Bill Ackman, Pershing Square Capital Management CEO and Portfolio Manager, at the 20th Annual Sohn Investment Conference in New York City on May 4, 2015 — (Photo by: Adam Jeffery/CNBC/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)
NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
If you’re looking for love, billionaire Bill Ackman has some advice—simply ask a prospective partner, “May I meet you?”
Ackman, the billionaire CEO of Pershing Square Holdings, wrote on X (Twitter) that many young men “find it difficult to meet young women in a public setting.”
In his lengthy post, Ackman observed that the digital demands of the modern world makes it more difficult to meet strangers, and passed on his trusty old pick-up line, “May I meet you?” to the youth of today.
According to Ackman, his phrase almost never got a no, clarifying that the “combination of proper grammar and politeness was the key to its effectiveness.”
Ackman added that the line “should also work for women seeking men as well as same sex interactions.”
Ackman’s post came across as amusingly out of touch and endearingly earnest—naturally, the internet loved it.
‘May I Meet You?’ Becomes A Meme
Most viewed the phrase as weird and cringy, stilted at best, the opposite of good dating advice.
Soon, commentators began pairing the phrase with images of awkward social interactions.
Inevitably, the meme was spliced with the infamous J.D. Vance edits, adding a new layer of unsettling imagery to the trend.
After X experienced a cloudflare outage, some influencers even went outside, touching grass to spread Ackman’s message.
Others pointed out that Ackman’s billionaire status made his choice of one-liners irrelevant—with such a formidable bank balance, any phrase could make a great pick-up line.
When one commenter wrote that he had (rather boldly) tried Ackman’s line on a girl at a coffee shop and “she said no,” Ackman was undaunted, writing, “Try again.”
“You need not fear being rejected,” Ackman advised. “Wrong girl for you. Her loss, your gain.”
Bill Ackman Doubles Down On Dating Advice
As the internet reacted to the phrase with gleeful mockery, Ackman elaborated, adding that his pick-up line was most effective “when you are moving,” helpfully outlining multiple modes of transport where the line would work its magic.
Ackman added that he had received word from a “Stanford undergrad” that the line had “worked wonders,” resulting in a date, and reposted examples where the line had seemingly worked for other singletons.
Ackman doubling down on his advice, despite the flood of mockery, only served to strengthen the joke.
Now that the old-fashioned phrase has transcended into a meme, young men and women are likely to use Ackman’s pick-up line as a joke, an ironic ice-breaker, and make a prospective partner laugh.
Against all odds, Ackman might well be responsible for more than a few success stories, in which “May I meet you?” is met with a resounding “yes.”
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Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/danidiplacido/2025/11/18/may-i-meet-you-the-pick-up-line-meme-explained/
