Roller coasters are nothing compared to the rides Fran Maier has been on. This entrepreneur never accepted the norms as she began pursuing an internet business before internet business was even big. Some might call her a visionary and her philosophy makes it obvious that she is. Match.com has only been one of her ventures. She is currently, the President at TRUSTe. She can help you learn how to be a great entrepreneur and president. This is not an interview you want to miss! Find out more about Fran’s journey with Match.com, her experience at TRUSTe, and lots more in this exclusive interview.

What drew you to entrepreneurship?

I always had an interest in building my own companies.  As an undergrad at Stanford I put together a group to take over the Frozen Yogurt shop on campus.  I always  enjoyed building a business and it was a lot more fun then normal campus jobs.

You co-founded Match.com and eventually sold it. What was going through your head during the start-up stage? Did you envision the success that it would eventually have?

Match.com got started in late 1994.  Very early in Internet time.  Frankly it was supposed to be just a proof of concept for online classifieds and I was asked to drive the personals business that we called Match.com.  I knew that we were on to something potentially big by Valentines day 1995 where we were covered by tons of media focused on the online space.  One of the distinguishing elements of Match.com was that we were very focused on attracting women – all the better to get men – so we made it a clean well-lit space online – focused on safety for example.  This was different.  I was confident that we were building a new category – online dating – that was much different than personals.  It turned out to be very big and not only a new category, but essentially a right of passage for singles.

FYI we sold it for relatively little.  Less than $10 million.  Most of the early investors were very focused on serving newspapers and the classified market.  We were ahead of our time for building brand and community on the Internet.  We were always the largest dating site.   Of course time has shown that  many of the early brand and other elements were the building blocks for a very large business.

How important is it for companies and individuals to have a vision?

I see vision as a combination of the overall purpose or mission of the company together with its values or reason for being and finally where does it want to go. I don’t think an entrepreneur can raise money and attract talent without passion for the vision underlying the company.  For TRUSTe, I’ve always believed in enhancing Trust online, our values are centered both on privacy and ecommerce/community – finding the right balance so that companies can responsibly move forward using consumer’s information in a way that makes sense for all.  The goal for TRUSTe is to scale – really reach out to small companies and to address other issues of trust – in advertising, with apps and so on.

Can you describe the entrepreneur / president lifestyle in 3 words?

Passion, Working-it, People

President of TRUSTe is an amazing accomplishment. How did you get that job? What type of credentials did you need?

In 2001 I had finished up with 3 start-ups in 5 years – Match.com, Women.com, and Bluelight.com, and we were in the dot-com bust.  I knew some members of the TRUSTe board because Match.com was an early client (always trying to enhance trust with our daters). TRUSTe was a non-profit back then. I had the Internet, marketing, and operational experience overall but not the legal or policy background that some board members thought it needed.    However, the business was facing big challenges and with the support of the few board members they decided to give me a try as Executive Director.  My first board meeting was 2 days after 9/11 and I can tell you none of us then could have foreseen the growth.

Several years later I led the board to take TRUSTe from a non-profit to a for-profit.   I was able to develop the strategy that outlined our growth opportunities, the overall landscape and our place in it, and more.  This was a big decision and the board was initially reluctant but I was able to demonstrate that our impact would be greater, that we had support of the clients and stakeholders, and that investors were interested.

I served as CEO until last November when we brought in a new CEO, Chris Babel, who served over 10 years at Verisign.  From my point of view, it was a positive move to bring in someone who had the operational and financial skills to scale the business.  In my role of President, I am very externally focused with most of my time devoted to marketing, business development, and policy issues.

What characteristics do you have that make you a great entrepreneur and president?

If you work in small and fast-growing companies you’ve got to be agile.  Directions can change fast.  New opportunities emerge.  You’ve got to be able to both go with the flow but still keep focused on the overall vision.

It also helps to have friends and a large network.  No one ever builds a great company alone.  You need employees, business referrals, trusted advisors, investors, partners, and people around who can help you think things through.

And stamina.  Have to work hard.

If you weren’t president of TRUSTe, what would you be doing?

I’ve been focused on TRUSTe for a long time and over the years I’ve had the opportunity to look at other businesses. The issues of trust, building brands, and how privacy plays into it are extremely interesting.   I’m a marketer at heart, and very into building brands and communities, so I can imagine that I would have been attracted to something in the social media space.

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I loved to read, was good in school, and new that the world was big and exciting.  I wasn’t much more specific than that.   I worked at a law firm in high school – a “go fer” (go for this, go for that) and that experience told me that I wouldn’t want to be a lawyer, so I gravitated to business.  Once I learned about the brand management approach to marketing, together with my interest in technology (which I acquired sometime in college) it was easy to pursue marketing.  Then the Internet happened and I was clearly in the right place.

Anything else you would like to add?

Its been a great ride and I’m looking forward to the next 30 years!

…

Check out more from Fran Maier
Follow her on twitter
Read her blog posts at TRUSTe

Please Comment, Tweet, Stumble, and Digg