Markus Frind makes the cover of Inc.
Markus Frind makes the cover of Inc.
Markus’s business model flies in the face of conventional wisdom. He operates one of the most heavily-trafficked dating web sites in the world – practically by himself. He now has a staff of three working for him, but the bulk of the heavy lifting, strategizing and execution is performed by Frind himself. He works an hour or so per day from his Vancouver office.
When it came time to launch Plenty of Fish, Frind merely saw an opportunity to build a better mousetrap and began building. In this case, the site was an online dating service that didn’t charge its members fees to join. Most of the popular online dating sites, at that time, charged a membership fee.
By Frind’s own admission, Plenty of Fish is not the most elegant site in the world. In fact, it looks even amateurish, but that may be part of its appeal. Occasionally, member head shots will appear distorted or out of focus. This doesn’t seem to matter to the millions of users who use the site.
Rather than subscribe to someone else’s formula for success, Frind developed his own model. He’s never had a business plan. He has no mentor, no advisors and no investors. No board of directors. There’s just Frind, along with three staff members.
When he first launched Plenty of Fish five years ago, he didn’t go looking for venture capital or business partners; he funded the start-up entirely himself. Once his business model was established, Frind began attracting more and more traffic, and eventually he monetized the site using Google’s AdSense program.
Ka-ching! Frind earned a reported $10 million last year.
For anyone interested in learning more about this Internet maverick, I’d recommend reading the Inc. piece. For more in-depth analysis about Markus’s approach to business, check out his blog called The Paradigm Shift.
The blog could use a little editing here and there, but there you’ll find nuggets of entrepreneurial wisdom and insight.
Markus Frind makes the cover of Inc - To learn more about this author, visit Ross Fattori's Website.
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There’s a great cover story about Canadian Markus Frind and his hugely popular web site, Plenty of Fish, in this month’s Inc. magazine. The writer of the piece, Max Chafkin, does a fine job describing the rise to prominence and rather unusual circumstances that have lead to the success of Frind’s web site.
Markus’s business model flies in the face of conventional wisdom. He operates one of the most heavily-trafficked dating web sites in the world – practically by himself. He now has a staff of three working for him, but the bulk of the heavy lifting, strategizing and execution is performed by Frind himself. He works an hour or so per day from his Vancouver office.
When it came time to launch Plenty of Fish, Frind merely saw an opportunity to build a better mousetrap and began building. In this case, the site was an online dating service that didn’t charge its members fees to join. Most of the popular online dating sites, at that time, charged a membership fee.
By Frind’s own admission, Plenty of Fish is not the most elegant site in the world. In fact, it looks even amateurish, but that may be part of its appeal. Occasionally, member head shots will appear distorted or out of focus. This doesn’t seem to matter to the millions of users who use the site.
Rather than subscribe to someone else’s formula for success, Frind developed his own model. He’s never had a business plan. He has no mentor, no advisors and no investors. No board of directors. There’s just Frind, along with three staff members.
When he first launched Plenty of Fish five years ago, he didn’t go looking for venture capital or business partners; he funded the start-up entirely himself. Once his business model was established, Frind began attracting more and more traffic, and eventually he monetized the site using Google’s AdSense program.
Ka-ching! Frind earned a reported $10 million last year.
For anyone interested in learning more about this Internet maverick, I’d recommend reading the Inc. piece. For more in-depth analysis about Markus’s approach to business, check out his blog called The Paradigm Shift.
The blog could use a little editing here and there, but there you’ll find nuggets of entrepreneurial wisdom and insight.
Markus Frind makes the cover of Inc - To learn more about this author, visit Ross Fattori's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
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