Member Article

Love Online Becoming Safer Thanks To NE Entrepreneur

A new digital business concept that is bringing access to love online safely is forging forward in development thanks to an introduction made by the philanthropic organisation, The Experience Bank.

Offering its support, knowledge and access to some of the region’s leading senior executive, non-executive and board advisory talent, The Experience Bank supports early start-ups. When owner Peter Neal was introduced to Elaine Parker, he knew he could help and that one of the advisors in the Bank, David Stonehouse, would be interested to know more.

Elaine is the owner of Safer Date, an online dating website and soon to be app, that is the only one in the UK that carries out rigorous background checks to protect the users in every aspect.

Following a traumatic personal experience herself from someone she met on another dating site, Elaine took action. She researched all the other sites, looking into fake profiles and safety nets used to protect users. She was dismayed to find that very few, if any, checks were made leaving vulnerable people looking for love open to cat fishing, abuse, lies and physical harm. She said:

“After my own personal experience, I knew there was a niche in the market. For me it wasn’t about making money, but about giving people who are looking for love a safe and enjoyable place to do so.

“Safer Date is the securest dating site in the world, designed for those who are looking for long lasting, deeper relationships. It is the only one with the level of background checks that we insist on for all of our members – both male and female. It uses the same real-time ID check as banks, runs global background checks with Interpol, the National Crime Agency, the Police, and other intelligence agencies, scours criminal records and checks financial wellbeing. It also checks to see if there is a history of addiction. Amazingly the vetting process leaves no footprint, so it is perfectly harmless for those joining to allow us to do the checks.”

David Stonehouse met Peter Neal a number of years ago and when he stepped down from his final CEO role, he let Peter know that he was keen to be a non-Executive Director in the region, with at least one pro-bono role. As a qualified accountant, and battle scars from successfully building and growing businesses for the last 30 years, he instantly recognised how he could help Elaine as an advisor to Safer Date. He said:

“Elaine is hugely passionate and her concept is brilliant. She has identified a popular route for people looking for love and made a pledge to find a way to keep them safe. Her own experience means she understands the trauma and she is putting her all into making sure this positive move for the online dating community happens.”

“I am delighted to be on this journey with her, and we have developed a working relationship that is allowing me to advise her, prepare for investment and growth and be available to even more people via an app later this year.”

The Safer Date website is already proving popular, but the app cannot come quick enough for Elaine. Elaine says the synergy between her and David was so apparent, that it was a natural decision to bring him onboard. She concluded:

“I am very focused on taking Safer Date to as many people as possible and David is fabulous support. I am so happy that he understands me, Safer Date and sees its huge potential to disrupt the dating scene.”

Safer Date aims to reduce the targeting of vulnerable singletons and to protect people. Last year in the UK alone, £62m was taken by fraudulent activity associated with online dating. Peter said:

“The Experience Bank recognises talented individuals and promising start-ups. I saw both in Elaine and was keen to get Safer Date the advice and support that will make it a real disrupter in its marketplace.

“David’s guidance and experience is going to be invaluable and I look forward to watching the company progress.”

Experience Bank Group incorporates The Experience Bank philanthropic, social enterprise company along with a commercial venture providing two, symbiotic services - EB Board Level Recruitment and EB High Performing Boards.

With this combination of specialist expertise, the Experience Bank Group is uniquely positioned to help organisations ensure they have not only the right skills in the leadership team and boardroom but also optimum board performance with higher value creation.

5% of all revenue from Experience Bank Group is gifted to The Experience Bank social enterprise to enable more start-ups, early-stage businesses, charities and social enterprises access to high quality, advisory and non-executive talent.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Anna Toms .