Right Here and Now is a firefighter, a Latin lover, or a plainspoken delivery man with something mysterious in his package, buy two Groupons and sample different events in a fun, no-pressure environment—nothing like that last speed-dating event on a bus rigged to explode if your date's heart dropped below 90 beats per minute.

Reviews

The New York Times interviewed OnSpeedDating.com's founder in an article, and Time Out New York included its Tall Singles Night. In addition, Fine Living's television show Wingman dropped by during an event:

• In the swirl of attention around older women coupling with younger men, it seems the guys are increasingly the ones on the prowl. Over the last year, Amber Soletti, a founder of OnSpeedDating.com, has been playing host monthly to “Cougar/Boy Toy” speed-dating events. And despite research to the contrary, it is the men, she and others say, who are clamoring for more. – Marcelle S. Fischler, New York Times