Markus Frind did something I don’t think many folks thought he could; he built the world’s largest (Canada’s largest for sure) online dating sites by himself. In fact Plenty of Fish (or POF as people who use it called it), is still run from his apartment in Vancouver with Markus as the sole employee.
In fact not only is POF widely successful it’s free to join and use. Yes, unlike his competitors, he doesn’t charge you to interact with others. No per-email charge or you have to pay to reply. All free, all supported by advertising.
From his blog post it sounded like he had been planning to hire some folks, but that has changed recently:
Well it seems most of the stuff I wanted to hire employees to build has already been built. I’ve got to see a lot of stuff under NDA the last week and All I can say is there is going to be a major major change to the web and the economics of Online Dating are about to dramatically change.
So for now I’m just going to overspend on tech and buy my way out of any trouble and maybe hire someone part time to do customer service stuff. Source: No Employees for a while.
I’m chatting with Markus (too bad we live on opposite sides of the Georgia Straight, because sitting down for a coffee is so much more West Coast) in a little bit so I’ll update this post with that info…
I decided to just write up my conversation as a separate post. And what an awesome conversation it was!
Company Index: Plenty of fish
August 15th, 2007 at 11:43 am
[…] my earlier post about POF, I said I’d edit that post after I chatted with Markus, well after chatting with him, I knew […]
September 19th, 2007 at 2:23 am
[…] about HotorNot not being able to keep its profiles free of spam makes me scratch my head. As I’ve written about before, Markus Frind of Plenty of Fish (disclaimer/disclosure, yes I have a profile there) has managed to […]
December 15th, 2007 at 12:56 am
I have Secured Personal Loans For People With Bad Credit and I search where i can go to get a Unsecured Personal Loans Bad Credit
January 14th, 2008 at 7:16 am
[…] I don’t think many folks thought he could; he built the world’s largest (Canada’s largest for sure) online dating sites by […]
January 19th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
I NEED TO GET A HOLD OF THE PLENTY OF FISH SITE IMMEDIATELY. I THINK SOME ONE HAS DONE SUMTHING TO MY SITE AND I NEED TO KNOW WHAT TO DO. PLEASE E AMIL ME BACK. THANK YOU
THERE IS SOME THING MISSING OFFF THERE AND SOME THING HAS BEEN ADDED THAT I AM NOT SIRE WHAT EXACTLY
January 30th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
Woh, Mr. Markus is the top sample that I am impressed in my life. He has a master mind in marketing and managing his site by himself.
Again, Mark, if you read this note, I just want to say how smart you are.
Again, thank you for sharing his successful story.
Jenny.
January 30th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
in hwere you send gifts has been changed to some sick s and m chck,i think, can you tell me how to change it back.please
February 28th, 2008 at 3:31 am
I have to say as well, although I have my own dating site too: http://www.freedateclub.com Markus has been a real HUGE inspiration for me. I actually heard all the news about his dating site, I joing his dating site and I loved every bit of it that I had to make my own…now I’m doing what he does, that being placing ads on it so online dating site members clicks can actually earn me money too. It’s obvious that I’m not as huge as markus’ site is but I plan on being that big one day…And I bet Markus is the kind of guy that doesn’t mind the free dating site “competition”.
Good job M!!!
April 17th, 2008 at 3:20 am
Free is king for internet world…
Just don’t know if it is really the world’s largest dating site. I hope it to be.
April 19th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
It’s got a really nifty system that he wrote himself so he’s able to constantly update it with new features etc.
July 11th, 2008 at 3:04 am
If it is not the worlds largest dating site, it is quite big anyway. Simple easy to use and people love it because it is free!