One of the leading brands when it comes to professional matchmaking is Tawkify. Founded in 2012, the company has seen exponential growth over the past decade and a half, thanks greatly in part to their Chief Executive Officer Kellie Ammerman. Today, our Matt Seymour sat down with Tawkify’s CEO to discuss the company’s growth, its matchmaking process, its algorithm, the ideal customer, and even one of Kellie’s favorite success stories.
Full Tawkify Interview Transcript
Matt Seymour:
Hey everybody, it’s Matt from Healthy Framework. Today I’m super excited to be joined by Kellie Ammerman, the CEO of Tawkify. Kellie, thank you so much for joining.
Kellie Ammerman:
Thank you so much for having me on. It’s a pleasure to be here.
Matt Seymour:
Sure thing. Well, hey, let’s get right into it. Super excited to dig in a little deeper and learn about Tawkify today. First, let’s talk about what separates Tawkify from the rest of the matchmaking services that are out there.
Kellie Ammerman:
Tawkify uses a blend of personalized human-centric services and innovative approaches to making our connections. One of the ways that we do this is through the feature of blind matchmaking, and this strategy encourages authentic connections by allowing individuals to meet without any of the preconceived notions based on physical appearance or what they put on their own online profile. It also provides an opportunity for connections to blossom based on personality, shared interests, genuine connection, and real meaningful interactions. In addition to offering an online in-person date, we also have stringent privacy and safety practices and a tailored matching algorithm that further elevates the client experience.
Matt Seymour:
That’s very cool. It reminds me, I know my wife and I occasionally catch a little bit of Love is Blind, so it sounds a little bit like that, where you don’t see everything necessarily. But that can often help if somebody’s used to certain things. You can help work around that if they’re going through the traditional side of things. So, excellent. How would you describe the ideal customer that Tawkify is designed for?
Kellie Ammerman:
So we are designed to cater a wide spectrum of individuals, but the ideal customer does often exhibit certain characteristics. They’re often individuals who are genuinely invested in seeking a meaningful, authentic connection. So they’re very intentional about their dating life, and they are individuals who, while perhaps are successful and busy, are also willing to be open, vulnerable, and trusting of their romantic journey to the experts, respecting the professional advice and matches that are provided by their matchmakers.
Matt Seymour:
Very cool. I like that. That’s good to hear. Obviously hiring a personal matchmaker is more expensive than their traditional dating app. How would you rationalize the cost to somebody who may be concerned about the higher price tag?
Kellie Ammerman:
Yeah, the upfront investment is undeniably higher, but the depth, quality, and potential for success in personalized matchmaking is also a lot higher. It’s a more unique and elevated dating experience. And the personal matchmaking, like the services provided at Tawkify, offer a more bespoke, tailored experience that goes far beyond the algorithmic matching and self swiping. And so on average, Americans spend about six hours a week swiping, and it takes them about eight months and 11 days to get into that relationship if they do get into one. But we take out all the work and do everything for the clients except go on the date for them. So they benefit from the expertise, intuition, and dedication of our matchmakers.
Matt Seymour:
Very cool. So just to make sure I heard that correctly, the average person is spending six hours, was that per week swiping?
Kellie Ammerman:
Per week.
Matt Seymour:
Yes. Okay. And then it was eight months is the average time to form a new relationship?
Kellie Ammerman:
Yep. Eight months and 11 days.
Matt Seymour:
Wow, it’s a lot of time. That makes sense. And often people say, “Time is money,” so I definitely understand where you guys are coming from.
Kellie Ammerman:
Yep.
Matt Seymour:
Excellent. Would you say there any drawbacks to using a matchmaker that people should be aware of?
Kellie Ammerman:
Time, I think finding the one can sometimes take time. It might not always occur on the first try, so it can require patience. But if people have a positive mindset and they’re open to the process, then these aspects just become part of the journey towards finding that meaningful connection.
Matt Seymour:
Awesome. I like that. Is there anything unique about the way that you find matches for someone?
Kellie Ammerman:
Yes. So we have made over 200,000 matches. And so we use all of the data that we get from all of the information from those matches and the feedback that we see on those matches to inform our own matchmaking methodology that takes that into consideration. And of course, along with people’s preferences, with an emphasis on their values, their interests, their lifestyle, and things like that.
Matt Seymour:
Very cool. That’s one unique way to do it, for sure. Something I’m curious about, and I’m sure others as well, is have you ever struggled to find an ideal match for a client? And if so, is there a process for when this happens?
Kellie Ammerman:
Absolutely. I think that there are a number of situations where a challenge can be presented. And when this occurs, our team does a meticulous reassessment of the client’s preferences, their requirements, and make sure that there’s the comprehensive understanding of what exactly the client is looking for, their needs, and their expectations. And sometimes this might include broadening the search beyond what their initial criteria was, but of course, with their permission, and sometimes that means leveraging the feedback from the previous matches to identify certain patterns that are coming up that are preventing it to be a bit more successful. So it’s ultimately this refinement of our strategy to then improve the matching.
Matt Seymour:
Yeah, that makes sense. And that’s nice that you guys can tweak and grow based on what is happening and even getting the feedback from the matches. Switching gears a little bit, are there any misconceptions about matchmakers that you’d like people to better understand?
Kellie Ammerman:
Yeah, there are a few prevalent misconceptions about matchmakers that could be demystified. One is that there’s a notion that matchmaking services are only for people who are desperate or who don’t have any options, which is so far from the truth. Our customers include a diverse array of proactive, hopeful, educated, and successful individuals who are just genuinely seeking meaningful connections. There’s another misconception that matchmakers might force their own views on the clients. But they actually practice listening and amplifying the client’s voices, preferences, and guiding them towards connections that are going to be authentic and meaningful to them.
Matt Seymour:
Yeah, that makes total sense there. And you actually just cleared up one or two that I had, so thank you for that. You touched on this a little bit already, you had some stats there about the amount of time that people are swiping per week, I think it was six hours. And the average time it takes to form a relationship, was it eight months and 11 days, if I remember correctly?
Kellie Ammerman:
Yes.
Matt Seymour:
So along those lines, are there any other metrics that you’re able to share with us? Maybe things like the average time it takes with you guys to find a match, success rates, number of clients, anything along those lines statistically that you’d be willing to share?
Kellie Ammerman:
So our success rates are three and a half times that of the dating apps. And we also do a bit of a more in-depth analysis. I think that contributes to us being more successful in the way that we think about matching people and what makes for a successful match. We also have an 80% success rate for clients who are with us. Between six and eight matches is usually where we find success.
Matt Seymour:
Okay. That’s a pretty solid conversion rate 80% of the time, so wow, that’s really good, that’s impressive. Excellent. So to close out, a final question for you is, do you have a favorite success story that you’d like to share?
Kellie Ammerman:
Every success story is a favorite success story, but one that comes to mind is recently I had posted something online that received a response of someone just sharing information that they had a friend who had used Tawkify that they went to high school with. And this person had grown up in Ukraine, now they lived in Chicago, and they were getting married in the winter. And so I asked if I could share it online, and I did. And then the person that they were marrying happened to see the post, responded and said, “Hey, I’m the girl that’s getting married.” And so it was fun to see that come together on the internet.
Matt Seymour:
That’s pretty neat. And it’s also just a reminder too, just how small the world is overall.
Kellie Ammerman:
Yeah.
Matt Seymour:
So that’s pretty awesome overall. Excellent. Well, thank you again, Kellie, for joining. It was awesome to learn a little bit more about Tawkify. We’re excited to keep in touch with you guys and see how things continue to go. Maybe we can do this again sometime again in the near future. But thank you so much for taking the time to sit down with us and share a little bit today.
Kellie Ammerman:
I would love that. Thank you so much for having me.
Matt Seymour:
Sure thing. Thank you, Kellie, appreciate it.