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With so many people using dating apps these days, I think dating safety tips are more important than ever. I've heard some scary stories from friends about bad experiences, and I want to make sure people are protecting themselves.

Some basic dating safety tips I always follow include meeting in public places for first dates, telling a friend where I'm going and who I'm meeting, and doing a quick video call before meeting in person to make sure the person is who they say they are.

What are your essential dating safety tips? I'm especially interested in advice for staying safe while still being open to genuine connections.

One essential dating safety tip is to always meet in a public place for first dates, and preferably during daylight hours for the first meeting. Coffee shops, restaurants, parks - places where there are other people around. Avoid going to someone's home or having them come to yours until you've established trust.

Also, have your own transportation to and from the date. Don't rely on your date for a ride, as that puts you in a vulnerable position if you need to leave quickly. These might seem like basic dating safety tips, but they're so important for protecting yourself.

A dating safety tip that's really helped me is doing a video call before meeting in person. This serves a few purposes: you can verify the person looks like their photos, you get a sense of their personality and communication style, and it adds an extra layer of safety before meeting face-to-face.

If someone refuses a video call or makes excuses, that's often a red flag. Most genuine people are willing to do a quick video chat before meeting. It's become one of my standard dating safety tips, especially for online dating.

One dating safety tip I always share with friends is to tell someone where you're going and who you're meeting. Share the person's name, photo, and contact information if you have it, as well as the location and time of your date. Some people even have a check-in system where they text a friend at a specific time during the date.

Also, trust your instincts. If something feels off, even if you can't pinpoint why, it's okay to end the date early. You don't owe anyone your time or attention if you're feeling uncomfortable. These dating safety tips might seem overly cautious, but it's better to be safe.

For online dating specifically, some important dating safety tips include being cautious about how much personal information you share early on. Don't give out your home address, workplace, or other sensitive details until you've established trust.

Also, be wary of people who try to move the conversation off the dating app too quickly, especially to platforms that are harder to trace or monitor. While it's normal to eventually exchange numbers or move to another messaging platform, if someone is pushing for it immediately, that can be a red flag.

As someone getting back into dating, I've been really mindful about dating safety tips. One that's helped me is keeping first dates relatively short and simple. Coffee or drinks rather than dinner, so if I'm not feeling it, I have a natural ending point.

Also, I pay attention to how people respond to boundaries. If I say I need to leave by a certain time or don't want to share certain information, and they respect that, that's a good sign. If they push or try to guilt me, that's a red flag. Respect for boundaries is one of those dating safety tips that also tells you a lot about someone's character.

One dating safety tip that's often overlooked is about alcohol consumption on dates. It's wise to limit how much you drink, especially on first dates when you're still getting to know someone. Alcohol can impair your judgment and make you more vulnerable.

If you do drink, make sure you're watching your own drink and not leaving it unattended. These might seem like extreme dating safety tips, but unfortunately, they're necessary in today's world. The goal is to be able to enjoy dating while still protecting yourself.

I’m trying to size the total addressable market for a niche B2B software tool and my initial bottom-up analysis seems way off from the top-down industry reports I’m seeing. I’m not sure which methodology to trust more when the numbers diverge this much.

Bottom up tended to overcount when I included every potential seat and assumed everyone would buy at current pricing. The top down numbers sounded impressive but ignored the quirks of a tiny niche. So we tried a hybrid: use top down to set outer bounds, then carve out a serviceable segment with persona filters, and validate with a quick pilot to see if the addressable share actually exists.

I mapped by industry and found the niche only has a handful of buyers; one or two accounts can swing the math, which makes the bottom-up feel fragile.

Is the real issue the way we define addressable, not the market size itself?

We ran a tiny pilot with 5 customers; 2 signed, and the average deal size came in well below the bottom-up estimate, so we paused a couple of features and re-scoped the offer.

I keep wondering if the problem is our targeting or simply awareness; if half the market never hears about us, TAM isn't telling the full story.

Top-down feels optimistic; bottom-up feels stubbornly grounded; neither matched, so we built a forecast with a range and a couple of stress tests to see what would break.

I drifted into talking about pipeline health and sales velocity, then snapped back to TAM because it still feels like the backdrop for every decision.

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