I am founder and CEO of Linx Dating LLC. We are an offline dating venture yet under development with a strong online presence. I am perplexed how difficult it is to get insurance and actually in the past week have just gone through this for Linx. Many conservative companies like, State Farm, would not even hear me out. Their underwriters automatically said NO, when I tried time and time again to explain the types of clients I work with. I explained how Linx is offline, referral based, based on a trusted network of my friends, how I interview all candidates, how everyone signs a legal doc to become a member, etc. They simply said “No, we do not want to be liable for any stalker situations.” I was perplexed and amazed how they did not even care, nor rationally tried to take into account my members are not some freakizods who have never been screened, as well as, most are CEOs and founders, with MBAs (so point in not bottrom feeder types). State Farm said NO, as well as, a few others. I then got an insane quote from an insurance broker who my real estate agent mentioned. This guy finally got my co some good coverage but the cost was abolutely awful, about 3K for general liability. I am thankful I Googled “general liability insurance” for companies and found a co called CalNorth. They are very professional and dilgent in wanting to get my co a good rate. The quote I got is under $500 and covers a ton.

I also learned if you run a dating or social networking company, if it be offline or online, communicate and “spin” it in certain ways to the insurance cos, ie, “I set people up sometimes, “I throw an occasional party”, “I like to set my friends up” versus “I run a dating service.” They simply won’t give it to you. This is also why it is critical to legally structure your co the correct way, i.e., LLC, or INC.

In any case, good luck, I hope this helps you.

Regards,

Amy Andersen

Founder & CEO

Linx Dating LLC

http://www.linxdating.com

Are you linked?

The same is true for loss of data, e.g if your servers were destroyed or damaged or stolen or whatever (of course, if you have them in a secure facility of any major bandwidth provider, the likelihood of them being damaged or stolen is remote).

The best companies can hope for is a typical office insurance policy which covers general liability situations, e.g. the FedEx guy trips on your carpet and splits his head open on the corner of a desk. But, what are the odds of that happening? Hence, the reason such a policy is pretty cheap.