The Matchmakers

After Sherri Murphy met her husband through a matchmaking service, she decided to launch her own firm, Elite Connections, one of the top services in its industry.

BY CALIFORNIA BUSINESS JOURNAL

As Sherri Murphy sat across the dining table from her future husband Bill on their first date in 1994, she simply could not believe her good fortune to meet such a “wonderful gentleman – a man I could truly fall in love with and marry.”

The date was set up through a matchmaking service. It was the first time either of them had utilized it. “To find someone like Bill through a matchmaking service was incredible to me,” Ms. Murphy says. “About an hour into our date, I thought to myself, ‘What an amazing way for single people to meet. Wouldn’t it be great to have a matchmaking company and match people who wound up being as happy with their date as I was?”

As soon as Ms. Murphy hopped into her car to go home after the date, she began calling some of her closest friends to not only tell them about “the extraordinary man” she just met but also to tell them, “I’m going to start my own matchmaking company.”

Three weeks later, she launched Elite Connections in Los Angeles.

“Since it worked out so well for me, I wanted to do it for others so they could experience the elation of finding their spouse,” she says. “My concern was getting quality people who were actually who they said they were. That’s always been the problem with matchmaking from Day 1 – particularly with apps and online services.

“But the bottom line is that it is a fabulous way to meet your future spouse and I loved the idea of devoting my life and career to it.”

Today, nearly 25 years later, Murphy’s company ranks among the top personal matchmaking companies in the country. The firm has seven Southern California offices in Beverly Hills, Orange County, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Westlake Village, Palos Verdes and San Diego. There are also offices in New York, Florida, Arizona, Las Vegas and Utah – and the company also works with international clients. They recently opened an office in Paris, France.

Many matchmaking companies – brick and mortar or online – have come and gone over the last 25 years. But Sherri Murphy and Elite Connections have stood the test of time. Its matchmaking success rate is nearly 100 percent -- thanks to its unique personal service that its clients rave about.

“Fifteen of our most recent clients are engaged – that says a lot about our company and our process,” says Murphy’s daughter, Tammi, who is a Vice President at the company and is equipped with a degree in psychology, an invaluable tool that has enabled her to have “a leg up” on many other of her industry colleagues.

Read the rest of the article here https://www.calbizjournal.com/elite-connections/