'Invisible Girlfriend' Startup Provides Fake Love For A Price

If you're having trouble in the dating game and dread those judgmental looks from friends and family, you can now fake it for a monthly price.

$4, a new company recently born out of Startup Weekend St. Louis, has emerged as the solution for those without a significant other - providing potential subscribers with options such as text messaging, "emergency interaction," gifts, and a relationship status change on Facebook.

"Our audience might come from a variety of situations: maybe they're in a same-sex relationship they're hiding from disapproving relatives, are trying to avoid the unwelcome advances from a coworker, or have chosen to focus on their work instead of romance," creator Matt Homann $4 use such a service.

$4, which is still pre-launch, offers three monthly subscription options: "Just Talking," which offers text messages, automated calls, and gifts for $9.99, "Getting Serious," with the previous options plus Facebook relationship change, and real voicemails and gifts for $29.99, and finally: "Almost Engaged," which offers 'custom girlfriend characterization' and live phone calls at $49.99.

"We're not trying to build a girlfriend they can believe in - that's a whole other level of technology," Homann $4. "We're giving them a better story to tell, even if the story isn't true."

Invisible Girlfriend was pitched for the first time at Startup Weekend more as a joke, but a 10-person team of developers and business experts teamed up to create a rough product in $4

They took home first place in the competition - along with $3000, $4 There are also future plans to create an $4

"It went from, 'Let's have some fun. Let's make everyone laugh,' to, 'We have the making and talent to build something that works,'" Homann told Riverfront Times.

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