Rich, Busy, and Clueless: The New Clients Fueling a $250,000 Matchmaking Boom

Technology has made the matching process ever easier, which has had a mixed impact.

EXPERT OPINION BY HOWARD TULLMAN, GENERAL MANAGING PARTNER, G2T3V AND CHICAGO HIGH TECH INVESTORS @TULLMAN

Illustration: Getty Images

In the decades before the scourge of the pandemic, admitting that you met your mate through a marriage broker or an online dating service was generally regarded as a confession of behavior somewhere between despair and desperation. It wasn’t as bad as buying a mail order bride or marrying a pen pal who was in prison for life, but it could still raise eyebrows. Blind dates, hooking up and one-night stands were all deemed to be acceptable youthful behavior and not expected to lead anywhere anyway. But marrying someone you met on Match.com just wasn’t something you bragged about to your friends and neighbors. It smacked of having no other choices and settling for someone equally at wit’s end.

However, Covid-19 gave millions of cellar dwellers and wallflowers permission and the opportunity to actively seek out companionship and even more substantial commitments in online forums and dating services where they wouldn’t have otherwise been caught dead. And to be clear, it was no longer confined to any particular age group or gender. It wasn’t as pristine as Tom Hank’s and Meg Ryan’s romance in You’ve Got Mail, but at least it was no longer perceived as pathetic. But the whole matching process—finding your future on your phone—was never really accepted and always regarded as........

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