DINKlife is about freedom and possibility. It’s about being different. It is the lifestyle of today’s modern DINK couple.

News:

May 17, 2011 DINKlife Launches as Premier Online Destination for a Growing Yet Underserved Demographic 

October 18, 2011 DINKlife Launches Meet-outs: A Revolutionary Platform for the Booming DINK Population to Meet Other Couples Like Them

the DINKlife story 

So there we were, reflecting on our life as a couple.  Most of our friends had married and procreated - seemingly conceiving on the wedding night - and migrated deep into the “best school districts”, rarely to be seen again. Others were still single, bouncing from meat market club to bar, still playing the game. 

Lingering in singlehood, or blasting into parentdom, many of our friends were in a vastly different life stage than us.  No doubt they represent the American majority; however, that path is not for all of us. 

Every year more of us are choosing to slow things down – having kids later or not having them at all – soaking up life as a couple with the time, energy, and resources to focus on career, setting the foundation for the future, and simply experiencing the freedom of life without the commitment of kids.

We looked around and asked ourselves the obvious question… couples like us continue to grow in scale, but are we growing in influence?  While the public and private sectors are enjoying our rising revenues, the proliferation of products & services, literature, and life resources were built on the backs of the American gorillas: families, singles, children, and seniors.   

It was clear that we, living the Dual Income No Kids lifestyle, deserved more; more ways to meet each other, discover stuff we want to do, and share opportunities and information within our community.  We needed a home, a destination and a resource to make the most of our unique lifestyle.

Now is the time we stand up and be counted…

Like millennial hippies, we moved West to San Francisco, joining with DINKs and FODs (Friends of…) that believed in the cause to establish home base for this revolution, to build the platform for this uprising… and DINKlife was born.

DINKlife unites the DINK community (Link) to make the most of today with the info we need (Think), the events and activities we care about (more to come), and the opportunities that make us thrive (Sync)

What’s next…

DINKlife is your baby, raise it in your likeness  Talk to the DINKlife team (Feedback), talk to all DINKs (Forum), share what makes you special to help the rest of us (Stories). 

As for us… will we have kids?  Who knows?  Today, we make the most of now, investing in ourselves, each other, and the community around us.

We can do this… because we’re DINKs.

- Katelyn and Cory

the DINKlife team

the Founders

Katelyn Watson, founder/cmo

 Katelyn is an almost ten year online marketing veteran, having worked with marketers big and small, on the brand and agency side. In 2002 she realized how easy it was to measure email campaigns for Network Associates and with a curious sparkle in her eye she never looked back. Katelyn has worked with brands like SunTrust Bank, Best Buy and Brinker Restaurants on the agency side as well as La Quinta Hotels and Shutterfly on the brand site. Her first words were ad network and CPA, and she has carried them through for life while helping brands understand how to spend their online marketing dollars more effectively, and also helping brands weed through the ever changing online media landscape. Katelyn enjoys road tripping all over Northern California with her fiance Cory, visiting her family back in Texas and continuing to soak up all the world has to offer while spreading positivity. Katelyn grew up in Dallas and soon after college; all of her friends were disappearing one by one, to refocus priorities on kids. While she was very happy for her friends, she was left with none and needed to find a way to make new friends with her priorities and similar interests, so for now, DINKlife is her baby.

Cory Jones, founder/ceo

 Born and raised in the Dallas area, Cory gained his competitive edge as a powerlifter at the University of North Texas, shortly thereafter achieving his greatest claim to fame thus far - achieving the title of Texas Strongest Man (the plastic trophy doesn’t have his name on it, but we believe him). Cory cut his professional teeth as a citizen of the free standing country that is Accenture; learning to travel and spend per diems, and a work hard/work hard mentality that has stuck with him ever since.  Going on to work in a dizzying array of industries, and diving into everything from marketing to retail management to productivity consulting (he insists he’s sorry for that big layoff in 2003), Cory claims during the span of his career to have single-handedly sold at least 1 phone line, 2 hotel rooms, 97 strawberry and banana smoothies, and 19 full palettes of treated 4X6 redwood. Having defeated all TX stereotypes - he rarely wore boots, wasn’t a fan of Keith Urban and owned a pickup for only a short time (and it was a compact) – Cory felt he’d done his part and departed The Republic with his fiance, Katelyn, moving to downtown San Francisco in 2009 to start DINKlife. When not reliving the enormity of his accomplishments with the rest of us, you can find Cory fretting over the header size of a DINKlife email, enjoying a Chicago pizza over an 80’s action flic, or planning how he’s going to fit in his two-seater Nissan after this next pizza.

Sam Robertstad, founder/coo

 Apropos to the DINKlife mantra, Sam was born to make the most of life. Whether hunting with blowguns alongside the native Huaorani in the Amazon rainforest, driving mobile messaging strategy for MetroPCS, spelunking in the Appalachian mountains, implementing innovative organizational improvements at Microsoft and Bank of America, attending language school in Cuernavaca, developing category brand strategies for Dr. Pepper, hiking peaks and rafting rivers in Colorado, or simply enjoying a soccer match, baseball game, or opera, Sam embraces all of life’s adventures. Sam is a professionally certified/licensed FOD (friend of dinks), track coach, barista, educator, business professional, husband and father. He received his MA from The University of Dallas and his MBA from Southern Methodist University, and enjoys playing outdoors, drinking wine and dining with friends and family.

Xavier Vanvlasselaer, Development Mastermind

Xavier is a development whiz, and has worked on variety of high profile projects such as Punchcut.com, Ingres.com, Sun Microsystems Internal portals, computerworld, bitTorrent.com, Interaction Associates, zapTXT.com, williams-sonoma, potterybarn and Velti.com. When Xavier is not in the development zone he is running trails, spending time with his family, swimming, and speaking Dutch.

Steve Durman, Creative Lead Extraordinaire

Steve is the creative force behind Four Man Furnace - a Dallas based interactive marketing and design agency founded in early 2008. After two years serving as the lead designer in the marketing department of Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City, in 2000 he transitioned agency-side with an opportunity on a growing team at the Dallas office of Rapp Collins Worldwide. The majority of his time spent at Rapp was leading teams of creatives to execute interactive marketing initiatives on brands such as Sony Playstation, DirecTV, Toyota, Romano’s Macaroni Grill, Best Buy and Hyatt Hotels. Currently he enjoys working with many regular clients - like La Quinta Inns & Suites, Match.com, Collective Media and, most recently, Ask.com.

Scott Barnard, Information Architecture Legend

Scott is the founder of The Usability Review. After earning 2 degrees from MIT, he transplanted to the San Francisco Bay Area where he had a front row seat to the dot com boom and bust and the subsequent growth in importance of web, mobile and desktop application designs to the everyday activities of businesses and consumers alike. Scott's work includes the Webby award-winning HP Creative Studio and the Addy award-winning Iron Man site for LG. Scott has worked with top web companies as well as Fortune 100 companies including: HP, LG, PayPal, Stryker, AIG, Bank of America, Capital One, Emirates Airlines, Orbitz, AOL, AAA, TruGreen and numerous others.

Melissa Antonelli, Editorial

Melissa Antonelli is a freelance journalist, blogger and copywriter with a master’s degree in journalism from NYU. She lives with her partner Dan in San Francisco, CA and Lake Tahoe, and travels any chance she gets. She can be reached at melissa@westcoastwebcopy.com

Laura Shipp, Editorial

Laura is a writer, the editor of a national healthcare magazine, and a DINK. She lives with her husband in Nashville, TN, where she trains for half marathons and drinks too much coffee. Laura is a college sports fan, a lifelong bookworm, and allergic to cats. She blogs at laurajeanette.wordpress.com.

Brianne Carlon, Editorial

Brianne is the owner of Brianne Carlon Media, with clients including Inside Business, American Cheerleader, Dance Magazine and MetroPop magazines. She lives in Cleveland, OH, with her boyfriend, Rob, and terrier, Andi. She is the former managing editor of Dance Spirit Magazine.

J.S. Gilbert, Editorial

J.S. is a card carrying, practicing DINK. He’s been writing since he was 5 and had his first article published at the age of 12.  He is pleased to be writing for DINKlife and encourages readers to contact him with their feedback, requests for stories, etc. He works within the advertising and video gaming industries, producing audio and video and is a frequent contributor to numerous magazines and websites that cover audio and video production, equipment and trends. Curious individuals may visit www.jsgilbert.com to find out more.

Peter Crosby, Editorial

Peter has been writing for over 20 years. Sadly, most of what he’s been writing is ads. And he’s sorry about that. Truly sorry. Although, in his defense, they aren’t the horrible, insulting kind of ads that make you want to claw your eyeballs out. Some of them even occasionally win awards. Peter also travels extensively, takes artsy photographs, draws cartoons and plays the trumpet (badly) qualifying him as either a Renaissance man or an ADHD case. You can read more about his unfocused and rudderless life at The Crosby Report.

JJ Kunkle, Editorial

J.J. Kunkle is a freelance writer and owner of The Fit Life, LLC--a wellness company. She and her husband reside in Ohio, and enjoy escaping for an adventure whenever possible. A committed DINK, she enjoys getting out for a run, bike, climb, hike, etc. whenever the mood strikes.

Benjamin Zadik, Editorial

Benjamin Zadik works as a San Francisco copywriter and translator under the guise of his company, Babble-on. He studies and speaks so many languages that he mistakenly believes even animals and inanimate objects can understand him.