xxxDovexxx’s partner eventually traveled to Australia last year where the two took a road trip from Sydney to the Great Barrier Reef. They will celebrate their three-year anniversary next week, she wrote.
“Well of course there is the judgment from a lot of people that a LDR never works. or is rare,” she wrote. “I like to think both me and him have pushed aside everyone’s judgments and have decided that its not up to anyone to understand it but us.”
However, the site exceeded his expectations. While he thought he would just be meeting “weirdos,” Robert said he’s met some interesting people who have become his friends.
Robert hasn’t told many people, including his parents, that he’s a member of the site, so negative feedback from those closest to him has been minimal.
Even though the site hasn’t yet introduced him to the love of his life, Robert advises others not to quickly dismiss the idea of online dating.
Joshua Zader, Founder
“In a nutshell, of course I’m an admirer of Ayn Rand’s novels myself,” Zader said about the reason why he created the site.
He got the idea for The Atlasphere in 2003 from a fellow Ayn Rand fan. Zader, a web developer and designer, recruited a web producer and the site was born.
The Atlasphere, which boasts a total of 26,000 members, is made up of two parts. The first component is a network directory of all users. The dating website, which has around 15,000 users, is an extension of the network directory and focuses more on establishing romantic connections.
Despite the success, Zader said he’s working on a new business model that will more closely mirror that of OKCupid. Under the new plan, everyone can use the site for free and pay only for premium services, such as the ability to see who has viewed your profile.
Whitney Thompson, President
Thompson, the first plus-size winner on Tyra Banks’ reality show “America’s Next Top Model,” got the idea for her site after stressing about how to describe herself on more mainstream dating websites.
If she posted that she was a plus-size model, men would expect a bigger girl. But if she simply posted that she was a model, men would expect a smaller girl.
The Big & The Beautiful, which launched , is filling a void and providing a dating website where women don’t feel pressured to post an older, more flattering picture of themselves and can just be honest about who they are, Thompson said.
Men going to the website are looking for women bigger than stick-thin models, meaning that female members can find someone who loves them for the way they are, she added.
Thompson’s website makes money from its $40 membership fee. That fee lets users talk among Myladyboydate reviews each other as often as they want.
While most people have been supportive of the site, Thompson said she has encountered some who think it’s a fetish site. Which, she stresses, it is not.
Matt Sherman, Founder and CTO
Sherman said he held a good job before launching Alikewise in 2010, but decided to quit his job and take the leap with the site.
Through the site, Sherman said he’s learned that people aren’t as concerned about having the same taste in books as their partner as much as they’re concerned that their partner reads at all.
Since the site is so niche, its users number in the tens of thousands, it doesn’t serve a large enough market to turn any sort of profit. Both Sherman and his partner have to work full-time jobs, in addition to running the site.