WooMe is trying to capitalize on the speed dating craze by bringing the activity online. The idea: find a session that interests you and then meet up to 8 people in 8 minutes. Sessions can be sorted by location, age, and the importance of looks. The description of sessions didn’t really impress me and they are ultimately free form. The about page on WooMe suggests that you can create a session based on your interests, such as “TechCrunch Readers in San Fran”, but it seems like everyone’s sessions are just “want to meet people” or “wanna chat?”. Another issue is that lack of sessions, for instance there were none in my region. Ok, maybe the site isn’t popular yet, but with this model you need people to attract people.

The technology is pretty straight-forward with in-browser video and voice. No software downloads and no “tedious profiles”.

Five days after launch, WooMe had facilitated 55,000 introductions in 2200 sessions, with users from 179 countries.

WooMe’s management team has a lot of experience in bring web applications to market. CEO Stephen Stokols founded JustWhatiWhant.com and sold it in 2000 (appears to be out of business now). Stokols was also involved in redefining the strategy for AltaVista and positioning it for sale. He was also the Director of eCommerce for Qwest, growing online revenue from $10 million to over $220 million in 1 year. George Berkowski, Product Director, was Head of Internet Strategy for BT Retail. Berkowski was behind BTContact.com which attracted 100,000 users in 2 months.

WooMe demoed at TechCrunch40 in September.