What price love? Elite Introductions Trudy Gilbert

• Naomi Hulbert
• 15 April 2008
• Page 1 of 2 : single page

Trudy Gilbert, Director, Elite Introductions. Photo credit: Anthony Geernaert; Styling: Emma Elizabeth Coffey

Trudy Gilbert sits across from me in one of the meeting rooms of her company Elite Introductions: a high-end dating agency. To maintain client discretion, the office is sign-posted in the lobby as Bureau but, I think to myself, the multicoloured sculptures and the love‑heart paintings tend to give the game away.

Elite Introductions was launched two years ago and has tapped into a niche market: single men and women who are successful, well-educated, well-groomed and well-off, and want to find a like-minded romantic partner.

Dating for business leaders

Trudy is every bit the personification of her brand: elegant, exclusive and expensive. I’m being interviewed to assess my suitability as an Elite Introductions member and expecting to feel totally intimidated, but this feels more like bunking down for a gossip with a girlfriend than being scrutinised to find my perfect date.

Let’s face it: no matter how elite your clientele, there’s nothing so fundamentally human as the search for love, or our vulnerability where matters of the heart are concerned – a tricky business at the best of times. I’ve never been on a blind date in my life, and admit the thought of joining a dating agency left me feeling apprehensive.

Trudy, however, finds my reluctance old-fashioned and has a far more modern spin. “There’s no longer any stigma attached to using a dating agency,” she says. “It’s become trendy. It says, ‘I’m selective and exclusive, and I have an agent who understands my romantic requirements and matches me with suitable men’.”

“Now,” she says with a grin, “let’s talk about your perfect man. I know what you like, now tell me what you don’t like.”

“Hmm,” I look at the ceiling. “Arrogance, cruelty… and no alcoholics. And he can’t have food in his teeth.” Trudy raises an eyebrow, but doesn’t miss a beat. ‘No alcoholics. No food in teeth,’ she jots in her ‘Preferred Partner’s Profile’ notes. “All right,” I relent. “As long as he doesn’t mind being told when he has food in his teeth.”

Just six weeks after sparking the initial business idea, Trudy launched Elite and opened her doors to the public. Today, Elite Introductions is a leader in the match‑making market; bringing in a million dollar-plus turnover, employing five people, and sending Trudy home with a healthy six-figure salary. Plans are afoot to expand the business interstate, across the Tasman to New Zealand, and then on into Asia and the Middle East.

“I’m someone who’s always switched on,” says Trudy.

“I go home every night and sit in front of the TV making notes about what to do the next day. When I was in my teens, people would ask, ‘What do you want to do when you grow up?’ My response was always, ‘I want to be a managing director.’ I didn’t know what I wanted to be managing director of, I just knew that I wanted to be the boss of whatever business I chose to go into.”

Trudy Gilbert's career before Elite Introductions

After an unhappy five-year stint in marketing (“I hated being an employee… the lack of scope to be inventive and creative”), Trudy retrained as an English language teacher.

Next, never being one to do things by half, Trudy started her own language consulting business – in Italy – while still in her 20s. Four years on, she returned home with a good chunk of change, met and married the man of her dreams, and started casting around for a new business venture.

Leaving behind a highly successful business in Italy, returning to Australia without a clue what to do, hooking up with the love of her life, and then launching a million-dollar business. It sounds as though Trudy has led a charmed life.

“You just have to be open to what’s out there,” she explains, as if it was the easiest thing in the world. “You read the papers, you look online, even when you’re watching TV you keep the creative receptors open. I had about ten different business ideas before I came up with this one.” The key, of course, is hitting on one that will actually work.

“I have a degree in social science and psychology, which gives me a strong background in research. I check everything before making a decision, and spent about 500 hours researching this particular idea. Is there a market? How much funding will it need? How long will it take to lift off?”

Business idea: dating for busy professionals

The idea for the Elite Introductions agency was a low-key event. Trudy’s inspiration came while reading an article in a US magazine about a similar agency in New York. Once the lightbulb had switched on in her head, execution was swift.

“I got onto the internet as soon as I had read the article and looked at all the agencies in the US and UK. I also researched the Australian market extensively, to work out where in the market I could position the agency. Then I thought, ‘Yes, this has legs,’ and put the idea to my husband, who said, ‘You’re crazy, but I see your point.’ So in I jumped.”

Step One on my own Elite path to romance was to click onto eliteintroductions.com.au and fill out a questionnaire that quizzed me about everything from my age and income bracket to whether or not I liked skiing. I was relieved to learn the site promised total confidentiality. None of my details – let alone a photo – would be published online. I’m not an RSVP.com.au kind of gal, and neither are Trudy’s members. This is exactly the kind of target market she has avoided.

Web, dating and the human touch

Had Trudy ever considered making Elite Introductions a web-based service? She replies, “I did – for about ten minutes. There is so much activity on the internet that it would seem to be a natural way to go, but it just wouldn’t have worked for us. My members are often high-profile figures, and one of the things they love about Elite is our confidentiality. These are not people who want to be visible online.

“There’s also the issue of available time,” she continues. “Trawling through websites, finding someone who looks and sounds interesting, emailing and then meeting them, in the hope that you might hit it off, is not something my members want to do. When they come to me, they know that I offer a tailored personal service, can introduce them to someone with whom they have a very high chance of hitting it off.”

That’s not to say the internet is not an important part of Trudy’s business, but she’s smart enough to know when to work it, and when to leave it idling. The Elite Introductions website is a perfect example. “The website is a just an online brochure,” Trudy explains. “There’s nowhere for members or visitors to load any information about themselves or to see photos of other people. It just provides information about our service and has a limited number of pages. I put myself in my members’ shoes: if I was the managing director of a public company, would I want my photo on a dating website? No, absolutely not!”