Category: All Interviews

The Right One/Together Dating, Paul Falzone – CEO Interview

Posted on September 28, 2007

Paul_falzoneOPW INTERVIEW — Sep 28, 2007 — The Matchmakers Conference is happening right now. I interviewed Paul last August 2006. Here's my second interview with Paul Falzone of The Right One/Together Dating. – Mark Brooks

How quickly has The Right One/Together Dating been growing, and how does your growth compare to other matchmaking companies?
Over the last three years, our growth rate has been about 130%. We recently have been named to the Inc. 5000. Regionally, we’re the 31st fastest-growing, privately-owned company in the Boston area, according to the Boston Business Journal.

The industry, as a whole, is growing somewhat. Some internet dating services are shrinking and some are experiencing growth, but I don’t think anybody has had the exponential growth that we’ve been achieving. Quite frankly, our marketing is a key part of that and we’re constantly focused on new marketing ideas. We have a lot of internet marketing campaigns that have been giving us great multiple returns on our investment. I don’t know if a lot of the other matchmaking companies are as savvy or have the resources to be able to play in those fields.

What does The Right One/Together Dating do differently?
We have WIT and that’s the attitude we all need to keep. It’s called Whatever It Takes. All my people have it and it’s important that we do. We give great personal service. We keep our lines of communication open between our matchmakers and our members. It’s so important to hear what your members need and want and we’re constantly refining our membership, as a result of that. We want to make sure that the members are getting a great experience at any of our offices.

In how many cities is The Right One/Together Dating? 
We’re in approximately 60 cities nationwide. There certainly are different markets that have their challenges, but we’ve had great success over the last few years and we’re continuing it. We just did our first and second quarter numbers and they’re tracking very closely to last year. Maintaining the growth and the margins that we’ve had is a goal of ours and achieving that goal is important to us.

How come other internet dating companies haven’t tried to launch matchmaking companies?
They have and they found out it’s not that easy to do. Even Match.com is trying to do it these days and I don’t know how successful it is. I haven’t heard a whole lot from them about their matchmaking company. Maybe it’s just my personal opinion, but if you’re not hearing a lot about it, I don’t know how successful it really is. You would think that if it was really successful for them, they would be beating the drums a lot more. I think it’s a very, very difficult area for people who aren’t used to matchmaking to jump into. It’s a totally different type of business model and once they start getting involved with it they realize, “Wow, this is so much different than just getting costs per clicks and my numbers up.” There’s a lot to making sure these people are very happy and achieving the success that they’re looking for.

What can other internet dating companies do to partner with The Right One/Together Dating?
We are more than willing to partner with dating sites for lead generation and we have partnered with a few companies. It just has to be a win-win situation for both companies. It’s as important that the internet companies are successful partnering with us as we are with them. We’ve recently been doing some things with a company called Loveaccess, which has proven to be very significant and has worked out well for us.

I understand you’ve been doing some lead generation. How has that been working out?
We have. We’ve partnered up with a few other people out there to do lead generation and, quite frankly, it’s done really well. We’re watching which online companies are giving us the best lead generation and will focus more on the better ones and hope to form tighter relationships with them.  We’re looking at bringing some of these companies under our wing and building out a larger, better Right One/Together and eLove.

eLove, by the way, is our hybrid. It contains a physical location component where you go in and spend approximately 90 minutes with a trained matchmaking counselor. We check criminal background records and divorce decrees on everybody. Once everything has been okayed and the individuals decide to join, they are put into the system and given a password. They then go into the site themselves, enter their criteria, and find their match. It’s a hybrid of online and offline services and it’s one of the first of its kind.

What are your goals for The Right One/Together Dating for 2007 through 2008?
Over the next 12-18 months, we’re in an acquisition mode. We’re talking seriously to an online company right now about bringing them under our wing. We’re also looking at expanding our offline exposure and we’ve got another company that we’re serious about partnering up with along those lines, as well.

In the next 6-12 months, I think you’re going to see a couple of mergers coming through that will bring our already-strong numbers up exponentially. I just want to look and take the best of the best that’s out there and build a bigger and better company.

WAYN.com, Peter Ward – CEO Interview

Posted on September 27, 2007

PeterSNW INTERVIEW — Sep 27, 2007 — WAYN is one of my favorite social networks.  I really like the map which shows where I've traveled to in the past, and the mails updating me on new people that are moving/traveling to town. I last interviewed Peter in June 2006. WAYN.com has dropped its paid membership program since then. Here's my latest interview with Pete. – Mark Brooks

How is WAYN unique?
WAYN is unique because it’s a social network that allows you to meet people based on where you are now, where you’ve been, and where you are going. If a Londoner is traveling to San Francisco and would like to see who else from London will be traveling to San Francisco that same weekend, they can log on to the site, run a search, and see which, say, 18-25 year old London females will be there. It allows them to plan their journey in advance..

Trustcash CEO, Greg Moss – Interview

Posted on September 26, 2007

TrustcashOPW INTERVIEW — Sep 25, 2007 — It's no secret that the more options you offer for payment, the higher your conversions. Mastercard, Visa, Discovery, Amex… and Trustcash is another to consider. Tens of millions of potential internet daters don't have credit cards in the U.S.A. Many more don't really want a dating site showing up on their credit cards. So, you really, really should offer some kind of prepaid card cash payment method. Trustcash has internet dating industry experience. Here's my interview with Greg Moss. – Mark Brooks

What is Trustcash’s founding story?
E-commerce has had strong consistent growth year in and year out since inception. With growth like this in any industry come various risks. In this specific case it happens to be increased concerns with privacy and security After recognizing this an opportunity presented itself to create a stored value transaction system that would allow anyone with Internet access – even those without credit cards – to buy anonymously and safely online just as they would at a traditional retailer today with cash.

I can walk into a store today and buy a magazine with cash and no one will ever know I made that purchase. And it’s secure. That’s what we’ve built here at Trustcash.

What does the service do?
Basically, the service allows people to take a $50 bill and insert it into their computer. People can go to one of 60,000 Trustcash designated retail outlets throughout the country, hand the clerk cash and in exchange receive a Trustcash number that is similar to a credit card number, but without their personal data tied to it. It’s a unique 12-digit alphanumeric number worth the dollar amount paid and you can take that number and use it to make online purchases at merchants that accept Trustcash as a form of payment. This includes hard goods, services and subscription based businesses. By using Trustcash for their online transactions people can keep their transactions private and, since there is no personal information tied to their Trustcash number it is secure from hackers and their private life is kept private. This type of transaction has also given a whole new opportunity to people who are unbanked or under banked. Over 50 million people in the U.S. alone don’t possess credit cards or don’t have the credit available to make purchases online. Trustcash gives these consumers the opportunity to get better product availability and pricing via the internet.

Where precisely can people buy Trustcash?
Today, it’s currently available in about 60,000 locations across the U.S.. We expect that by the first quarter of next year, we’ll take the service to an additional 60,000 locations internationally, beginning with Canada and then moving into Europe. Trustcash can also be purchased online using a credit card. This service is for customers who do not wish to give the end merchant their personal data or worry about their personal data being stored in an unknown database online. When buying Trustcash with a credit card, it is a one time purchase and all of your data is purged following the transaction. Beyond these forms of distribution, there are several more relationships in the works with both financial institutions and prepaid companies that will continue to increase our availability around the country.

Who are your signature internet dating clients?
For the last six months, we’ve been working closely with a leading dating company called IWANTU. They have been great to work with and extremely patient while we spent the time understanding who the target customer is and how we can help generate incremental revenue for their program. It is important to understand the space before you roll out in any real magnitude.

We have signed several more leading dating programs which are now in integration and currently have verbal commitments from another six while they review our merchant agreement.

How can you help internet dating companies make more money?
That’s the question and this is where it gets exciting. Social networks and dating sites have essentially become the modern day personals. The internet has opened this world up and plenty of people are coming to the dating sites. And although many will sign up for a free account, there’s a sizable amount that just won’t convert to paying customers. They get to a point where they feel their personal data will be compromised or they won’t be able to keep their private life private (perhaps someone in their life, like a spouse or significant other, will discover what they’re doing through a credit card or checking account statement). We give these people a sense of security. By keeping their private lives private and secure, we’re able to convert more free subscribers for these dating programs. We’re bringing them an entirely new market of customers who previously wouldn’t use their services out of privacy and security fears.

Who are your competitors?
Right now, we’re considered an alternative payment system. As far as competition, it’s tough to say that we have a direct competitor. There are a lot of companies – the PayBy Phone, ACH companies, Dialers, ChargeMeLater, PayPal, Google Buy,  all competing for the alternative biller spot with merchants. But, fortunately, these companies cannot offer complete privacy and most have swayed from certain verticals and markets. This has given us an opportunity to come in and demonstrate our value proposition to both the customer and merchant.

What are your goals for 2007 through 2008 for Trustcash?
I think we’ve discovered a market that has a big need for a service like Trustcash. Dating has proven that there is a large portion of free subscribers that truly need and want what Trustcash has to offer. Our priority right now is to hone in on the dating market and make sure we do a first class job with both the customer and the merchant experiences. In tandem we will continue to build our brand with traditional and non-traditional marketing campaigns. As for 2008 and beyond we will enter into mainstream verticals that make the most sense for the company based on the current demographic of our customer.

Mate1 CEO, Liz Wasserman – Interview

Posted on September 22, 2007

LizOPW INTERVIEW  — Sep 22, 2007 — Mate1 is doing well. It's a casual dating site where women can join free.  X-rated photos aren't allowed, but revealing photos are encouraged. Here's my interview with Liz Wasserman. – Mark Brooks

What is Mate1’s founding story?
It’s a family business. My father and I started it in 2003. The dominant sites then were very clean, corporate sites, like Matchmaker and Match, and sex dating sites, like AdultFriendFinder. We felt there was room for something in between. Something that wasn’t geared towards moral debates or fetishes and one-night stands. Rather, something that allowed users the freedom to express themselves and talk about sex in their profiles. A site that would let members use more slightly-revealing photos of themselves, if they felt like it. A more libertarian approach to the whole thing, but without anything X-rated.

So, we decided to start Mate1 with that in mind. We built it in 2003 and ramped up through 2004 to what we thought was a success.

How is the site different from other Internet dating sites?
It is an Internet dating site and in some ways it’s very similar to other ones of our size. But we do still occupy that middle ground between adult and conservative sites and I think others have even followed us in that regard.

A lot of our members are looking for shorter-term relationships, more casual ones. And people who are looking for that don’t feel intimidated by our site. We don’t ask a lot of deep, probing questions. Our questionnaire focuses much more on sparkly things, like your interest in music and food. The things that get conversations going rather than the things that go deep at the heart of moral and relationship-oriented questions. I think we really appeal to people in the way that social networks do – as a basis for networking with people who have similar interests as you.

How do you allow members to communicate on the site?
Right now, it’s still pretty simple. There’s email and chat. With email, you click on a link and fill out a form to email another user. The chat is more of a one-on-one, instant messenger feature where people chat privately with other users they find interesting (we’ve opted against group chats ). And if someone asks to chat with you, you have the opportunity to say yes or no.

Those are the primary ways that people communicate on the web. There have been some phone experiments, but nothing we made live. We did build a one-on-one, double-blind phone system a while back that we weren’t sure the public was ready for, but it’s something we’re still planning.

I think now is the time for a phone feature, partly because there are older people getting online. Kids, even on their phones, mostly send text messages. People in their 20’s and even 30’s are not big direct phone users in the way that perhaps people in their 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s are. I just heard that the average age of a person on a U.K. dating site is 45, which I thought was pretty amazing. I think that is a generation that is much more comfortable on the phone and more irritated by instant messaging. For some of those people, we could really have a lot of success with phone products that allow people to protect their anonymity. That’s something we’re planning, hopefully, for this year.

How would you define Mate1? Tell me more about your branding choice.
It’s an online dating site that allows users to talk about intimate things, as opposed to adult dating sites that are all about a sexual relationship. Intimate doesn’t mean sexual. We have a lot of very devout Christians on our site who are looking for marriage and a lot of single parents looking to meet other single parents. We have all kinds of people at different stages of their lives who are irritated with or not interested in sites that censor their profiles. People who want to be able to answer questions about sex. We have a multiple choice questionnaire where you can indicate what your sexual preferences are. Nothing too extreme, but basic questions about what you like and don’t like. So we offer people a safe, online way to meet and be intimate and interact in such a way as to decide whether to go to the stage of actually meeting in person.

What is the average age on Mate1?
The last time we did a check, it was 30 but that was quite a while ago. Since then, we’ve actually been targeting primarily older people, so I would say our average age is now higher than that. We have ad campaigns that target people over the age of 25 and others that target people over the age of 40. We’re interested in figuring out where our best demographic is. Social networking has really caught on so strongly with the 20 and 30 something’s that there’s a divide that’s starting in the industry. Maybe that is what’s accounting for the increasing average age or maybe it’s because people in later stages of their lives are starting to take dating more seriously and have more of an interest in meeting people outside of their immediate social circle.

Have you considered entering Europe or Asia?
Yes, and I’m very angry at us for not doing it yet. It’s something that we need to do, particularly Europe. Asia is more of a challenge, culturally and linguistically, for us. It’s going to be a much bigger undertaking. But, if I were to examine our staff here at Mate1, we probably have every major European language covered. We’re planning to tackle Europe and we’ve actually created a strategy for it.

What are your goals for Mate1 for 2007 through 2008?
Internationalization would be one of them. Another is more diversification of the communication mediums on the site. We want to add video chat. We think it is really catching on and is going to be big, if it isn’t already. People who have web cams use them. It’s a great way to verify the identity of the person you’re communicating with.

The other one is phone, which I’ve already talked about. We’re still trying to decide how exactly to do that. We haven’t come to any firm conclusions, but we want to give people the opportunity to communicate anonymously by phone before they exchange numbers.

Aside from that, we’re just going to improve the way we communicate with our members and get them more active on the site. We’re going to work on matchmaking applications and marketing to our members to make sure they understand the features available to them, the kinds of subscriptions plans available. We’re going to focus more on our actual members rather than acquiring new ones, in a sense.

Michael Alvear, Manhunt.net Cruise Director – Interview

Posted on September 15, 2007
Michael Alvear

OPW INTERVIEW — Sep 15, 2007 — Michael Alvear is the ‘cruise director’ for Manhunt and a sexpert. He’s also the co-host of the TV show ‘The Sex Inspectors‘ in which couples reveal their bedroom problems and are then filmed, yes filmed, in their bedroom. The program pushes the envelope for English TV. Here’s my interview with Manhunt sexpert Mr Alvear. – Mark Brooks

How did you become a sex expert, Michael?
Seven or eight years ago, I was writing quirky op-ed columns. The syndicate for sex-advice columnist Dan Savage wouldn’t sell his column to gay newspapers and the editor was really angry about it. So, the editor came to me and asked me if I’d like to write the column. I picked up Savage’s book and thought it was brilliant. I started writing, the column was a hit, and I just kept expanding and syndicating it until it was in about 14 different gay newspapers. Then, it turned into a book called Men Are Pigs but We Love Bacon. That’s basically it.

What do gay guys need the most advice on?
Believe it or not, I get more letters from people who want to have a relationship than from people who have any kind of real sexual problem. That’s been the biggest surprise for me. I get letters from people who don’t understand why they don’t have a relationship or why they’re not dating. You wouldn’t expect it from a site whose slogan is “Get On/Get Off”, but Manhunt can produce some really heartbreaking letters. I think Manhunt has become this all-purpose place whether you’re looking for a quickie or a long-term relationship. If you go to any city on the site and put in “LTR” (long-term relationship), you’ll get hundreds and hundreds of profiles. And if you put in something absolutely sexual, like “hung” or “bottom” or “top”, you’ll get about as many.

From a strictly sex standpoint, the biggest questions are about anal sex. Also, a lot of the “problems” in the bedroom tend to actually exist outside the bedroom. I get a lot of questions about how can I get my boyfriend to do something, how can I get my boyfriend to stop doing something, how can I get a boyfriend period. I’ve written advice columns for both straight women and gay men and I noticed how much more graphic gay men are when phrasing their questions. A lot of their questions are a little X-rated, but at least you get to the heart of the matter very quickly.

What do straight women need the most advice on?
The top two sexual issues for women are lowered libidos and a loss of sensation. With men, the two biggest issues are premature ejaculation, if you’re under 30, and impotence after 40. In terms of the relationship questions, there is almost no difference between men and women. The absolute biggest relationship issue is what I call desire discrepancy. That’s when you’re hot for sex and your partner’s not and the person with the low desire feels harassed and pressured and the person with the high libido feels rejected and abandoned. It creates a real dilemma for couples.

Any other interesting questions?
Some people ask how they can use the site better to attract people. I don’t think it’s that much different than going to a bar. If you have a picture of nothing but your body and your body parts, then you’re making it really hard to interest someone, unless you’re just looking for anonymous sex. Some people want to date someone, but they’re not willing to put up their face picture. Others put up face pictures, but they’re not smiling. Would you go up to somebody in a bar who wasn’t smiling and not looking at you? I think the same rules apply.

What’s the craziest question you’ve ever had?
The most interesting question I’ve gotten was from a guy with two good friends who had never met each other before. One of them was HIV positive and the other was HIV negative. They all went out one night and sparks were flying. It was clear the two friends went home together and the guy felt guilty and wanted to know if he should have told his HIV negative friend that the other one was positive. I’ve gotten HIV questions before, but they’re about how to tell, when to tell, those sorts of things. This was the first time I had gotten a question from a guy in the middle, and so I thought that was very interesting. It was all about divided loyalties.

Alright, as for the craziest one. This white guy goes home with a black guy. The black guy gives him a condom and the white guy freaked out when he put it on because the condom was black. He thought the guy had put ink on his dick or something. So, he freaks out and rips it off and the black guy gets all insulted and thinks he brought home a racist. But, the white guy just didn’t know that condoms come in darker colors.

I think every online dating site should have a sex-advice column because when you’re dealing with romance and dating, you’re dealing with sex. And there is so much ignorance out there. There is so much fear, alienation, and isolation. People will ask me medical questions because they’re not “out” to their doctors yet. One guy wanted to know if his hemorrhoids where from God punishing him for having anal sex.

In the beginning, Manhunt was divided about content. Would people really read the content? But, it’s been a phenomenal success. Six months into it, every two weeks I get an aggregated list of questions and the last one filled up 31 pages of a Word document. And this was on a site that never had content before. Unlike other sites, where you have to go through nine layers to even figure out where their column is, Manhunt puts me in a very prominent position and does so in a way that doesn’t interfere with the basic premise of why people are there. They’ve designed and marketed it well, and that’s part of Manhunt’s brilliance.

What other sites do gay guys use? Match, Yahoo! Personals?
We use everything. I think absolutely there’s a stronger preference for the gay sites, but you have to cover all your bets. Most people I know belong to more than one online dating service. I haven’t looked at the statistics, but I’d be shocked if there weren’t a very significant number of people who belong to more than one.

Randy Nicolau, AzoogleAds CEO – Interview

Posted on September 11, 2007

Randy_nicolau_azoogleads_907OPW INTERVIEW — Sep 11, 2007 — AzoogleAds sends a LOT of traffic to internet dating sites. It's one of the top affiliate networks and is highly respected amongst affiliates. Here's my interview with the CEO, Randy Nicolau. – Mark Brooks

What is AzoogleAds’ founding story?
AzoogleAds was founded in 2000 by two affiliates, Joe Speiser and Alex Zhardanovsky. At the time, they were running competing coupon and discount websites. They realized early on that if they combined their volume, advertisers would pay them more. So, they began gathering all their affiliate friends under one company name, Zoogle. The aggregated traffic led to higher payouts, which they passed on to their affiliates. The model kept spinning like that until today where we are working with some 30,000+ affiliates.

What does AzoogleAds do?
We are an ad network, which means we essentially do two things: We help affiliates make the most amount of money from the traffic they have, and we help advertisers improve their yields and affiliate networking traffic through highly-effective campaigns.

What do you do differently from other affiliate networks?
I think the main thing we do differently is we provide a very high-touch service to both publishers and advertisers. I think most of the recent independent affiliate surveys rank AzoogleAds as the number one network particularly in terms of the service we provide our affiliates. We recognize that our affiliates have very unique businesses, websites, and abilities to drive traffic, and we very often customize landing pages, advertisements, and service offerings to meet their specific needs.

Unlike other affiliate networks where you’re just a number somewhere on a spreadsheet, AzoogleAds actually assigns you to a very knowledgeable affiliate manager who, if you’re a beginning affiliate, will hold your hand and help you get your campaign up and running. If you’re a more sophisticated affiliate, we’ll help you perform whatever technical integrations are necessary to operate your business more efficiently.

So, on the affiliate side, I would say high touch and high service. The second thing is we think of ourselves as a company of direct marketers. We live, eat, and breathe all of the data that we are generating here on a minute-by-minute basis, and we use that data to create more effective campaigns, such as the search optimization of affiliates’ websites. We have access to literally billions of pieces of data that we’re constantly mining and using to improve the performance of our advertisements. And that benefits both affiliates and advertisers.

Why do affiliates trust AzoogleAds?
Primarily because we’ve been doing it longer than anyone else. We weren’t a company that was started by some venture capitalists who had some great idea. We were founded by two affiliates who partnered with a bunch of other affiliates to create this company. So, now we have a six-year-old reputation for having rock-solid payouts and always paying our affiliates on time. You could spend all the branding dollars in the world to build your image, but nothing is going to be more powerful than actually providing a high level of service and standing behind your products year in and year out, which is what we’ve done successfully for six years now.

What can you do for Internet dating services?
We can drive very high volumes of high-quality traffic for online dating services. We have access to multiple sources of traffic and recognize that not all sources are created equally. Some sources of traffic are going to provide higher retention rates for online dating companies and higher lifetime values. And, conversely, there is lower-converting traffic for which you obviously would want to pay a lower acquisition price.

We help our dating companies understand all the different traffic sources and create specific offers for the channel that they’re going into. Once we know from where the customers and potential customers are coming (web-based advertisements, banner ads, search channels, etc.), then we can determine what type of order flow or offer would work best.

We also utilize a small portion of email solicitations to help drive traffic to our online dating advertisers. So, again, an entirely different order flow and typically a very different offer flow. The biggest thing we do is to always push and encourage our online dating partners to test, test, test. It still amazes me to this day the very limited amount of testing that goes on. So many people launch something, think they have the formula figured out, and never test it again. We find the whole “set it and forget it” model to be highly ineffective and unsuccessful.

Are you looking for more internet dating advertisers at this time?
I wouldn’t say that we’re looking for more; we’re looking for the right ones. This isn’t a game about quantity; it’s about quality. Let’s say, for example, there’s a universe of 50 online dating properties. Why would affiliates want to work with properties 2 through 50 if property number 1 is going to give them the highest yield? We can and do drive hundreds of thousands of dating leads per month, and would rather work with those partners who have the willingness and the budgets to take on our “fire hose” of customers. 50 or 500 leads a day won’t allow us to scale. We need to work with the bigger partners who can handle our volume of leads and are willing to do everything from price testing to offer testing down to creative testing and creating for different channels.

Online marketing is an incredibly complex medium and we need the partners that have the scale and the ability to work with us to maximize each one of those channels. It’s not just creating; it’s not a one-size-fits-all marketing solution.

What is AzoogleAds’ cut for linking advertisers and services?
The advertiser side is fixed. They come to us and we work out the various offers. For example, maybe they want to do a 7-day free trial that converts into a monthly subscription. We would tell them that costs, hypothetically speaking, $5.00 per completed free trial. They would know upfront the fixed amount. If somebody wants to drive traffic directly to a subscription and their subscription rate is $29.95 or $39.95 a month, we would give them another price for that. In essence, every time we would bring you a customer who charges “X” amount to their credit card, you would give us “Y” amount. That’s all predetermined.

What percentage of that we give to the affiliates is on a case-by-case basis. In the same way that AzoogleAds gets rewarded by its advertisers for being able to deliver high volume, we in turn reward our affiliates. Those who are able to drive very high volume traffic for us are rewarded with a much higher payout than smaller affiliates who get a fair or reasonable payout. I won’t disclose exact splits, but they’re consistent with what you’ve seen in the industry.

This interview also appears on FrequentFlirters.

Michael Cerda, Jangl CEO – Interview

Posted on August 31, 2007

Michael_cerdaOPW INTERVIEW — Aug 31, 2007 — Jangl has the best and most successful telephony integration on a dating site I've yet to see. It's live on Match.com. The service has been industry tested, is making money and is also live on AdultFriendFinder, Facebook and Tagged. Here's my interview with Mike Cerda. – Mark Brooks

What does Jangl do?
Jangl connects your phone and your online life, safely and privately. That’s it in a nutshell. Jangl bridges someone’s phone with their online presence. And, by online presence, we mean an online dating or social networking profile, a classifieds ad, an auction, a blog, or any other place where there is an online communication happening. The phone wasn’t part of that before Jangl. But by bridging the phone and the web, Jangl is making phone numbers behave and respond to consumers in the same way an email address does – with privacy, control and management features, and ultimately convenience.

What is Jangl’s founding story?
We set out, back in 2005, to build a lifestyle communications company that delivers services without all of the friction of headsets, downloads, and plugging into various pieces of hardware. We also wanted to offer services that consumers can use when they meet people in various ways online – not just another VoIP service based on cheaper long distance.

Thus, our focus on bridging phones with consumers’ online lives. Privacy was the first problem that we needed to solve and that’s what we focused on as a company: you can’t bridge the phone and the web without offering consumers privacy and control. Right after our initial $2 million round with Storm Ventures and Labrador Ventures in 2005, we began working with Match.com to power its MatchTalk service. Of course, that required us to scale very quickly. Six months later, we raised an additional $7 million. Storm Ventures, Labrador Ventures and Cardinal Venture Capital are the three investors in Jangl today.

Ultimately, as steep as that ramp was, it was good for us, because today Jangl is the only company of its type that can power a large-scale deployment like that. Social networks are growing so incredibly quickly, they have to partner with companies that can keep up. In part, that’s why Jangl today connects 20 million online profiles with phones – because we’re a consumer-oriented service with an enterprise-grade network.

Who are your top 5 partners?
Our top 5 partners are Match.com, Various (which has the FriendFinder properties), Tagged.com, Justin.tv and Facebook, with an application called Phonebook. Another one very interesting to me is Revision3 which, among other things, is producing Diggnation, a terrific show with Digg co-founder Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht, and The GigaOM Show with blogger Om Malik and Joyce Kim. It plays into our social media efforts.

Our service is obvious with regard to online dating and social networking because it lets people who are trying to meet each other talk on the phone without exchanging numbers. But, our service isn’t so obvious with social media. Social media is all about producing content and bringing an audience to that content and having everyone engaged in a continuous feedback loop. Jangl brings phones into that loop.

Do people really get anonymous calling yet?
I think they get it when it’s presented in the proper context. I don’t think people sit around and say, “Oh, I wish I had some anonymous calling capability.” People get to emailing and flirting with others online and want to take it to the next level, but aren’t sure if the other person really is who they say they are. They want to be able to control who calls them and when and that’s where we come in. You also have to understand that connecting the phone and the web is a brand new concept. When you describe to people what that means for them, the need for anonymity and privacy and control become much more apparent.

Where is the money?
For Jangl, the money is in licensing, consumer subscriptions and transactions and, soon, advertising. So, for example, take licensing. In online personals, money changes hands between the consumer and the property. When we provide the ability to talk on any phone, from anywhere, with anyone you meet online, we receive a cut of this premium feature.

In social networking, though, money is not changing hands between the consumer and the property. It’s changing hands between Google AdWords and the properties. In social networking, we’re trying to own and monetize the dial tone in those social networks, much the same way the social networks monetize the traffic.

The numbers are staggering when you consider that Jangl is de-siloing two huge markets: the phone and the web. In the U.S. alone, there are more than 200 million online profiles, and 225 million cell phones; worldwide, it’s 500 million profiles and over a billion mobile phones. The global advertising spend in social networking is about $1.4 billion right now, and is expected to double by 20101. Total mobile ad spending is at $1.4 billion, but expected to grow to over $14 billion by 20112. So the numbers are there no matter how you look at it. We’re bridging two huge markets that, for as much as they’ve exploded already, really still have the majority of their growth in front of them.

What are your goals for Jangl through the end of 2008?
It’s all about our service, partnerships, and advertising. Obviously, we’ll continue adding functionality to Jangl itself — moving beyond talking and texting, and moving into content sharing, more precise control over when and how people can be reached, functionality based around groups of people. We plan to drive more activities through this utility we’re offering. You’ll see us do things in places like Facebook, where we build adjacent applications to promote usage of Jangl Phonebook. You’ll see us do things like this inside Tagged, as well, where we build a service along the lines of phone tag. We’ve got strategies around user-generated content, phone numbers, mobility, and new and interesting partnerships evolving in the classifieds and auction space. We’re doing a lot of plug-ins for other IM clients, for the various mail services that are out there.

In terms of partnerships, vertically, we’d like to get the majority of the top 10 online dating sites using our service, and we’re about to announce another win there. We are in a few of the big eight social networks and want to make our service available to the other social networks as they deploy APIs and so forth.

Also in 2008, we'll be launching our advertising play, talking with buyers and planners, with customers, with different parties associated with the advertising food chain. Again, we're mindful of doing it right – but already having multiple revenue streams lets us take enough time to ensure it is.

We see the rest of 2007 as a real estate land grab because we would much rather be in every profile as part of users’ communication flow rather than being a widget directory. If you can have residency in each of these profiles, half your battle is won. Jangl’s doing smart deals that get us there and that’s what we’re focused on for the rest of this year.

Moses Brown, OnlineBootyCall CEO – Interview

Posted on August 25, 2007

MosesOPW INTERVIEW — Aug 26, 2007 — Moses Brown is proud Online Booty Call has only had one marriage confirmed on his site.  Check out the press release they released announcing the fact. While most of the industry is attracting people for love, marriage and romance, OBC promises a booty call. The message is refreshing for many who frequent OBC, it's to the point, and fun. Moses announced 10 commandments of dating back in January. I. Thou shalt get out before the sun rises, II. Thou shouldest never ask "can we see each other from now on?", III. Thou shalt refrain from referring to our activities as "love making."  You get the picture. OBC is doing rather well, and was #13 on the Hitwise internet dating rankings for July. Here's my interview with Mo. – Mark Brooks

What is OnlineBootyCall’s founding story?
OBC’s founding story didn’t involve any market research or strategy. It was just a project I was doing while I was an engineer. Then, the dot.com disaster struck and I found myself without a job. So, around October of 2002, I turned my project into a business.

I think the name alone generated attention. I was the first member and, of course, told all my friends about it and from there word just got around. I don’t think people had ever seen something like it before. We introduced a referral program and the concept just continued to grow from there. It’s a kind of grassroots story.

When did you start charging?
On day one. I had heard stories that you had to reach a critical mass to get members to the point of wanting to upgrade. But after only about 40 members, I got my first conversion. Back then, the pricing was a little different. Not much more actually then it is now, but it was like $7.95 a month.

How would you say OBC is different from other dating sites?
It’s different in the approach. We approach dating in a light-hearted fashion. Obviously, the name implies more of a stage-one service for people who are just entering the dating scene. The culture on OBC also is a little different from most mainstream sites. We have more of an urban, hip-hop crowd. We embrace that, we like it, we like being different. I’m sure some of our users are on other dating sites, but we attract 18-24 year olds and I think for a lot of them OnlineBootyCall is their introduction to dating.

How many marriages have you had so far?
A grand total of one. In October 2006, we reached one million members and had only one confirmed marriage then. I’m proud to say that our members are following our Booty Call commandments. It’s not like we discourage people from getting married. It’s just that most of the people on OBC are in a place in their lives where they’re not ready to get married, but still want to meet others. I had someone ask me, “You have one confirmed marriage, but how many divorces have you caused?”

How do you handle scamming?
Scamming is a tough one. I think the kind of scammers we’re getting range from people who want to peddle prostitution to Nigerian scammers. We’re pretty much experiencing what I think the rest of the industry is experiencing. Unfortunately, as you become more popular on the Internet, you’re naturally going to become more of a target for people, like hackers and scammers, who want to harm your site. I don’t know if the percentage of scammers has increased, but there definitely are more people making attempts and we’re consequently stepping up our efforts to stop them.

We were actually introduced to a new product (I think it’s by Iovation) that actually produces a fingerprint for every user who visits your site. We did a test run and were able to track down people who were creating multiple accounts and joining for the wrong reasons. So, it’s been pretty effective actually. We also have a sniffer program in place. Every profile that is created is reviewed. We have a support team that takes action when a report is flagged from inside a message a member receives. Finally, we try to educate our members about what to look for as far as scamming goes. We all have to share our information. The only way the online dating and social networking industries can beat the scammers is by sharing.

Have you considered offering a mobile OBC?
Yeah, we’re very interested in that. We were about to launch mobile a couple of months ago and got interrupted by another project. I just got back from a mobile social networking conference (the best one so far) and was just taking a look at which approach would be the best one for OBC.

Where do you see OBC in a year and a half?
We hope to reach a broader audience and also grow considerably internationally. We reach users in the U.K., Canada, and Australia, but haven’t really spent time developing those contacts yet. That’s our next focus. That’s where we see the next wave of growth.

Hannah Schwartz, RSVP CEO – Interview

Posted on August 23, 2007

SchwartzInside Internet Dating Show includes interview with the co-Founder of RSVP.com.au. Download Radio Show

OPW INTERVIEW — Aug 23, 2007 — RSVP.com.au is ranked the #1 dating site in Australia by Hitwise (see rankings). It was bought by Fairfax, an Australian newspaper group, in 2005 for $38.9 million. I interviewed Hannah Schwartz, the CEO. – Mark Brooks

What is RSVP’s founding story?
RSVP is Australia’s largest and most trusted online dating site. It’s been operating in Australia for over 10 years. In 2005, Fairfax Media – a large media group – purchased it from the original founder for approximately $39 million.

Right now, we have over one million members and can account for 2,500 weddings and 350 babies. And those are just the ones we know about. We believe there are more. We are a relationship-focused dating website, which means we’re helping to facilitate lasting connections. We have over one million monthly visitors to our site on any given month and are by far the market leader with a share of around 55%.

How would you say the Australian style of dating differs from the UK and USA?
I think in many ways the online dating experience on RSVP parallels a sort of older fashion approach to courtship. Online, we see the men tending to make the first move and the women responding. In this day and age, that’s very interesting because at parties and pubs people don’t necessarily act that way. Women are just as comfortable making the first move as men.

RSVP offers travel and event options that traditionally have not fared well in the industry. How do you make them successful?
We offer over 400 events annually and I think there are a lot of reasons for their success. We listen to our members and give them everything they want, from speed dating to large balls and parties to more intimate gatherings. The events are local and age specific and I think both of those are very important points. People will only travel a certain distance. And usually people who are in their 40’s or 50’s are more interested in meeting people around their own age group, as opposed to, say, people in their 20’s. We see members bringing non-members to the events, so there are always unique mixes of people. And we constantly work with our event managers to ensure high-quality experiences. For example, we instituted e-ticketing for accurate head counts.

In terms of travel, we’re really focused on expanding our offers this year. Again, we’re really listening to the customers and offering trips that are age specific, which is very, very important. Australians are great travelers and so, right away, the response has been good, especially for travel abroad. We’re also getting requests for shorter travels. Being part of a large media organization like Fairfax Media allows us to work with known and experienced travel providers, which is critical.

What are your thoughts on new methods of communication?
Our site is focused on relationships, so we spend a lot of time making sure the profiles are of high quality. We proof and review every single photograph and profile that is created or modified. We know our members trust us to provide them with credible profiles and take this into account every time we consider another mode of communication.

Right now, we facilitate online chat and email exchange. We are evaluating other modes, such as anonymous voice connection. We don’t disclose our members’ personal information upfront; it’s up to the members to do so. We have a lot of privacy controls in place and educate and encourage our members to really get to know somebody online before they actually meet face to face. So, we’re looking at technologies that can help us continue that same level of privacy, yet offer more immediacy and intimacy.

What are your thoughts on mobile dating?
We launched mobile over two years ago and were the first in the market to do so. What’s really unique about our offering is that we have been able to replicate the online experience. With your computer or phone, you can search the same profiles with the same parameters. We’re going to continue to innovate on our mobile offering. We believe mobile chat will be especially important to our younger audience members. I mean, we’re seeing all age groups using it, but we do see it skewing younger.

We’re working very closely with the Australian providers on determining the right pricing model. It’s important for the telco’s to manage the cost implications for the mobile user.

What are your goals for 2007 to 2008?
We will continue to educate consumers on the benefits of online dating. A lot of our marketing focuses on the fact that we’re safe and sensible and smart and modern. Our future growth will be in addressing the unique needs of our core members. So, we’ll be developing functionality for the changing needs of our members as they migrate through various life stages. Additionally, I think there are lots of ways to enhance the search result experience. Now, you can search on a variety of metrics such as height, salary, and education, but how do we take that deeper? Future searches will focus on interests and personality types.

Sexologist, Yvonne Fulbright – Interview

Posted on August 12, 2007

Yvonne_head_shotOPW INTERVIEW — Aug 12, 2007 — Online dating services are in the business of love, which also makes them part of the sex business. Here’s my interview with sexologist Yvonne Fulbright, author of Sex with Your Ex & 69 Other Things You Should Never Do Again, and Touch Me There! A Hands-On Guide to Your Orgasmic Hot Spots (http://www.yvonnekfulbright.com) – Mark Brooks

What is your background? How did you become a sexologist?
My interest in sexuality education started early on, as a sixth grader. I had just moved to the U.S. from Iceland and was the first girl in my class to have developed. As a result, I wound up dealing with conflicting messages – positive ones from my Icelandic mother and negative ones from my American peers’ parents.  Although my upbringing suggested that my body changing was a perfectly normal part of growing up and becoming a woman, American society, in general, made it seem as if something was wrong or dirty or perverted with a 10-year old already sporting breasts.

This discrepancy inspired me to take advantage of an opportunity I had in school to give a presentation on the female reproductive system to my sixth grade class. I did it to educate and empower and, of course, learn more about what was going on with me. The day I captured my classmates’ attention, I just knew at that point that I had found some sort of calling and passion. Nothing moves an audience like sex, and I learned that when I was eleven years old.

Later on, I completed an undergraduate major of psychology and sociology, with psychology seemingly the one way to study sex at the college level. I then went to the University of Pennsylvania for a Master’s in Human Sexuality Education. I took a couple of years off to work at the American Medical Students Association and to get some public health experience, before going on to New York University for a Ph.D. Because the master’s degree in sex education was not being warmly received by most employers, I thought that going for a Ph.D. in International Community Health Education, with a sexual health focus would allow me to be more marketable, but at the same time stay true to my sexual education interest.

What role does sexuality play in short-term versus long-term compatibility?
In the short term, from kissing to sex, sexual expression really tells you a lot about someone. For instance, you can quickly tell if your partner is selfish and only into his/her own gratification, or if he or she is a giver, making sure that you’re satisfied and that the whole experience isto be a pleasurable one. Also in the short term, there’s a sexual chemistry specifically. A lot of times I get asked the question, “I like this person, but there’s no chemistry. What should I do?” I would say in the majority of cases, the chemistry does not come with time. It tends to be pretty immediate. Because of how Mother Nature made us, we tend to know earlier rather than later whether somebody is going to be sexually attractive to us.

With that said, it’s also the sexual chemistry that is going to make for the intrigue that will make for the long-term compatibility. Sex might make you hold on longer even when a relationship isn’t going well. It’s that powerful of a force.

How good of a job are online dating sites doing in educating their customers about sexuality issues?
I think at least a couple of the sites are getting better. Whether it’s due to public demand or social responsibility, more sites are using established resources in the field. They are incorporating expert sexologists, versus self-proclaimed ones, and attracting editors from the sex ed business. This latter turning point is especially huge because an editor without legitimate knowledge about sexuality doesn’t have the sexual savvy to really be in charge of the content, to know whether it’s right or wrong or even if it’s appropriate or not. Oftentimes, this lack of education can lead to a reinforcement of stereotypes and misconceptions, like those along the lines of Mars/Venus. It’s still a favorite topic, but because of recent efforts, I don’t think it’s as bad as it used to be.

I also think the dating sites are doing a better job of finding a balance between PG and R-rated content. They’re recognizing that we are sexual adult beings and need content that’s sexy and realistic.

How can online dating sites address and handle sexuality while maintaining credibility and class in their advertising?
They need to acknowledge sexuality without exploiting it in the content. When you promote sex as the reason to meet people, you’re objectifying your clients and pretty much throwing out any chance of them treating each other with great respectability. Some of the sites, like True, advocate looking beyond a person’s looks, but then use women who basically look like Hooters girls in their ads. Sex certainly sells, but it only sells to certain people. Again, know who you want to attract. Sites like these may wind up having more males sign up, but a lot of the females will be turned off by a site that appears to be full of women who don’t look like them. In attracting some customers, these sites may end up losing others.

In this society, we certainly sexualize the females more than the males. But there’s a way to have visual be erotic and sensual without necessarily being sexual. When sites push sex too much, I actually think it comes off cheesy.

What reliable sex education resources are available to consumers online?
I would recommend sexualhealth.com. It has been around for at least a decade, was established by a couple of sexologists, and has sex experts on the panel. Loveandhealth.ifriends.net has a lot of good articles and a great Q&A section. It, too, is written by experts. I also like goaskalice.com, which is based out of Columbia University’s health center. It is really good, has a whole bank of information, and is geared more towards younger people.