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Interview: Sarah Beeny of Mysinglefriend is Looking for a Modern Gentleman
Here the team behind online dating site mysinglefriend.com – Amanda Christie and serial entrepreneur Sarah Beeny of property ladder – talk to The NextWomen about their love of matchmaking, how the business is enjoying growing success and where they hope to be in the future.
Sarah Beeny and Amanda Christie
Tell me a little about mysinglefriend
mysinglefriend was created by childhood friends Amanda Christie and Sarah Beeny – Sarah, an avid matchmaker, wanted to create a way for all her single friends to meet each other virtually; Amanda, whose background was web design and development, realised that this could turn into a unique dating site. Both loved the fact that the format would lend itself to a more open and honest approach to dating and would do wonders for ditching the stigma attached to the industry. mysinglefriend is still really young, just 4 years old, but we’re already making waves in the industry – standing out for our honest and open approach.
How do you differ from other online dating sites such as Match and Toyboywarehouse?
mysinglefriend is a niche dating site unlike any other – it’s the UK’s first social dating site! Your friend has to recommend you, giving you a virtual wing man to help you along the way. Once you’re up and running members can link up with other single friends on the site; so potential love interests can see who your friends are and develop a realistic picture on what you are really like. The fact that your friend has to recommend you means that the profiles are more honest and therefore giving you a greater chance of success.
How does the site make a revenue?
It’s free to join mysinglefriend but if you’d like to take advantage of the sites functions we ask members to pay a fee; members can chose from 1 month (£18), 2 months (£27) or 3 months (£34) – this gives them mail access among some other functionality unavailable to free members. The revenue we receive is used to keep the site functioning and any profits are ploughed back into the company to continually improve and develop the site – keeping it fresh and interesting for members.
How many members does the site currently have?
We’ve attracted around 400,000 members since launch.
How do you see this figure changing in the next five years?
Online dating is a growth industry and according to recent research by Mintel the industry will grow around 50% over the next 5 years, with an estimated worth of £150million. Here at mysinglefriend we’d expect to mirror the industry growth and double in size over the next 5 years. Our aim though is to keep our site at a comfortable size as we believe that our success is actually down to the fact that you can realistically search for someone like you on our site, rather than be daunted by millions of members which can be overwhelming.
How was the company initially funded and what is the business model?
mysinglefriend is one of the very few independently owned online dating sites; co-owned by Sarah Beeny and Amanda Christie. Both Sarah and Amanda put up collateral giving both a 50% even split. mysinglefriend is a subscription based business and we rely on membership fees to grow the business. We believe that paying for our service is all about peace of mind for our member, the fact that you have to give your personal details to pay for membership means you’re less likely to meet someone unsavory.
How is the business coping in the recession?
Online dating is currently seeing a growth surge, with the industry expected to reach 6 million paying members by 2011. Many of our contemporaries are saying that online dating has jumped due to the recession. Whilst it’s true that there is evidence that society is looking to connect more we cannot whole heartedly say that an increase in sign up’s are due to a recession. It may just be a natural acceptance of the industry due to the rise in social networking sites and increased broadband access. We are though seeing a trend occurring as a result of the recession – our members are on the lookout for modern gentlemen. Gone are the city boys, and in its place is a culturally rounded, sensitive and humble man.
There has been a lot of hype about how online dating is becoming more popular now we are in a recession; whilst we agree to the phenomenon to some extent we cannot dispel the fact that dating online has finally become an accepted way to meet someone… and it’s about time too! This means more couples have met online nowadays than any other way – we expect everyone has friends who date online. This year mysinglefriend.com is expecting good growth however, due to the viral, social nature of our site we generally grow year on year regardless of external factors.
What are the biggest hurdles you have had to overcome both in founding and growing the business?
Like all small businesses you go through hoops in the beginning – getting people signing up initially was a bit tricky. We spent lots of time convincing our single friends to join the site before we launched properly and that was a bit painful but we soon got over that and looking at the success stories we receive every day we believe any early hurdles were completely worth it.
As we’ve grown one of the things we’ve found tricky is keeping the family feel to our business – as you get bigger you can lose some of that cosy feeling so we work hard at retaining our family culture. We all make a real effort to spend time together out of work – we all agree that how we feel about each other reflects back into how our members feel about us.
Do you police the site at all for potential fakes or is this left to user discretion?
One of the things that differentiates us from the more traditional online dating sites is that we have invested quite heavily in a strong team of “police”. The team has a keen eye on suspicious profiles. We prevent people like this joining but should one ever slip through we’d pick it up quickly. The site is regularly mined to double check on our members and remove suspicious profiles.
Even though dating online is no different to meeting a stranger in a bar we take member safety very seriously. The first thing you receive from mysinglefriend is an email about how to keep yourself safe; don’t talk about personal details in your profile, don’t mention specific details like where you work straight away and never, ever invite someone back to your house on a first date! We know it’s common sense but because intimacy is built up quickly over email people let their guards down very early on and we want to remind members to take care of themselves.
We also encourage members to alert us to suspicious behaviour. Online dating should be fun and so people who abuse the system are removed quickly.
Where do you see the future of MSF and other online dating sites?
Young, single people are very savvy, and as the market becomes saturated the natural progression will be towards the niche sites that provide a more personalised service and great customer support. It makes sense; an online site like MSF is a good investment which will result in them finding a likeminded person. At the end of the day joining our dating site is nothing unusual, it’s fun, it works… and when pockets are stretched it’s cheaper than going out on the pull!
We also expect to see a growth of pseudo science used in online dating to draw people in – DNA dating, Smell dating etc are all on the rise. Ultimately though we must not forget plain and simple chemistry – on paper you might look perfect but nothing can map out if you are really going to be interested in someone when you finally meet. We are firm believers that you should date outside your fixed list and expand your network, not only will you meet lots of new people but you may fall in love with someone who was not what you expected.
Did you always want to be an entrepreneur?
Sarah:
‘Yes – I set up my property business with my brother from a young age and always wanted to be an entrepreneur. I am always coming up with ideas and love setting up something that proves useful to the people that use it. I am currently in the process of launching a new property site, Tepilo. I can’t tell you more right now but watch this space.’
Amanda:
‘I am naturally ambitious and have never been afraid to take risks so owning my own company was a natural progression. Previous to mysinglefriend I owned a web development and marketing agency, but I really love the dating industry as it gives me a real sense of pride to see our business grow and evolve.’
What single piece of advice would you give to a woman who is thinking about starting an online business?
Stay strong and don’t listen to the naysayers. If you’ve done your research and you can see that your business will make a difference then stick at it. When we set up mysinglefriend everyone said that there was no room for another online dating site but ours was sufficiently different to the more traditional sites available and so we worked hard and carried on. And it’s a good job we did too otherwise we wouldn’t have witnessed the hundreds of weddings and babies that have been born from our introductions.
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