Tai Lopez: A Look Beyond

The self-made dot com millionaire is by no means new news these days. The internet is where big bucks are made whether you are selling investing products or simply creating an online store for DIY goods. However, making those millions while creating software that is revolutionizing social media isn’t exactly typical, and a feat that Tai Lopez has accomplished.

A former mentee of Joel Salatin, the self-proclaimed “Renaissance man” Tai Lopez was able to secure an early start in the entrepreneurial world alongside some of the world’s top business minds. The firm foundation set in place by his astounding line up of mentors gave Lopez the know how for success that very few ever have a chance at attaining. His most recent success has come in the field of online dating, as he has been involved in the creation of several algorithms that are further evolving how online dating is being implemented.

To get further insight in to this entrepreneur’s life and the social media industry, we recently sat down with Tai for a quick interview:

What about the online dating scene interested you?

After moving back to the West coast, I had a roommate who was going on dates all of the time. Being from the country, I had no idea how he was able to meet all of these people for so many dates. When I asked him about it, he said he got met these people through Yahoo! Personals. Right then, it just clicked. I knew online dating would be the way in which dating occurred in the future.

I had also owned a couple of nightclubs back East, which essentially have the same type of atmosphere as online dating forums, just with lower success rates. So getting into the online dating scene just seemed like a natural course of action. I wanted to create a nightclub online, free of high bar tabs, rejection, humiliation, and hangovers, and so far we’ve been able to achieve that.

However, online dating isn’t the only interest I have. In addition to becoming highly involved in the creation of advanced dating site algorithms, I am also invested in approximately 50 other sites and ventures. Social media is just my main focus, as well as the software, or algorithms, that runs it. Online dating just comes with that territory and is currently where I am experiencing the most success.

How are your online dating sites different from others?

Our sites focus on specificity. Other dating sites, such as Match.com – although great and one of our competitors, are too broad. Everyone has access to anyone, which may seem beneficial, but is actually highly detrimental to finding the person who is just right for you.

If a beautiful woman gets on one of these sites, she can expect to be bombarded with upwards of 10,000 emails from various men in as little as one day. Unfortunately, most of these men won’t even be of interest to her, which will not only exhaust her and keep her from further pursuing dating on the site, but it will also deter the men whose emails were never responded to.

We believe that love requires specificity. We all have types, and we won’t just date anyone expressing interest. Some of us prefer brunettes to blondes, or taller men to those of average height, or “nerds” to bros. People are drawn to dating those who are in their own “looks space” and socioeconomic status. To provide our users with those of similar socioeconomic status and looks, we created the first ever looks based algorithm.

The algorithm can support hundreds of varying niches allowing us the ability to give people a score and match them to those with a similar score. With this type of service, people won’t become discouraged with the online dating service as they will only be paired with those who closely match their own score.

Are there any future trends in online dating, or social media for that matter, that you foresee happening?

Online dating is already seeing a huge surge, and as the younger generations continue to age, we will definitely see it become the norm. Soon, an online dating account will become just as ubiquitous as a Facebook profile, and as greater connectivity through various social platforms continues to become more widely accepted, online dating will become more accepted for what it truly is – a great and efficient way to meet people.

An astrophysicist, a roommate I once had, told me that we all have 75 soulmates. While the number wasn’t exactly accurate, I knew what he meant. We all have people that we are compatible with, those that we just seem to click with. These people are those we would consider soulmates, and we all have more than one person with whom we would be compatible with; however, they aren’t always easy to find.

I grew up in North Carolina where the population can’t be over 10,000,000. If there are 3.5 billion women in this world and 75 of them are possible soulmates, then it is fair to say that these potential soulmates are most likely not in North Carolina. I would have to leave my state to find the perfect girl for me which isn’t always an easy feat.

Online dating makes finding that soulmate more possible, and as people continue to realize this, online dating will continue to expand from simple online sites to increasingly social mobile apps. Right now, mobility in online dating is still in development, and I believe that as online dating continues to gain momentum, mobility will definitely be a place of growth for online dating and social media in general. I also believe that we will see an explosion of niche dating sites. So whether you be a mountain climber or nerd, you will be able to find someone, or hundreds of individuals, who shares similar interests as you.

Any big plans for the future?

While I have had great success with online dating, especially with our Brazilian dating site, encontreamor.com, my focus will definitely shift throughout the remainder of the year. Social media software will continue to be my main focus in the future. I would like to see software developed so that we can created niche social media sites that are focused on a wide variety of different interest groups – software that would essentially create fragmented Facebooks, mini social media sites that allow others to connect to those within their own niche.