Dating service fills off-line niche.

• Author: Taylor, Mike
• Position: Attitude at Altitude - Kris Kenny Connections

DATING SERVICES AND THE INTERNET HAVE BEEN A MATCH made in heaven, with the top 17 online dating sites generating $386 million in 2002, triple that of the previous year. But Kris Kenny saw a gap between what some Denver singles wanted and what they were getting online.

Eschewing the Internet, Kenny and partner Bill Ward launched Kris Kenny Connections in September 2002 and quickly saw there was indeed a demand for a hands-on rather than online approach to matching up singles. The company's revenues have doubled every quarter since the fourth quarter of 2002, and sales in 2003--the firm's first full year--topped $300,000. The company currently has more than 250 clients.

Kenny considers Internet dating services only minor competition; in fact, she says many of her clients have tried an Internet service before coming to her, the same way that house hunters often search the Internet for homes before enlisting a Realtor. Her clients are typically professionals who are either too busy, too wary or too picky to go for putting a photo and profile online and waiting for strangers to respond.

Make no mistake, setting up people by hand is labor-intensive. Kenny, who bought out Ward in December, does all the interviewing and matchmaking herself--for now. She makes the dinner or other evening reservations for her clients' first dates. She fields phone calls from anxious clients who need reassurance as the hour of their encounter approaches.

She finds new clients--and potential matches for existing clients--by regularly networking at charity events, wine-tastings, art openings and other functions. She calls clients the day after they've had a date to find out how things went, and whether they're interested in a second date.

All this service isn't...