ThinkMatch Press Kit
The short version - Creating Connection
ThinkMatch is a free social coordination product which uses AI to match and group people at any location. ThinkMatch helps people decide who to approach, highlights common interests and compatible points of view, and suggests conversational ice breakers. In a ThinkMatch world, loneliness would be obsolete.
ThinkMatch is not a dating app. It is designed to alleviate loneliness and isolation, and create new personal and professional opportunities, by connecting people with those around them. The intended outcome is meaningful in-person conversations - not more time spent browsing online.
Available free on the web, iPhone, and Android.
Key Facts - A New Pathway to Better In-Person Conversations
How it Works - Finding Common Ground & Breaking the Ice
1) Select a location, event or activity (or create your own).
2) Answer/Ask questions (which can be customized).
3) Get matched or grouped with one or more people based on compatibility, mutual points of interest, shared goals and points of view.
4) Connect - ThinkMatch creates thoughtful introductions, and alleviates awkward moments by suggesting ice breaker conversation
starters.
Where it works - Anytime & Anyplace
- Public Places & Private Events - ThinkMatch can be used to spark social connection in public places and private events, local activities, clubs, cafes, concerts, restaurants, campuses, conventions, and venue-linked discovery across more than 500,000 locations (mostly in the United States).
- City Pages - ThinkMatch features city pages for finding activity partners for things like hiking, biking, pickleball, and more.
- Current Topics Roundtables and Message Boards - People can discuss current news, bestselling books, and podcast episodes on public message boards, or create and join local Roundtables at nearby cafes to continue the conversation in person.
- Enhancement Layer for Existing Events - Ticketing and event-discovery services, local event listings, conventions and professional gatherings are good at answering “what's happening and how to join?” ThinkMatch addresses the next question: “Who should I meet when I get there?”
Why it Works - the Why & Way Forward
- Meets you where you're at - a favorite cafe, activity, or event.
- Gets to the heart of the matter - mutual interests & common ground.
- Quick Start - Conversational Prompts - Eliminates Awkwardness
- Know Before You Go - In App Text & Video Chat
- Protecting Privacy - Users do NOT have to share personal contact information.
Why ThinkMatch is different
Most social and event products optimize one of two things: finding an event or keeping people engaged with profiles and content. ThinkMatch is designed around the moment between those activities—after someone decides where to go but before they know whom to approach.
An enhancement layer for existing events
ThinkMatch can make an event more social without replacing the event platform
Ticketing and event-discovery services are good at answering “What is happening?” and “How do I register?” Conference agendas answer “Which session should I attend?” ThinkMatch addresses the next question: “Who should I meet when I get there?”
Examples
- Meetups: Add questions and introductions around an existing public Meetup event while directing registration and official details back to the organizer.
- Ticketed concerts, sports, theatre, and entertainment: Build a social experience around a major event so attendees can find others who plan to be there. ThinkMatch does not sell or validate tickets.
- Conferences: Import supported public agendas and schedules—including individual sessions—so attendees can connect around a specific talk, workshop, or panel.
- Campuses and community calendars: Turn an existing public listing into a starting point for introductions without taking ownership of the underlying event.
- Private and independently hosted events: Use the same tools for dinners, parties, reunions, networking gatherings, clubs, and community events created directly in ThinkMatch.
ThinkMatch is an independent enhancement layer. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Meetup or Ticketmaster, and it does not replace an event organizer, registration provider, ticket seller, or official schedule.
Why it is newsworthy
Instead of using AI to replace human interaction or hold attention on a screen, ThinkMatch applies AI to prepare people for face-to-face conversation and then recedes from the experience.
- A concrete response to loneliness: ThinkMatch addresses a specific barrier to participation—the uncertainty and awkwardness of entering a gathering without knowing anyone.
- A local story in every market: City discovery, citywide meeting pages, and local pickleball, tennis, hiking, and biking pages give reporters examples their readers can open and evaluate directly.
- An unusual distribution strategy: More than 500,000 venue-linked pages create infrastructure around places where people already gather instead of requiring communities to begin from an empty social network.
- A founder story spanning generations of information technology: Scott Rothstein’s work runs from early PDF search and clustering, through Adobe and more than 60 million Pdf995 downloads, to machine learning and AI-assisted real-world introductions.
- A product journalists can test: ThinkMatch is available on the web, iPhone, and Android, and its local pages, host tools, questions, matching, chat, and video workflows can be examined directly.
Possible story angles
- Can AI reduce loneliness by moving interactions offline instead of maximizing screen time?
- Using shared interests and conversation prompts to reduce the awkwardness of arriving alone.
- Helping newcomers find local activity partners and community gatherings.
- Helping seniors make new friends in old, familiar places.
- Can conversational prompts, and targeted special interests, help neurodivergent people connect with others in the path of their life?
- Six degrees of separation - What if the person who could change your life is sitting ten feet away?
- Helping guests fit at the misfit table. When the odds are good, but the goods are odd - Can AI help you be the perfect host with best fit seating arrangements?
- Giving hosts a social layer for introductions before and during real-world events.
- Founder Fatigue - Against the Wind - When the going gets tough, the tough keep going.
Reporting resources
Developer Scott Rothstein - Inspired by Awkward Moments
The idea for ThinkMatch started when a family member was hosting a “make a new friend” party. Many of the guests did not know anyone else very well, and they all had to be matched with a friend. Each guest was asked a few questions, and the host spent many hours trying to match and group them. Even still, some guests struggled to find common ground. Scott thought that AI could help.
A few months later, Scott was at a neighborhood Fourth of July party when he met someone who shared his interest in classical guitar. They had both been going to the same party every year for many years without meeting or making the connection. Scott started thinking about all of the missed opportunities for connection.
Everyone was talking about how AI was threatening jobs and replacing people, but what if it could be used to create opportunities and bring people together?
A ThinkMatch World
In a ThinkMatch world, the possibility for connection would exist for everyone—anyplace, anytime. Sitting at your favorite coffee shop or lunch spot? Sign in to ThinkMatch, and you might just find yourself sitting next to someone who shares your point of view or interests. Maybe they work somewhere you once worked, also like cats, dogs, or biking, or simply have a few spare moments to pass the time. Going to a convention or work-related training off-site? Sign in to ThinkMatch and spend the break connecting with someone who has a similar role at your dream company, a game-changing idea, or valuable connections. Going as a “plus one” to a large wedding? There are great people there, and ThinkMatch can help you find them. ThinkMatch has the potential to break down barriers and create connections, but it can only work if people use it. That is why we are asking for your help to get the word out.
About Scott Rothstein
Scott Rothstein is a software entrepreneur, computer scientist, and the founder of Software995 and ThinkMatch. His work has spanned document publishing, information retrieval, search and clustering, multivariate analysis, machine learning, mobile applications, and AI-assisted products.
Rothstein founded Squashware Technologies in New York in 1993, developing PDF summarization and categorization technology based on information theory and multivariate analysis. After selling Squashware to Adobe Systems in 1997, he joined Adobe’s Advanced Technology Group as a senior computer scientist. There he further developed search and clustering technology, integrated it into Acrobat Capture, and worked with major early search services—including AltaVista, Excite, Inktomi, Google, and AOL—to make tens of millions of PDF pages searchable on the web.
In 2002, Rothstein founded Software995 in Palo Alto. He developed Pdf995 and has continued to develop and support the company’s document, search, mobile, machine-learning, and AI products. His later work includes It’s The Weather, Breathe Easy AQI Forecaster, SearchWithin, and ThinkMatch.
Rothstein earned a B.A. in Chemistry from Dartmouth College in 1984, where he participated in varsity crew. His technical work includes PyTorch, C++, C#, Java, Python, and multivariate analysis.
About Software995
Scott Rothstein founded Software995 in Palo Alto in 2002. The company is best known for the Pdf995 Suite—Pdf995, PdfEdit995, and Signature995—and the broader Software995 Toolset.
Pdf995 has been downloaded more than 60 million times. Software995 has supported large enterprise deployments, including installations serving 160,000 Ford users and 180,000 Shell users.
The company’s products span PDF creation and publishing, document conversion, security, search, backup, FTP, imaging, mobile forecasting, machine learning, and AI. Its products include SearchWithin, which introduced OpenAI-assisted querying of PDF collections in 2023; the Breathe Easy air-quality forecasting app; It’s The Weather; and ThinkMatch.
ThinkMatch extends Software995’s history of information analysis into real-world social connection, using event-specific answers to help people find relevant introductions, groups, and conversation starters.
Software995 product portfolio
Pdf995 features and usage
Pdf995 release archive
Copy-ready descriptions
ThinkMatch
ThinkMatch is a free social coordination platform from Software995 that uses event-specific questions to support more thoughtful introductions, compatible groups, conversation starters, private chat, and optional video before people meet in person. Available on the web, iPhone, and Android, ThinkMatch supports public and private events, local activities, campuses, conventions, community gatherings, and venue-linked discovery across more than 500,000 locations, mostly in the United States.
Software995
Founded by Scott Rothstein in Palo Alto in 2002, Software995 is the developer of the Pdf995 Suite and Software995 Toolset. Pdf995 has been downloaded more than 60 million times, and the company has supported enterprise deployments with hundreds of thousands of users. Software995 applies its experience in document publishing, information retrieval, machine learning, and AI to products including SearchWithin and ThinkMatch.
Scott Rothstein short biography
Scott Rothstein is a software entrepreneur and computer scientist whose work spans document publishing, search, clustering, multivariate analysis, machine learning, and AI. He founded Squashware Technologies, sold it to Adobe Systems in 1997, and subsequently worked as a senior computer scientist in Adobe’s Advanced Technology Group. Rothstein founded Software995 in Palo Alto in 2002 and later created ThinkMatch, an AI-assisted platform designed to make real-world introductions easier.
Official media assets
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