How it started

In the mid 1960's, I was watching a science program on television where they were describing imaginative new uses for the latest wonder of modern science, the electronic computer. The application being described was an experiment in computer dating that was being carried out at Harvard University (this was at a time when the only computers in existence were at government research establishments, universities and a few very large companies).

As I'd been involved in computer research (at a government research and development establishment as part of my student training) I could easily understand how such a system could be programmed and immediately recognized the commercial possibilities. In those days, computers were designed with thermionic tubes and low level programs were fed in via punched cards. It was all very primitive but quite capable of reading in the results of questionnaires, then comparing and matching the answers.

I decided this might make an interesting entrepreneurial business venture and set to work to design an appropriate questionnaire and a suitable computer program. The questionnaire was quite lengthy and asked many questions, but, in practice the basis of matching the people was limited to very basic considerations such as sex, age, height, interests and educational backgrounds. Although it was not a great commercial success for me as a pioneer, others took up the idea later and turned it into highly profitable businesses.

In fact, somebody who started a computer dating agency by copying my questionnaire, went on to turn the business into an international company with a turnover of several million dollars a year. I was always a little peeved that I'd missed out on this great opportunity, but, the idea of matching people by means of a series of punched holes in cards continued to fascinate me.