We love celebrating our company’s anniversary. It’s empowering to look back, not only on the previous year, but on the whole existence of our company to see how far we have come. As always, we ran into a few obstacles. I don’t know any company that runs smoothly 100% of the time, and ours is no exception! However, we also hit a few major milestones.

It’s a fascinating time to be working in the dating industry. So many technical advancements progressed in the last decade. Swiping on faces to meet dates would have sounded ridiculous twenty years ago. Once upon a time, we thought dating apps might negatively affect the matchmaking industry, but conversely, it’s only led to a bigger increase in business. We’ve seen google searches for matchmaking services increase 150%, our website traffic quadruple, and membership requests triple in the last decade. Let’s be honest, dating apps has its pros, but it takes a lot of time, and people prefer to outsource to a professional.

With all of that being said (sorry for the ramble), let’s jump into our biggest challenges and accomplishments over the last 18 years as a company.

Challenges

Screening for the right members

We are very particular about whom we accept into the Ambiance family. We take our time to get to know each and every member before they are accepted. We want to ensure they are good, genuine people and serious about finding a committed relationship.

Nudging our members to give “OK” first dates a second chance

Connections take time and we have to remind our clients that. In our world of instant gratification and blink judgments, we have to understand that connections take time to develop. We have many success stories of couples who almost said no to a second date!

Getting people to see that investing in a matchmaker is one of the most important investments you’ll make in your lifetime

With whom you choose to spend your life is the most important decisions you’ll ever make, so why wing it? The average person will choose their life partner, the person with whom they will spend on average 60 years, by responding to market conditions. In other words, singles choose their partners based on whatever local pool of options are available. Expand your horizons and meet your soulmate.

High-profile members don’t write public reviews

Most of our clients are high-profile individuals who like to keep their personal lives private. Therefore, we don’t expect them to write public reviews. However, Yelp and Google have the tendency to publish negative reviews from people who were never even members. As you can see, this leaves us (and most high-end matchmakers) in a predicament.

Slow expansion

We use to see this as a challenge but it was actually a blessing in disguise. Let me explain. Many matchmakers will label themselves as “National Matchmakers” with locations in every corner of the country. However, this is very difficult to achieve. First, it takes time to know the city and its dating culture, meet members, build your network, meet your partner restaurants (where you’ll send clients), and hire recruiters. That takes a lot of time and energy. Hence, there’s only a few that have shown diligence in becoming national matchmakers. We pride ourselves on spending at least three years in all of our matchmaking locations.

Accomplishments

Our number of committed relationships and marriages doubled

This thrilling milestone lights us up. We began thinking about why so many of our members found love last year, and it’s due to two factors. 1) We hired more recruiters who actively scouted more singles, and 2) we became more selective in whom we accept as members. This means we had more time and energy to dedicate to our members, and more matches with whom to match them. Win-win!

We moved our HQ to San Francisco

We moved our previous Chicago HQ to San Francisco. In 2019, our San Francisco network tripled in size, making it our largest network of singles, with our biggest age category being in the 30s and 40s. We started spending more time and focusing more on recruiting in the Bay Area. Naturally, we felt it was right to move our HQ to the area with Cofounder Taylor Wade overseeing operations.

We expanded to NYC

We opened a new matchmaking location; New York City. We worked with NYC clients on and off for years, so we felt the need to make it official. We’ve been receiving so many applicants, it is forecasted to surpass our SF network.

Our Private Matchmakers Network grew by 40%

Our invitation-only Private Matchmakers Network almost doubled in the last year, making it the second largest network of professional matchmakers in the industry. The purpose is for matchmakers to have the ability to match their clients with singles from other databases (opening their dating options tremendously). We only accept quality matchmakers with a minimum of five years experience.

We hired a kickass Director

This list wouldn’t be complete without giving kudos to our kickass Director Sena Eicher. Born and raised in LA, Sena began matchmaking for a Beverly Hills firm in 2010. With a decade of experience in matchmaking and recruiting, she knows the industry inside and out. She’s a joy to work with and our clients say the same. Welcome to the Ambiance family, Sena!

Interested in matchmaking services?

Ambiance Matchmaking has been connecting like-minded singles since 2002. Complete an application to get started!