We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Gabriella Aratow a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Gabriella, appreciate you joining us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

My company is called KIS, which stands for Keeper Introduction Services. There were several things important to me in naming my company. The first was that I did not want to use my own name. Most matchmakers name their firms after themselves. I recalled once or twice when I was younger going on job interviews for companies named after the owner. Something about that never landed right on me. I felt that all my labor would get instantly credited to this other person, who already had more power than I did. My blood, sweat and tears would now bolster their name? It struck me as slightly… uncool in how I think higher-levels should actually help out lower-levels. I wanted to make sure if my business grew and people came to work with me, that my name didn’t “take” their work. I also thought about circumstances wherein I might like pass along my book of business, or for some terrible reason I might need to have someone else run the business, or even to sell it, and how it should be branded from the get-go to be able to fully give it over. Then, I wanted something fun, romantic and little witty. I knew I desired the word “introduction” in the name, versus “match” or “matchmaking,” as of course I always try for a match, and I make many of them, but what I actually guarantee for my clients are introductions. And I liked the word “keeper.” It’s a cute sound, yet it has deep literary roots about being someone’s guardian or caretaker, which is an element of real love, that protective element. Plus, the “keeper” is what distinguishes regular dating from that something very special, finding the one you do not let go. After deciding on the name I then created the motto, “We find;You keep.” It’s exactly what I hope happens with my clients. I seek and select the candidates–that’s my job. But the job of holding on to someone is theirs… we do it as a team.

Gabriella, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Single people who want to find long term relationships hire me to help them. I interview them and listen to what they think is going to bring them fulfillment in terms of a romantic partner. Often I find it very reasonable and agree that what they seek offers a lot of obvious compatibility. But sometimes we have to talk through those notions a little and make some initial adjustments. If someone is seeking something I can’t personally understand or know just isn’t going to resonate in the dating market, then they are not a good client for me and I tell them I’m not a good match to work with them. It’s true that a good match to your matchmaker is the important start to having matchmaking work for you. I then use my networks which I have spent years developing to find possibilities for them. I screen people in ways that might be awkward for two people on a date to actually do–such as asking questions right off-the-bat about desiring children, following religion, political views, etc–and make sure I only connect those who are going to get along on core issues. Next I set them up to meet, mostly on dinner dates. The Open Table points I accrue are the secret little perk of my day.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

When I started my business I did not share photos in advance of the dates. I felt, “Why do that? There’s a million dating sites that have photos up the wazoo… Do I need to be a human Tinder where you swipe left or right while utterly saturated in images?” But, as I did the job more I came to see how important it was for my clients to get a picture of the person I had in mind for them first. I believe people make much too fast of initial judgement on another from a photo, a photo that captures an image of a whole dynamic being in a split-second, in whatever lighting and whatever clothing, and could never accurately reflect the total of that person. Yet, in a completely mysterious way, a photo also really can provide a gut sense of someone, and a lot of how our wordless, non-logical instincts might react to another person can indeed be gotten through their photo. So, now I make sure people see a photo, or even several photos, in advance and that looking at those photos feels good to them. The risk of course is that people might say, “They didn’t look like their photo,” but that happens far, far less in my business than when I did not show photos and someone would say, “If I had just seen a photo, I would have known I was never going to get romantically interested.” Everyone now is a lot happier this way with the pre-view–the clients, the candidates, and certainly me.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I did not start this business until I was in my 40s. I never said as a child nor in the many years I worked in other industries, such as entertainment and finance, “I’m going to find people their spouses for my living!” I really came to doing this because I myself was single and needed a better way to generate chances of meeting the right person than I was getting on my own, and became very intrigued by the idea of professional help in this realm. I wanted it, and what you yourself want you can rest assured others want too. I had also always been remarkably interested in people’s romantic lives. I worked in a talent agency in Hollywood and I was far more interested in whom our clients were dating than say what product they were now promoting. I realized that my whole life I was always introducing people, always connecting people, and to me that was just what part of being myself was. It never occurred to me until later it was a unique skill that not everyone had, nor enjoyed, nor refined, as I aimed to do. When I started matchmaking I actually thought, “Oh this will be fun for a little while to hold me over until I find my next “real job.” Wow, was I wrong! Almost immediately I started getting couples down the aisle right and left and more and more clients coming to me. Now I am known around the country and even the world for doing this. And every date I set up still fills me with hope, like it could change the entire world, because it actually can.

Contact Info:

• Website: keeperintros.com
• Instagram: keeperintros
• Linkedin: Gabriella Aratow