F#&* Tinder!
Marie Claire - US|February 2017

In the era of swiping, sexting, and scrolling for a potential mate or hookup buddy, online dating can be a crapshoot. It’s also exhausting as hell. That’s why young women are turning to a new set of modern (not to mention pricey) matchmakers to cope with dating-app fatigue

Moira Weigel
F#&* Tinder!

You’d think that one of the first women to work at Facebook would have the whole online-dating thing down. But after an awkward date ended with a guy giving her his résumé, asking if she could pass it on to “Mark,” she decided she was finished trying to meet men on her own. Not only was it mortifying that someone had feigned romantic interest in her in order to get a job interview … it was also the second time it had happened.

She went home, Googled “Palo Alto matchmakers,” and wrote an e-mail to the first name that popped up: Amy Andersen.

Andersen recounts this date-gone-awry outside her office in the Allied Arts Guild, a sprawling Spanish-mission-style complex in Silicon Valley, with stone walls and terra-cotta tiles and a couple of courtyard fountains. The 40-year-old former Merrill Lynch financial adviser is part of a new generation of matchmakers, many in their 20s and 30s, repackaging a career that seemed dusty and a romance option that sounded like a last resort. For flat fees that range from several hundred to tens of thousands of dollars, these would-be cupids offer a form of self-care for daters who’ve had it with Tinder.

Founded in 2003, Andersen’s Linx Dating serves a select tier of tech industry insiders. For $35,000 (yes, $35,000), Linx offers a “silver” package, which guarantees clients eight introductions over two years, with matches drawn from a database of about 850 active members. Upgrade to “platinum” for $10,000 more and you’ll get 10 introductions plus a “romantic concierge” to plan your dates. To be considered VIP, membership starts at $100,000. For these Very Important Daters, Andersen conducts “intensive searches” beyond her database, “hunting” for prospects through social media networks, at fundraisers and galas, and on the nearby Stanford University quad.

This story is from the February 2017 edition of Marie Claire - US.

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