MINYANVILLE - Feb 7 - When Mate1.com started up in 2003, social platforms were mostly chat rooms. Liz Wasserman, founder and CEO of Mate1.com, saw potential in this raw, new form of communication. Mate1.com now boasts ~40M subscribers (mainly in the US), and continues to grow and mature.
Q: Tell us about your business and what you do.
A: Liz Wasserman: Mate1.com is an online dating site. We’ve been around for 8 years. My brother Charles and I are the co-owners. I’m currently working on our new product, a brand new dating site with a different target audience that will be launching sometime this year.
Q: How has the company changed during the course of its lifespan?
LW: We’ve grown from eight people to over 40 now. We’ve had to provide a constantly adaptable service, making sure the user is kept engaged and nudged along with messaging and lots of feedback. Users now have the expectation that they’ll have the service in real time and will be able to use mobile technology, including location-based technology, and native apps.
Q: What's next?
LW: We’re launching iOS and Android apps this quarter.
Q: Where do you get your best ideas?
LW: A lot of them come in conversations with other business owners.
Q: What virtues do you admire in a business leader?
LW: Adaptability, persuasiveness, doggedness—setting your sights on a goal, going at it and not giving up.
Q: Do you put business first or life first?
LW: I would like to think that I put my life first, although that’s not always the case.
Q: What's your chief characteristic as a leader?
LW: I am analytical and skeptical.
Q: Your idea of small business CEO happiness?
LW: Apart from success, which is the raison d’etre of the CEO, my happiness is a function of the people in my company.
Q: If you weren’t running your own business, what would you be doing?
LW: I’d be writing and I’d be interviewing people. It was really my first love, journalism.
by Kathleen Culliton
The full article was originally published at Minyanville, but is no longer available.
