Marianne just totally cockblocked me by mentioning that incident! It was a single isolated incident, mind you. Someone I've been talking to on OKCupid reads HN and found this post, which has now led to a heated argument about whether I'm a human capable of love or a Siri-like chat bot optimized for professional networking.

Just tell him you're really a chat bot that has become Sentient. Still wouldn't be the weirdest person on OK Cupid.

"That's some great and unconventional hustling"

I'm not sure about that, it seems very regressive to me, playing into the stereotype that the way for a woman to succeed is by attaching herself to a successful man. I would say it's one step away from flirting with your boss to get a raise.

I'm not sure if Tal had underlying motives behind her OKCupid use, but I don't see any problems with someone (regardless of sex) going on a date, and going, "Hey, you work at [company]? Do you know [person]? Mind if you introduce me to him/her?"

Especially if the person's also in the startup scene. The ecosystem thrives on people helping each other out.

I fully agree with you that that's perfectly acceptable behaviour (if you didn't know in advance that they knew [person], or else it gets a little unethical...)

But from the phrasing of the OP ("great hustling"), I took it to mean that she was actively "hustling" OKCupid by using her dating profile (i.e. people's desire to sleep with her) to get business contacts (i.e. money).