Earlier this year Abbey Hagan inadvertently sparked a local dating revolution. The 28-year-old sales specialist, personally frustrated with the app scene, organized an in-person dating event on the Katy Trail without much more than the help of a couple friends and the viral power of social media.
That first “Datey Trail” event was a smash hit, drawing nearly 800 D-FW singles — and Hagan kept going, organizing and hosting more events. Since that first balmy June evening her events, which now take place all over town, have drawn more than 5,000 attendees, and Hagan has become something of a local media sensation in her own right, with more than 10,000 followers on TikTok.
Hagan — who has rebranded her fledgling enterprise as Datey — recently spoke with The News about the venture and her even bigger ambitions.
(This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)
Datey has obviously been making a big splash. What is it exactly? Is it a company, or an events platform? A side hustle?
Business Briefing
Yeah, so I always say that Datey is a singles community group, and that Datey really facilitates an environment for people to come and meet people. And so we just have been popping up at different bars and restaurants in Dallas now, but I always say it’s a singles community group.
Is it a company?
We’re an LLC now, yes. But I don’t really think of it that way, I guess? I still just think of it as a community group.
So technically a company.
Technically a company, yes.
Obviously, you’ve struck fire — people are really interested. So kudos to you for being the driving force.
Thank you so much. It’s definitely exciting, and it’s something that is far bigger than I really could have ever imagined. But now I’m like, ‘Oh I’m going to be doing this forever.’
You told me a while ago that fun story about how you started the Datey Trail event – you were running on the Katy Trail and were like, ‘Oh why don’t we just do something [related to dating].’ I’m wondering if there was a moment when you decided to turn the Datey Trail into something a little bigger?
It really came after the second Datey Trail event. I had just kind of been thinking that if we are going to be really focused around walking on the trail that limits us so much. And if we open it up — if we don’t just keep it to one specific part of Dallas, then it can go so much further.
And the website’s still something that I’m figuring out, how it kind of plays into everything. But I think that after hearing from so many people about how impressive it was and that I was really onto something, I thought, ‘Ok, I should really take this really seriously.’ And so that’s why I trademarked it. My cousin helped me file the LLC. I opened a business bank account, and I just tried to be as strategic from the beginning as possible. I thought, ‘Ok, before I get behind the eight ball, let’s just cover all of our bases so that I’m not scrambling when it’s bigger than I could have imagined.’
Bailey Turner (left) and Abbey Hagan greet guests and hand out wristbands during a Datey event at Tequila Social on the Katy Trail in Dallas in July.
Juan Figueroa / Staff Photographer
It sounds like you’re handling it pretty well, because your life has really changed, right? Is it all good? Are there negative things too?
I mean, to be honest there was a patch where I was like, ‘I cannot do this. Like I need to quit my job or something,’ because it got to be a lot. And there was probably a month[long] period where I was really struggling, but now I feel like I’ve found a good rhythm with balancing it with my normal nine-to-five and really figuring out ways to take care of myself and be social and date and run Datey and work, and now I feel like I’m in a really good spot. But it was a lot of trial and error.
Do you consider yourself an entrepreneur?
I think now I do. I probably wouldn’t have when we first talked [months ago], but now I definitely do.
Was that something you always had an interest in? For you this is sort of a personal transformation, right? I mean does this feel pretty new?
This definitely feels really new. It’s interesting: I’m on my third, like, corporate job — I’ve always enjoyed my roles, but always felt like I still wasn’t using my best skills. And I always was kind of trying to think of a way to be creative, and be with people, but I didn’t really know what that looked like. And so it’s shocking to me how big it is, and how it’s now like, so all-consuming of my life, but I’m not surprised that I ended up doing this because I just knew there was something more out there. But discovering it for myself, and now just having this big company, essentially, that I run every day, is for sure beyond my wildest dreams. But I feel like, I don’t know, I always knew there was more for me. I just didn’t know what that would look like.
Where do you see it going, or where do you want it to go? Obviously this is not a quick thing, you’re putting a lot of time in.
Yeah, I mean my goal would be to expand to as many cities as possible. I really was wanting to be in Austin and Houston by the end of the year, but I think now with the holidays coming that probably won’t happen. So by spring I would love to be in the major cities in Texas. I think that is really what’s next. But then long term — I think in the next few years it could really be in a lot of major cities. I get DMs all the time saying ‘Come to L.A.,’ ‘Come to Miami,’ ‘Come to New York.’ And so I think it really has potential to go national, but I think for the next year [I’m] really focusing on having Texas be Datey’s home base.
Datey founder Abbey Hagan having her photo taken on the Katy Trail, as Morgan Finch stopped to ask if she was the ‘Datey girl’ in Dallas, November 1, 2025,
Tom Fox
What can you say, or what do you want to say, about the financial side? Obviously it takes a lot of resources to run something like this. Are you profitable?
So at first we were not profitable, and I was quickly finding myself in credit card debt over everything that I was pouring into it. At first I was very hesitant to charge for anything, and just didn’t feel right about that, but then as time went on and so many of the attendees were like, I would pay to be here, you’re putting so much work into this, I really thought about it for a long time and then started slowly charging for tickets. So now we’re profitable with the ticket side, and then oftentimes we also do a revenue share with the venue that hosts us.
You saw our story on the challenges of the dating app industry and app fatigue. Can you talk about how intentionally you’re responding to this bigger moment in dating culture?
Yeah, I think that where Datey’s fitting in is really being a solution to a lot of people’s problem, which is they’ve been on the apps for so long and they just haven’t worked. We started [at the] end of June — we have officially three confirmed relationships, like boyfriend girlfriend, from Datey. And so every time that somebody messages me like, ‘I now have a boyfriend or a girlfriend,’ I make sure to post about it and tell people like, ‘Datey is working, and it can be the solution for you too,’ and so I think that’s really where it’s fitting in. It’s a natural conversation at Datey anyways of, ‘Oh how long have you been on the apps? Or when did you get off?’ and then people are showing up in person and actually paying their hard-earned money to be there because of how over [the apps] they are.
Do you see yourself as almost a challenger or a competitor to Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, whatever? Is that sort of how you’re positioning yourself?
I don’t know if I would necessarily say we’re a competitor — I guess kind of in a way we’re a competitor. But we’re just in a completely different world. I feel like [Datey], it’s really kind of in a league of its own, and really bringing something to the table that’s really special. It’s interesting: Bumble hosted an in-person dating event in Dallas a couple weeks ago, and I had so many people send it to me. So I don’t know if I view them as competition as much as they maybe view me as competition, but I’ll take it.
How did you react when you saw they had an event in Dallas? Like, they’re on your turf.
I definitely thought like, ‘Ok I see you, I know what you’re doing.’ But I just feel so confident in Datey that it’s so different. How I heard about [the Bumble event] was influencers were posting that they went to this event. Whereas my event is real people who found me the real way are putting their hard-earned money into a ticket to be there for something that I created. And I just don’t think you can compete with that when you’re a corporation.
Do you feel — because of what you’ve created, and sort of this local phenomenon — do you feel like Dallas’ new matchmaker?
I kind of do. I do feel that way. It’s interesting because now I get recognized when I’m out, which I love. It’s like my childhood dream is to be recognized by strangers, and so I love when people are like, ‘Are you Abbey?’ And I’m like, ‘Oh my god I am!’ So it’s exciting. But yeah, I love taking on that role of ‘Dallas’ matchmaker’ and that people know me for that. I mean, I’ve always known my biggest skill is people and relationships, and Datey’s now letting me use that every day.
Ok, so then as a prominent matchmaker, what’s your advice to Dallas singles?
[Laughs]. Well, for Dallas singles I would say: ‘Get off your phone and get to Datey.’ One. And then two, when you’re at Datey, make conversations. I get so many people saying they’re so nervous, or ‘I’m shy.’ Every single person that is there is nervous in some way, and you’re there because you want to meet people. So I would just say, ‘Talk to people.’ The worst that can happen is that they say no. And even if you’re not at a Datey event, challenge yourself to say hi to somebody that interests you, because the worst that can happen is that it either doesn’t go anywhere or you get rejected or something, but you tried. I think we’ve lost the art of trying — so just bring back trying and getting rejected and making it be normal. It’s not a big deal.
You’re kind of pushing an old school interaction — meet each other and talk. Get off the apps.
Oh my god for sure. Yeah, get off the apps. It’s interesting, because I was telling my friends the other day — I said, ‘When we were growing up and when you would talk about, ‘Oh how did your parents meet?’ it was always through mutual friends or at a bar or at work. And sometimes that does still happen, but our generation, it’s going to have all these second graders saying, ‘My parents met on Hinge, my parents met on Bumble.’ And there’s nothing wrong with that. If you found success in that, that’s so great. But I think that we’ve been relying too heavily on them, and so there is just that need for in-person dating again.
And here’s the most important question: Abbey, what’s your own situation? Have you met somebody from your events?
It’s so funny — that’s the question I get asked the most, and I love that people are interested. But yes, I have met people. I’ve probably been on four dates through Datey. I have two more next week, which is exciting. None that have stuck, but none that I can say anything bad about. They were wonderful. It just didn’t work out.
So I guess you’re using your own product? Or endorsing your own methods.
Somebody asked me last night — I was catching up with a friend, and she was asking me, ‘Oh have you approached anyone?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I approach people all the time at Datey.’ And she was like, ‘I could never.’ And I was like, ‘Well this is my event! Like if I’m not using it, what am I doing? I created it because of my own need. Like if I’m not trying, then there’s no point!