We talk to Flirtomatic founder Mark Curtis
by James Agate
WeLoveBusiness.co.uk was lucky enough to talk to Mark Curtis, the founder of Flirtomatic, the world’s number one flirting company, which recently announced that it has raised $9 million in Series C funding. He shares his thoughts on the British business system, what it takes to be successful and his rise to the top.
What was your first job?
Assistant to the Director of the Edinburgh Festival. I was 21; it was the best job I’ve ever had.
Is Handmade Mobile/Flirtomatic your first business?
No it’s my forth. As well as Handmade Mobile (Flirtomatic) there’s Curtis Hoy, a successful radio promotions company in 80’-90’s, CHBi, an interactive technology solutions company that became Razorfish and Fjord, a digital innovations company.
Can you give us some background on Flirtomatic and how you came up with the idea?
The idea came about while at Fjord, Nokia asked us to think about five big ideas for mobile and Flirtomatic was one of the five ideas, the way that we came up with it was to ask ourselves what’s big on the internet and how that would change for mobile. When we described dating on the mobile and what it’d feel like we talked about messaging, fun, humour, a light touch – some bright spark piped up and said ‘We’re describing flirting’ to which the rest of us though ‘wow there’s an idea, how could we create an application that could make flirting as easy, fun and good as it possibly can be for mobile’.
How does your business make money?
We make money in two ways; we make revenue by selling advertising which accounts for 20% of our revenue and through selling premium services to our customers which is 80% of our revenue. The service is completely free to use, we make money by selling what I like to call fun around the edges. The analogy I like to use is, you don’t expect to pay to go for a walk in the park, chat to someone, hold hands or kiss (and you shouldn’t!) but every now and then you may want an ice cream and it’s perfectly reasonable to expect to pay for the ice cream.
What makes a successful entrepreneur?
Ask me in three years time. It’s important have vision of where something is going and an the ability to hold onto that vision when it’s questioned, also perversely be able to let go of details of it if when they are successfully challenged. The mosaic still presents the same picture but you need to accept that the colour of the tiles may need to change.
Your business is riding the ‘mobile’ trend, what are you doing to position yourself for further growth in the future?
We are working very hard to challenge some of our history with the Flirtomatic product, and we’re re-inventing vast areas of the product all the time because to leave it where it is would be to predict failure in a few years time.
You’ve had a notable career in media and technology, do you think experience or education is more important when running a business?
Experience, I did my masters in medieval history and although it has helped me understand the structure of learning it doesn’t prepare you in the way ones knowledge is gained from experience. Only with experience can you understand the detail of the data.
Do you subscribe to the notion of learning by doing (and making mistakes) or learning from others i.e. take a job to learn the business before launching your own business?
I agree that on the whole it’s better to take your learning’s from somewhere else first. There are perhaps a handful of people in the world that have the natural confidence and foresight to successful set up a company, without the leanings and experience that’s achieved by working for a company. I would not class myself as one of those people.
Your product flirts with what could be considered the racier section of the market, has this been problematic for you when it comes to the business side of things i.e. fund raising?
We work hard to ensure that the Flirtomatic product and its contents has nothing more shocking than anything you’d find on the BBC. When I explain this to investors and tell them that at various points I’ve had my two eldest daughters work at Flirtomatic it tends to ease any concerns.
How do you/have you marketed Flirtomatic?
Flirtomatic has a direct marketing team that works to efficiently recruit large volumes of customers while maintaining our target cost per registration, this alongside strategic operator relationships and viral hooks though various consumer PR activities has accounted for the 3 million subscribers we have today.
Do you encourage and cultivate a sharing culture as a way of promoting your service? If so, what viral hooks have you implemented to do this?
Yes, we use a number of tried and tested viral hooks to encourage registration, from rewarding our existing customers for inviting their friends to allowing gifts and content to be shared outside of our service via the web, MMS and SMS.
What are your plans for Flirtomatic in the future?
To continue to allow our customers to find the most fun ways of meeting people they’d like to know.
Do you have any new products/projects/services in the pipeline at Handmade mobile?
Yes, unfortunately I’m unable to share anything about this at the moment.
What has been your biggest professional failure and what did it teach you?
Not moving swiftly enough to deal with dysfunctional people. This is still a work in progress.
What has been your biggest professional success and what did it teach you?
Keeping a very clear view on what could be and holding my nerve.
I see you’ve written a book, do you think it is important for an entrepreneur to be a brand beyond the business they currently run?
No I don’t think it’s important. I had a lot of ideas that I wanted to get down on paper so I could explore them properly also I wanted to see if I could write a book.
What advice would you give to someone looking to start their own business?
Find the dividing line between helpful advice and the negative feedback that stops great things happening.
In one sentence, sum up what you think it takes to run a successful business?
A great team.
Do you think the UK is entrepreneur friendly?
No. Culturally there is a predisposition towards safety first and a lack of risk taking, this emerges in a social context and in things like taxation. The clearest contrast is in America where entrepreneur’s are seen in a very positive light rather than carrying the aura of potentially wacky misfits that hangs around in the UK.
What aspect about the British business system would you change (taxation, bureaucracy etc)?
The inverse pyramid structure where the people who organise money get paid the most, and when they get into trouble the state bails them out. I should probably leave it at that.
