–Theodore Roosevelt

Not everyone is as lucky as Bollywood Heroes and Heroines who fall in love with each other at first sight. Such concepts have become so obsolete that they can’t even be used in today’s reel lives. But what about real lives? You’ll often find your single friends complaining that they can’t find their Mr or Ms Perfect and are usually wondering where all the eligible singles have vanished! Although there are abundance of single men and women around, there is no platform for them to meet. Bangalore based FLOH (Find Life Over Here) has come up with a unique platform where like-minded singles can be brought together.

Siddhart Mangharam met his wife Simran at a party and they both instantly fell in love with each other. But the fact is, not everyone is as fortunate as them. One of Simran’s single friends in Paris complained that people are very different in the real world when compared to their virtual profiles as many even tend to conceal their marital status. This simple thought led to the creation of FLOH- a by invitation-only network that started in August 2011 by the couple along with Sid Misra and Akshay Rawat, after they left the corporate world.

Although the concept was new, they weren’t oblivious to the risks associated with it and so decided to screen those who applied for membership. Moreover, membership is by invitation only and you need to know someone who is already a member of FLOH. FLOH targets urban, independent and educated singles. The applicant must be at least 25 years old and has to go through a screening by the founders. Its revenue model is based on membership fees and event fees. There are currently three membership packages priced at Rs.7,500, Rs.12,000 and Rs.15,000 for three, six and 12 months respectively. The members come together to attend interactive events ranging from dance workshops, cooking classes, quizzes, vineyard tours and book readings. Such events thus provide a great opportunity to find new friends, activity partners and develop romantic relationships.

Two main aspects differentiate FLOH from other such players. Firstly, they screen each and every person to maintain high standards of membership. It has members who are professionals, doctors, engineers, entrepreneurs, lawyers who are literate, open minded and selective while choosing a partner. Secondly, they organize events where people can meet each other in person which is a thousand times better idea than meeting a stranger on some random site. FLOH helps singles to meet each other without any awkwardness and ensures a continuous and smooth conversation between them. The FLOH team considers applied human behaviour and their events are based on ideas of renowned psychologists like Robert Wright (The Moral Animal) and Dan Ariely (Predictably Irrational).

Mangharam believes that since people are social animals, they have to meet in real life and understand each other to determine their chemistry. There is no guarantee in the virtual world as many mask their real identities and dupe people. Relationships do not develop with the help of computer algorithms but with feelings.

FLOH has partnership with Olive Beach Restaurant, Touche Golf School, Weber Grilling, Jagriti Theater, Lourd Vijay’s Dance Studio among many others. It’s a win-win situation for FLOH as well its partners as the members of FLOH are the type of people their partners would like to attract. In the next 5 years, it wishes to expand its operations to 8 other cities in India and also target countries like US, UK and Australia. FLOH has also approached partners for verification checks and personal grooming and will provide counsellor services to its members soon.

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