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A fresh crop of matchmaking services has blossomed in Seattle, catering specifically to busy professionals.
July, 2008 By Jasmine Moir / Seattle Business Monthly...[more]
A fresh crop of matchmaking services has blossomed in Seattle, catering specifically to busy professionals.
July, 2008 By Jasmine Moir / Seattle Business Monthly Sure, I’ve done it. Leafing through a magazine, I’ve paused at the ad for the national dating service “It’s Just Lunch.”
I’ve glanced at the Stepfordesque head shots, the chipper marketing copy and wondered—for a nanosecond—if perhaps I should give it a shot. It’s just lunch, after all. Apparently, I’m not alone. In this work-obsessed world, the high-tech matchmaking services for busy professionals appear to be going gangbusters. Everyone has heard of services such as eHarmony and Match.com, or even the Puget Sound-based competitors, Great Expectations and Perfectmatch.com.
But if you are tired of the online dating scene, there are more exclusive and expensive matchmaking services. For those willing to pony up hefty fees, today’s matchmakers act like executive recruiters: They promise to help you identify your needs and tastes, weed out the duds and provide access to a hand-selected pool of potential candidates.
“When you’re very busy and you’re traveling all the time, what are you going to do? Go down to Daniel’s Broiler and pick up whoever is next to you? No,” says Sophia McDonald of Mercer Island-based Sophisticated Matchmaking (sophisticatedmatchmaking.com).
A former real estate broker who applies elements-of-life coaching to her matchmaking practice, McDonald charges an annual fee of $5,000. She starts by having clients fill out an intensive 40-page questionnaire and then conducts a three-hour interview.
The extensive interview helps McDonald uncover information that allows her to match clients according to their character and prior relationships, rather than interests or hobbies. McDonald also performs an “emotional tune-up,” in which she helps clients analyze past relationships and decide what they want in a mate. She then scours her sources, including a 3,000-person database, to find a match.
Chris Stelmack, president of Seattle-based 4M Club (4mclub.com), provides a similar service for rich clients looking for love. But Stelmack trades the pop psychology for a more unvarnished approach. Her fees start at $25,000, for which she promises to match wealthy men with attractive, “marriage material” women.
“These guys expect the best,” she says of her database, which includes female programmers, lawyers and former beauty queens. “They want the full package.”
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