ELECTRONIC RETAIL MAG — Feb '09 — After receiving his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Greg Waldorf spent 15 years in the Bay area working with various tech companies. He accepted the
eHarmony CEO post in 2006.
Q: How did your involvement with the company from the beginning help prepare you for your role as chief executive?
A: I was the company's founding investor and really believed greatly in what Neil and Greg were working on.
Q: Did you make significant changes to the way the company was run or in its marketing efforts?
A: I think of the changes that we've made as more extensions than wholesale changes.
Q: What modifications have you made to your compatibility test over the years?
A: We're constantly engaged in the process of making that matching system as good as it can be. More than 2% of marriages in the United States are through eHarmony. We really want to know over time if those people are doing better than average. We also want to know if they just have an average marriage, which doesn't mean that they're all perfect–but they should be happier.
Q: What makes your company stand out from the competition?
A: It is this intense focus on the customer, and I'm very proud to say that I don't believe that eHarmony is a cynical company.
Q: How has your DRTV strategy changed over the years?
A: It's changed a lot. What's the same? Even though our ads may look different and the pacing might be different, hopefully, we're really breaking through to people with a campaign that always feels branded, special and unique. So, that hasn't changed.
Q: Today, people are very active on MySpace and Facebook. Does this help or hurt your business?
A: So far, it's not hurt us. I think people who want serious and long-term relationships see value in eHarmony's matchmaking service.
Q: What is eHarmony doing to weather these tough economic times?
A: I think that in all economies, the desire to be in a great long-term relationship doesn't change.
The full article was originally published at Electronic Retailer Magazine, but is no longer available.
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XBIZ NEWS REPORT — Apr 13 — eHarmony.com says it has a "scientifically proven system" to match its customers with appropriate partners but, according to a lawsuit, it has no such system. The suit, filed at U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Friday, seeks class-action status and alleges that because eHarmony has no matchmatching system, consumers are oftentimes hooked up with scam artists. eHarmony spokeswoman Pamela Holmgren said that the accusations by the pair are bogus but would not elaborate.
