Navigating the dating world as a sober person is a difficult task – but a new dating app is hoping to help ease the awkwardness.

Jessie Urvater had the idea to launch a sober dating app while at lunch with a friend, musing over the fact it’s hard to meet individuals who are also sober and wanting to date.

After realizing there was a gap in the market for an app aimed at those wanting to avoid alcohol, she founded Club Pillar – a place for sober or sober-curious daters – which launched earlier in the week.

At over $2,700 a year, the app isn’t cheap but had already proved its popularity before it launched, with a waitlist of 5,000 people from all over America.

‘We don’t have a set amount of people who will be allowed on the application at once. It’s whoever gets accepted and it’s up to the membership committee,’ Urvater told the Dailymail.com.

Jessie Urvater had the idea to launch a sober dating app while at lunch with a friend, musing over the fact it’s hard to meet individuals who are also sober and wanting to date 

After realizing there was a gap in the market for an app aimed at those wanting to avoid alcohol, she founded Club Pillar – a place for sober or sober-curious daters (one of Club Pillar’s events pictured)

‘It’s really hard to find and meet like-minded individuals who are either light drinkers, sober, sober curious, [or] in recovery, outside of the rooms of AA,’ she noted. 

Urvater, who was dating an alcoholic at the time, did some research on her unique position and found it was actually more common than she thought – and there were a lot of people in her position.

‘[I realized] the sober curious movement is growing year over year,’ she pointed out.

Urvater spoke with some of her sober friends, noting a lot of them said they wouldn’t necessarily want to date somebody who was in recovery, but they definitely wanted to date somebody who was a light drinker or sober curious, as opposed to somebody who was drinking in copious amounts or whose life was super centered around alcohol.

‘I said, Okay, what if we took a step further, and really made it a mission where we [rebranded] sobriety as a net positive social game through partnerships with influencers and celebrities,’ she suggested. 

Urvater, who worked with former Bravo star Leah McSweeney to create the app, also decided to add a referral base element where you need three referrals to get on the app and apply. 

Urvater admitted she felt ‘intimidated’ on traditional dating apps as someone who doesn’t drink, and would often get unwanted questions about her sober lifestyle when she put it on her profile.

‘I get asked, why are you sober? Are you an alcoholic? Are you, you know, crazy?’ she shared. 

In a higher subscription tier on the dating app, they also offer events for sober daters to mingle in real life (one of Club Pillar’s events pictured)

‘You can still go to a nice restaurant, grab a mocktail,’ Urvater pointed out. ‘But just any kind of activity really, that’s just not so centered around kind of drinking’ (one of Club Pillar’s events pictured)

‘Or it kind of just becomes the first conversation point, when really, the first conversation point should be about is getting to know the other person and having small talk,’ Urvator pointed out. 

‘It’s the first of its kind of membership based dating app and community plus an events component for all kinds of sober individuals that are looking for fun beyond alcohol,’ the app founder explained.

There are several subscription tiers, with Club Pillar vetting all members asking how much the perspective member drinks and their relationship with alcohol – for example if the person signing up is sober curious, completely sober, recovering alcoholic and so on. 

In a higher subscription tier, they also offer events for sober daters to mingle in real life.

As for date ideas for sober folks, Urvater listed a few of her favorites as coffee, going to the park and dinners sans alcohol.

‘You can still go to a nice restaurant, grab a mocktail,’ she pointed out. ‘But just any kind of activity really, that’s just not so centered around kind of drinking.’

As per the Club Pillar website, the monthly Individual Membership includes a $399 application fee plus $199 for the first month’s membership dues (plus tax). Members will be charged $199 plus tax each month for the following 11 months.