u/___-____-___

Hey everyone,

I run a small company that organizes invite-only, in-person social events for singles serious about marriage. Think curated dinner events at public venues - not an app, not a dating platform, not a subscription service. Our goal is to get people OFF their phones and meet IRL instead.

How we actually work:

• Members find us online and fill out a short signup form + pictures (that only we can see)
• They signup by verifying their CAD phone number
• We manually review each signup and curate guest lists for each event
• Members get an SMS invite and purchase a single ticket (~$20)
• They show up, meet people in person, done - after the event they can message ppl thru app they met irl
• No swiping, no online matching, no user-to-user messaging before events
• Pay per event, no subscriptions

Our track record:

• 3 successful events so far
• Zero chargebacks, zero disputes
• 150+ members in 2 months, zero paid marketing
• Currently expanding to new cities

The problem: We keep getting flagged as a "dating service" by mainstream processors despite not fully operating like one at all. I understand theres some elements to our business, but not entirely. Stripe closed us. Helcim denied us. We're currently on Square but it feels unstable given our category.

What I'm looking for:

• Stable processor that won't pull the rug unexpectedly
• Native/embedded checkout (not a redirect to external page)
• Supports Canadian businesses
• Reasonable fees
• API access for custom integration

Has anyone navigated this successfully? Any processors that do proper underwriting instead of auto-rejecting based on keywords? Would love to hear from anyone who has dealt with something similar.

Hey everyone,

I run a small company that organizes invite-only, in-person social events for singles serious about marriage. Think curated dinner events at public venues - not an app, not a dating platform, not a subscription service. Our goal is to get people OFF their phones and meet IRL instead.

How we actually work:

• Members find us online and fill out a short signup form + pictures (that only we can see)
• They signup by verifying their CAD phone number
• We manually review each signup and curate guest lists for each event
• Members get an SMS invite and purchase a single ticket (~$20)
• They show up, meet people in person, done - after the event they can message ppl thru app they met irl
• No swiping, no online matching, no user-to-user messaging before events
• Pay per event, no subscriptions

Our track record:

• 3 successful events so far
• Zero chargebacks, zero disputes
• 150+ members in 2 months, zero paid marketing
• Currently expanding to new cities

The problem: We keep getting flagged as a "dating service" by mainstream processors despite not fully operating like one at all. I understand theres some elements to our business, but not entirely. Stripe closed us. Helcim denied us. We're currently on Square but it feels unstable given our category.

What I'm looking for:

• Stable processor that won't pull the rug unexpectedly
• Native/embedded checkout (not a redirect to external page)
• Supports Canadian businesses
• Reasonable fees
• API access for custom integration

Has anyone navigated this successfully? Any processors that do proper underwriting instead of auto-rejecting based on keywords? Would love to hear from anyone who has dealt with something similar.

Hey everyone,

I run a small company that organizes invite-only, in-person social events for singles serious about marriage. Think curated dinner events at public venues - not an app, not a dating platform, not a subscription service.

How we actually work:

• Members find us online and fill out a short signup form + pictures (that only we can see)
• They signup by verifying their CAD phone number
• We manually review each signup and curate guest lists for each event
• Members get an SMS invite and purchase a single ticket (~$20)
• They show up, meet people in person, done - after the event they can message ppl thru app they met irl
• No swiping, no online matching, no user-to-user messaging before events
• Pay per event, no subscriptions

Our track record:

• 3 successful events so far
• Zero chargebacks, zero disputes
• 150+ members in 2 months, zero paid marketing
• Currently expanding to new cities

The problem: We keep getting flagged as a "dating service" by mainstream processors despite not operating like one at all. Stripe closed us. Helcim denied us. We're currently on Square but it feels unstable given our category.

What I'm looking for:

• Stable processor that won't pull the rug unexpectedly
• Native/embedded checkout (not a redirect to external page)
• Supports Canadian businesses
• Reasonable fees
• API access for custom integration

Has anyone navigated this successfully? Any processors that do proper underwriting instead of auto-rejecting based on keywords? Would love to hear from anyone who has dealt with something similar.

Hey everyone,

I run a small company that organizes invite-only, in-person social events for singles serious about marriage. Think curated dinner events at public venues - not an app, not a dating platform, not a subscription service.

How we actually work:

• Members find us online and fill out a short signup form + pictures (that only we can see)
• They signup by verifying their CAD phone number
• We manually review each signup and curate guest lists for each event
• Members get an SMS invite and purchase a single ticket (~$20)
• They show up, meet people in person, done - after the event they can message ppl thru app they met irl
• No swiping, no online matching, no user-to-user messaging before events
• Pay per event, no subscriptions

Our track record:

• 3 successful events so far
• Zero chargebacks, zero disputes
• 150+ members in 2 months, zero paid marketing
• Currently expanding to new cities

The problem: We keep getting flagged as a "dating service" by mainstream processors despite not operating like one at all. Stripe closed us. Helcim denied us. We're currently on Square but it feels unstable given our category.

What I'm looking for:

• Stable processor that won't pull the rug unexpectedly
• Native/embedded checkout (not a redirect to external page)
• Supports Canadian businesses
• Reasonable fees
• API access for custom integration

Has anyone navigated this successfully? Any processors that do proper underwriting instead of auto-rejecting based on keywords? Would love to hear from anyone who has dealt with something similar.

I don’t want to sound overly negative, but I just got back from Egypt after 7 days in Cairo and 3 in Luxor, flying out again through Cairo, and honestly I was shocked by the level of corruption and dysfunction I experienced.

I’m Canadian, born/raised partly in Pakistan, and I look pretty local, so most people assumed I was Egyptian. I also speak a bit of Arabic, which probably helped.

Cairo itself was mostly fine. I expected the hustle and constant attention. Met sooo many nice ppl.

Luxor was what really got to me. It felt like nearly everyone was trying to squeeze extra money out of me somehow, from taxi drivers to servers to people working at historical sites. The level of coordination around scams and bribery at the tombs and tourist attractions was something I’ve never experienced before. It genuinely felt systemic.

Then on my way back to Canada was Cairo airport. Security held me up over nothing, made up excuses, made me go thru weird random paths around airport to get my boarding pass (even tho I had already checked in online...), made me open my entire backpack (only had one) and I was so exhausted at that point that I just stood there, whipped out my wallet and offered them cash in front of all the passengers, and I guess their morality came back and they let me go....

What really bothered me was this: if the people who are supposed to enforce rules and provide security are also participating in the corruption, how is society supposed to function properly?

From the outside, it honestly feels like Egypt is struggling at a deep institutional level.

Is there realistically any path to recovery from that, or has the damage become too entrenched?

or is it because im a tourist, im considered "outsider"/fair game? so trying to scam ppl like me is ok?