Meet Harry Kline. He’s been immersed in startup culture since throughout his career in DC, so he thinks on a different plane. As an example, his contact form doubles as a date request form. He’s currently with Event Farm as a Market Manager.

You can learn more about him and request a date at his website, harrykline.com.

1. Have you gotten any solid date leads from your contact form? What’s the ratio of date request to confused people just trying to contact you normally?

Yes, infrequently.

It’s pretty obvious what’s going on here….

2. Jokes aside about the contact form, what does it reveal about how you approach connection?

We are at the beginning of this digital relationship world, people are still figuring out new platforms, more specifically how to begin relationships on them. This is a play on how all digital connections mean very little relative to the connection you have in real life. Nothing can or will replace that. However, if a girl can see through this and laugh about it, then she’s probably mad chill.

3. Not to talk about work, but – What secrets can you reveal about HOVER? Maybe the coolest way you’ve seen it used so far?

Work? This is barely work, what we’re doing at Event Farm is fun. I couldn’t be more excited about the potential of HOVER. What the tech world is trying to figure out right now is how to seamlessly mesh the physical world with the digital, which is what HOVER aims to do with using Near Field Communication (NFC) in events. We create engaging experiences for guests to interact with the world (at an event) and trigger a digital action like an emailed playlist, digital gift bag, drink order, survey, trivia, etc.

After two dozen events using HOVER, we learned a lot about how guests interact and engage at events and have seen early signs of success at how this can be a scalable product. My favorite use so far probably has to be most recently our AudioBar. Ryan (our CEO) spent months collaborating with musical artists coming up with mashups of songs with voiceovers that struck some emotional chords. At the same time he worked with mixologists to come up with cocktails that evoke similar emotions to those mashups. The outcome is when a guest would HOVER their badge over the NFC enabled tablet, they would preview and choose a song that hit their mood, and the mixologist would make that cocktail. Taste and sound (plus a cool light bar) to take the guest on an emotional rollercoaster that has never existed, as far as i know. While all of this is happening, Event Farm has initially collected unique user data via registration (political affiliation, favorite social media, etc) and now pairs that with what that person ordered via HOVER. The outcome is that we can come up with some pretty interesting data sets that have never existed before.

4. What personal projects or learning have engulfed your time recently?

I’ve worked on a lot of projects over the past few years. I have a couple business partners and we come up with these crazy app ideas, most of them have kinda failed, but it’s fun to try, and more fun to learn. I have a few projects going on right now that are still in early stages, one is called “spacepop” – a way to connect popups with unused space like restaurants that are shut down during the day. Other than tech, I’m really involved in my high school alumni support, I’ve modeled for art classes, acted in PSA’s, and flew to Thailand to be an extra in a feature film that’s coming out this fall. I’m really pushing to be a zombie in a feature film, that’s one of my dreams.

5. What is it about the District that allows for startup culture to enmesh with the more traditional political atmosphere of this place?

There are a lot of really smart people in DC, but more importantly smart people with purpose. Working to make something better, you always hear about different causes that aren’t high profile like apps – both for profit a NFP. At the same time, there are also a lot of “khaki’s”. This is my term for people who are just kinda going through the motions who typically wear khaki’s and polo shirts. I’m trying to change this culture. I get a lot of slack for my website from my khaki friends, they think I’m ruining my political career. I’m not too worried about that, they don’t get it, yet.