The Dating Service... How I Met Jon

After last week's "leaving Las Vegas" post I got a bunch of emails asking for more insight into how this all got started. So here goes:

In 1996 I was hired as a consultant for infomercial juggernaut Guthy-Renker. I was prospecting for direct response TV opportunities for them or just to find new businesses they might want to get into. I looked at transactional programming ideas, new media concepts, retail kiosks, hardware products, and housewares (surprisingly, no fitness.)

And then one day, a dating/matchmaking service got pulled out of the "not for GRC" file, and landed on my desk. Code name; "Comfy Shoes". Very hush hush.

This dating service was being promoted in partnership with radio stations and was growing fast. It was an interesting concept that was poised to explode as more radio stations sought "non traditional revenue" by promoting the "dateline" service under their station call letters. As my staff and I were researching the concept, one person actually started dating a guy she had met through the service, and two years later they were married. True story! This concept worked for anyone who could get past the stigma of "dating service"! In fact it was working so well on radio, that Guthy-Renker and I decided to go for it and attempt to expand the business to more radio stations and eventually television. It went from hush-hush, to all-speed-ahead, The Select Network was born.

Ben van de Bunt, the Exec VP of GRC who also runs business affairs for the company believed I would be over my head operationally if I tried to go it alone. Turned out a guy who was a friend of his at UCLA was then a school teacher looking to get more aggressive about his career. This was a guy Ben trusted, who he felt had a work ethic that would match mine; Jon Congdon. (This is saying a lot by the way, because Ben has stellar judgment and can break a situation down into its critical pieces as well as anyone I have ever met. So his faith in Jon alone made it an easy decision to want to meet.)

And of course, Jon and I hit if off immediately. We were yin and yang... Where I can be impulsive, Jon will contemplate change carefully. Where I might round corners to get to market faster, Jon will patiently push for "just right" execution. Where I sit in my office alone contemplating new concepts which could create a breakthrough, Jon excels at working with the team on execution, management, analysis, and relationship building. Plus he's funny. So we laugh a lot. And he's fantastically tall, so any photos of us together are kind of comical. Bottom line; We were a good match from day one.

Which is ironic, because the point of the business was to help people improve the productivity of their "matches" by pairing singles together based on stated interests and relationship objectives. But it turns out, we were probably a year late to that game. The internet was starting to fill the automated matchmaking need quite well, in fact a company called "PerfectMatch.com" was clearly doing it better than we were. But we slugged it out for a couple years, building up The Select Network to over 100 radio stations, 50 TV stations, plus a handful of cable networks and syndicated TV shows (even including a spot that was dedicated to helping the Jerry Springer show TV audience find their ideal match... not sure what I was thinking would result from that one, but it was surreal trying to make it succeed).

Ultimately Guthy-Renker decided to exit the business. Jon and I were disappointed at the time, because, as I like to say, "the premise has promise". Dating is a nightmare if you're doing it by random selection. It just makes sense to give people a better selection process than catching someone's eye at the corner bar. If you want to increase your odds of dating success, it makes sense to start with a basis for compatibility based on guidelines which have merit for long term relationships. And it would make sense that those guidelines should be beyond the type of drink you order or where you work, right?

Preferences like religious beliefs, age, ethnicity, hobbies and social styles are the guidelines that help two people start a potential match with some common ground. That's not to say that those guidelines deliver the entire picture. Things like chemistry and communication style are so important, and no computer can figure that out for you. But it makes sense that starting on a common platform, especially where the people entering share the same interest in a long term relationship, would give people a better chance of finding Mr. or Mrs. Right. But our chance to make the premise work in an infomercial was over.

That's when I asked Jon if he wanted to start a new company that, whatever we focused on, would be innovative, significant, and use the internet to create an affinity with the brand and community among customers. Basically, use what we learned in our brush with dating, and find a broader market. About a year later, Beachbody was born.

Of course, ever since we started Beachbody.com, we knew there would be a day when we would revisit the concept of matchmaking on some level. But, rather than build it from scratch, we decided to simply look to the company that was doing it right way back when. So we struck up a new relationship that might help those single members who were interested, get closer to their goal of being... un-single.

So, as you start to see messaging from PerfectMatch.com around the website - that's what's going on. We're giving the premise of affinity-based dating another chance within the realm of Beachbody. We'll still rigorously keep the focus around our boards and the community on fitness and weight loss, but don't be surprised to see us take a very active interest into the first Beachbody marriage that happens, when it happens!

Somehow, that one event would validate the work that brought Jon and I together in the first place. That people who share an interest in living a healthy lifestyle might be more fundamentally compatible than two people with an opposite approach to eating or being active.

And if you hear about a Beachbody marriage, PLEASE let 'em know we have a spot on the wall here at the offices for a wedding photo! We might even send them a protein package of P90X Meal Replacement Bars to serve to anyone at the reception who would like to skip the gravy-soaked roast beef in order to stay on their program and still have energy to do the chicken dance!