Richard La Ruina

Richard La Ruina is a British pickup artist and dating coach, based in London. He is the founder of PUA Training (Pick-up Artist Training), which he started in 2007 and which grew into a group of websites plus weekend seminars and boot camps in several countries.

Background

In his own telling he was shy and inexperienced, with only a couple of kisses by the age of 25, and was still living at home when he decided to change his social life. After reading Neil Strauss’s The Game he began applying and then teaching his own approach. He described how he built the business in a Mixergy interview with founder Andrew Warner.

Approach

PUA Training teaches approaching and conversation skills, attraction and confidence, and offers workshops, bootcamps and online courses. La Ruina has said he has personally coached thousands of men. He presents his method as learned skill rather than trickery.

Book and media

The Natural: How to Effortlessly Attract the Women You Want was published by Ebury in February 2013. Its cover quotes call him the UK’s no.1 superstar chat-up artist (The Times) and Britain’s answer to Neil Strauss (Time Out). Profiles list appearances on BBC and ITV and in Men’s Health, the Evening Standard and Cosmopolitan. His publisher’s copy and press quotes are promotional, and the size of his client base is his own figure.