It was having some of the drudgery taken out of dating that drew an employee-relations professional for an Atlanta technology firm to Beatrice Gruss more than a year ago. "She gets rid of the guesswork for me," said Lori, a 36-year-old who's never been married and is picky about the men she dates.
Gruss gets through the first 15 questions -- about income, lifestyle, dating history -- for offline clients, who pay US$765 a year.
Applicants wanting to be matched through TraditionalMatchmakers.com pay a US$150 registration fee. Then they must pass a background check and an online questionnaire, submit a photograph and go through a telephone interview with a matchmaker.
The process screens clients who "don't fit" and categorizes others by levels of fitness and education, hobbies, income, religion and appearance -- all criteria known by the matchmaker but not shown to clients.
If online applicants make it through those phases, they'll pay a US$25 monthly fee. That gets them two matches.
The company's proprietary software ranks possible matches, and the final decision is made by a matchmaker. If Gruss and her personally trained matchmaking assistant see a good fit, they may get two more matches during the month.
Gruss wants the technology to help expand her business, but she doesn't want it to take over.
"I used to control everything," she said. "I used to be the one interviewing and determining whether to take someone in. Now some of that is going to be done with technology.
"How accurate it will be as opposed to sitting down with someone, I don't know."
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