Career
Waldorf was drawn to eHarmony because it seemed to be meaningful, as well as a good business idea. When he made his initial investment in 2000, he joined forces with founders Greg Forgatch and Neil Clark Warren, a clinical psychologist with three decades of experience counseling married couples. Dr. Warren's experience coupled with extensive scientific research formed the basis of eHarmony’s approach: singles are matched on dimensions of personality that predict compatibility and the potential for long-term relationship success. The Company continues to grow, in part due to the decreasing stigma of online dating and in part due the company’s expanding range of services, including online content and advice. According to research from Harris Interactive, 542 Americans marry on an average day after meeting through eHarmony, nearly 5% of new marriages in the United States. “Without Greg’s involvement, eHarmony never would have happened. From before our beginnings he guided us all along the way,” said Dr. Neil Clark Warren, the company’s Founder and Chairman of the Board. By the end of 2010, Waldorf's final year as CEO, he had achieved the highest number of subscribers to date, setting a yearly record.
In early 2011, Greg Waldorf announced he was stepping down from CEO of eHarmony and joined Accel Partners as CEO-in-residence. In his new position, he will work with Accel's existing portfolio companies in order to identify promising start-ups. He is interested in new ventures focused on both business and consumer services and was brought on at Accel to take the reins of one of its young companies. "Greg has been an outstanding executive and board member" said Sameer Gandhi, Partner at Accel Partners. "His experience on consumer acquisition and social media will be of huge help to and our portfolio companies."
Given his expertise, Waldorf has been cited on matters relating to investing and technology in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, San Jose Mercury News, and BusinessWeek among other publications and he has made numerous broadcast appearances on CNBC. In 2010, Waldorf’s contribution to technology was further recognized with the prestigious Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the Technology and Sciences category. Waldorf has also extended his entrepreneurship to the non-profit world, where he is a board member and founder of Startup, which has provided business training for nearly 500 aspiring entrepreneurs in East Palo Alto, CA since 1994. In 2011, he became a member of Propublica's Business Advisory Council.
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Famous quotes containing the word career:
“Each of the professions means a prejudice. The necessity for a career forces every one to take sides. We live in the age of the overworked, and the under-educated; the age in which people are so industrious that they become absolutely stupid.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“Whether lawyer, politician or executive, the American who knows what’s good for his career seeks an institutional rather than an individual identity. He becomes the man from NBC or IBM. The institutional imprint furnishes him with pension, meaning, proofs of existence. A man without a company name is a man without a country.”
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“It is a great many years since at the outset of my career I had to think seriously what life had to offer that was worth having. I came to the conclusion that the chief good for me was freedom to learn, think, and say what I pleased, when I pleased. I have acted on that conviction... and though strongly, and perhaps wisely, warned that I should probably come to grief, I am entirely satisfied with the results of the line of action I have adopted.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)