That '36 Questions' Love Quiz Worked for the Bang With Friends CEO

…So maybe it can work for you. Colin Hodge is the CEO of Down, an app formerly known as Bang With Friends. He wrote a post for Medium about meeting a wonderful woman thanks to the popular “36 Questions” experiment.

Some people just want to fall in love in the most efficient way possible, which was the crux of this engrossing Modern Love column that turned viral. The point is that any two people can fall madly by answering 36 questions that essentially accelerate the intimacy between them. This particular love story begins with Hodge meeting Hanna on a flight to San Francisco. He writes:

I was stuck in the middle seat and running on a tweaked-out sleep schedule. She was conked out hard, so I had hours to ponder about the face behind her mysterious sleeping mask, which I assumed (hoped) doubled as a 50 Shades of Grey foreplay prop. When she stirred awake with about two hours left in the flight, I was pleasantly surprised by the woman behind the mask.

Hodge says they got to talking, but in the back of his mind he’s wondering what she’ll think when he reveals that he co-founded a casual sex/hook-up app called Bang With Friends. He writes:

I could fill a hooker’s black book with the myriad of reactions I’ve had from that revelation, but that’s for another post (coming soon). It turned out, Hanna had a very mature, sex-positive point of view and totally dug my work.

What a relief. Though they didn’t exchange numbers, Hanna later found him on Facebook and they started messaging. “And then [we] went our separate ways, diving back into busy-body SF world,” writes Hodge. Fast forward to the first date:

Our first date was steamy. Like a piping hot shower scene with Mila Kunis kind of steamy. We both felt extremely comfortable around each other and shared way more than usual for the typical first date. As the night wound down, she asked me to share my take on this ’36 questions’ article knocking about. After both expressing some curiosity, we tipsily agreed to try the exercise ourselves on our next date.

As Tracy explained in her post, the key to this whole experiment is that both parties have to be open. The rest of Hodge’s personal essay goes into detail about his dates with Hanna and how each round of questions drew them closer.

Then came the four-minute gazing phase:

I could tell the exercise made Hanna uneasy and made it hard for her to concentrate. If you do this on your own, I recommend getting the initial minute or two of giggles, jokes, and funny faces out of the way, then starting your timer. Unlike the original article, I didn’t feel like I was gazing into Hanna’s soul (whatever the hell that means), but we definitely grew more and more anxious to end the exercise and get started on exercise of a different type…

Good news:

After completing the 36 question quiz and the staring contest, I’m happy to announce that I’m getting married!

However, that’s a little misleading. Hodge clarifies:

… Just not quite yet. Most people tell me that they expect me to be a bachelor late into life, living the oft-assumed crazy lifestyle of the CEO of Down. The truth is that I’ve always wanted to get married, but I approach marriage with an abundance of caution.

…Yet, I’m looking forward to forming a lifelong bond with an extraordinary partner: taking care of each other, growing with each other, and devoting our lives to becoming the best versions of ourselves, together. I am getting married — someday. For now, I’m not sure where Hanna and I will take our nascent and undefined relationship. But, I’m already grateful that we shared so openly and deeply, with some help from this silly guide to falling in love.