Monday, April 3, 2006

Dot-com dating game to put 'IM' in matchmaking

By Christopher Calnan

A Brookline businessman is turning his attention from blackjack to blind dates -- launching an interactive website in which women question men during real-time games.

The site, called Gottaflirt.com, breaks the typical dating-site mold.

Semyon Dukach, the MIT-trained engineer who has gained national attention by developing a system to beat casinos at blackjack, said the same quick-minded skills used in card games can also help men seeking dates on the new site.

This week, Dukach, 37, is launching a beta version of the site he's been developing for a year with the help of two partners, five engineers in Ukraine and a "couple hundred thousand dollars."

Gottaflirt is following a resurgence of the dot-coms, and especially websites involved in social networking, helping users to communicate and connect.

The Russian-born Dukach, who is divorced, started Gottaflirt with Vadim Yasinonvsky and Mitchell Russo, former chief executive of the Sudbury-based FurnitureFan. The three came up with the idea in November 2004 during lunch at a Wellesley restaurant, where they were complaining about the glut of ineffective dating sites.

Russo, a 52-year-old Brooklyn native who is also divorced, said the three kicked in $50,000 apiece and received additional money from family and friends. While researching the idea, he found 836 dating sites on the web ­-- and nearly all of them involved profiles of prospective dates, a model that Russo said doesn't work efficiently, Russo said.

"The traditional model was simply so broken that sites with relatively small bases of paying customers were being sold for high multiples," he said.

Russo, Gottaflirt's chairman, said the company is preparing to raise $3 million to $5 million in Series A funding, which would be used develop and market the site.

Dukach expects Gottaflirt to eventually operate 24 hours a day and charge male contestants $1 to play each game. And it is a game -- which makes the site different from other online dating sites, he said.

Instead of requiring users to browse hundreds of profiles, which makes meeting interesting people a chore, Gottaflirt seeks to make the process a light-hearted exchange between potential matches.

"It's not supposed to be a struggle," Dukach said. "It's supposed to be a pleasant part of life."

Sites like GottaFlirt.com are coming at a time when online technology is more affordable and consumers share a greater comfort level with the Internet, said Westborough-based consultant Paul Gillin, the former editor of Computer World and editor-in-chief of Tech Target, an IT media company.

"There are going to be a lot more companies starting up to organize and filter information that's already being created," he said. "That process is just beginning."

On Gottaflirt, women ask seven male competitors 10 to 12 questions in about 12 minutes. The winner is chosen by the woman, who then supplies the winner with her e-mail address for further exchanges.

Dukach, who is also the founder and chief executive of Cambridge software maker Fast Engines, said the Gottaflirt site is his first venture into the consumer space. Previously, he mostly dealt in business software programs. He admits to making mistakes developing the site, but said it's exciting to shift to another area of technology ­-- one in which users have no patience for complicated, time-consuming instructions.

"When you're dealing with consumers, things have to be very polished," Dukach said. "Colors matter, words matter, details matter. It has to be cool. I've never had to build anything before with that characteristic."