Sally Wynn-Williams just can’t help herself. Tell her you’re single and, before nightfall, there’ll be a line of prospective men beating a path to your door. Well, not quite, but if she can, Sally will move heaven and earth to make sure you meet the partner of your dreams before the week is out.
The hopeless romantic, who is also blessed with business savvy, is a real-life cupid – with a natural gift for bringing single people into the perfect union. It’s even the way that she found her soulmate, James (36).
“It was friends who introduced us,” says Sally (36). “They obviously thought we would be suited and now, six years on, we’re happily married with two gorgeous kids. I guess we are perfect examples of friends who knew us well and could see that we were ideal for each other.”
With a background in human resources and recruitment, Sally had already been successful in matching people to jobs and she has developed a sixth sense when it comes to reading people’s needs. “I’ve found it’s quite natural to want to see my own friends with someone ideal for them, and happy ever after,” she says. “I guess I just have a knack. I always take into consideration people’s quirks and interests and whether they would like each other and find a common ground.”
While having dinner with friends in Christchurch a year ago, she heard a single friend in her thirties bemoan the lack of places to meet people.
“obviously, online dating is where it’s at,” Sally says. “I’ve got so many friends who have their profiles up on various dating websites and do their best to decide if the person they’re chatting to is really who they say they are,” she tells, acknowledging the potentially risky aspects of online dating. “But I have been told how hard it is to write your own profile and talk yourself up. So why not get your best mates to do it for you?”
It was then Sally got thinking about a website she’d heard of in the UK that relies on a friend’s glowing testimonial to find ideal dates for members.
Sally had heard of friend recommendation websites for singles overseas, but knew there was nothing like it in New Zealand. In a heartbeat, she suddenly realised what she was born to do – to play cyber-cupid.
Sally did some research, found a good website designer, put together a business plan and launched her dating website www.checkoutmyfriend.co.nz earlier this year. Now it has a strong membership which is growing week by week. And there’s no sneaking in the back door.
“The only way you can get on the site is to have a friend recommend you. Your friend must write a glowing piece about how wonderful you are and how you’d make a good partner for someone one day,” says bubbly Sally. “I vet them to make sure no one says anything dodgy. Then I then send that person an email informing them they have a friend who thinks they are far too fabulous to be kept a secret – just to let them know we’d like them to get on the website.”
Sally says Kiwis are naturally quite shy when it comes to dating, which makes the internet ideal, and it’s even better when they can claim “a mate put me up to it”. Friends can even log on, check out possible matches, and recommend them for dates.
Sally confesses she loves nothing more than to see two strangers matched and walking off into the sunset. “You just never know until Cupid strikes,” she laughs. “And if I can help a bit, that’s even better.”
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