OPW INTERVIEW - Aug 19 - The matchmaking and iDating worlds are starting to collide. And thats a good thing. Samantha knows matchmaking, and know she's developed The Dating Lounge. Here's our interview with her. - Mark Brooks
What made you decide to go from the traditional matchmaking business into the tech/app world?
I have been in the professional matchmaking business for 16 years. I spent so much time with my high-end clients listening to what they didn’t like about dating apps that I realized that I was perfectly positioned to create a dating app for upscale people and give them exactly what they wanted.
How do people get into The Dating Lounge?
They must be invited or approved for admission in order to join. They can either be invited to join by a current member or they can request that a current member approve their admission. Additionally, they can fill out a brief questionnaire to be placed on our waitlist.
What kind of members do you have?
The members of The Lounge are high-end, selective, successful influencers who are well-educated, well-traveled, philanthropic and attractive.
What features make it unique?
- It is invitation only and has a professional matchmaker behind it.
- There are more strategic match settings than any other app so they can really zero-in on finding a match
- Members can play matchmaker, they can also ask the matchmaker a question
- Members can ask a friend a reference on a match.
- The algorithm excludes married people and people in a relationship
How do you exclude marrieds?
A person must join through their Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter accounts. Then, part of our algorithm detects if the person is married or in a relationship, so that if they try to go forward using the app, they are blocked.
What do you charge members?
At the moment the app is still in BETA and is free of charge for all members. We expect to change it to a VIP subscription based model once it is out of beta.
How have you seeded initial growth?
I seeded the initial growth privately and now am softly speaking to strategic investors.
