On this Tuesday in February, Celena, 25, flipped through her PowerPoint on the stage of a crowded Parisian bar. In five minutes flat, 15 colorful slides scrolled on a screen. No start-up bosses, business angels or executives in short-sleeved down jackets were in attendance. Instead, she was standing in front of a compact crowd of young people – aged between 20 and 30 – sipping cocktails and eating burgers on low tables.

Celena didn't come to present the business model of a start-up company. She came to talk about a less "corporate" subject: Her friend Gowtha, a 28-year-old café manager who's been single for three years, in the hope that he'll find love. The two friends discovered pitch dating when they stumbled across a video on the TikTok account "Pitch_dating." Originally confined to the business world, this ritual involving selling a product or project in a short space of time was transposed to the dating world: A close friend humorously describes the salient features of his friend's personality.

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