Fran Maier

Fran Maier is an American entrepreneur and business executive. She is best known as the co-founder of companies including Match.com, TrustARC, and BabyQuip.

Fran Maier
Born
Fran Allocca
Alma materStanford University
OccupationEntrepreneur
Known forCo-founding Match.com, TrustARC, and BabyQuip

Early life

Fran Maier was born as Fran Allocca and grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico, graduating from Santa Fe High in 1980. She then graduated with a degree in public policy from Stanford University,[1] where she also earned her MBA in 1989.[2] Early in her career, she worked in marketing for companies including Clorox and AAA.[3]

Company founding

In 1995, Maier co-founded Match.com, where she was also their founding marketing director and soon became the company's first general manager while it was still known as Electric Classifieds.[4] Early in her tenure, she described her work as evangelizing online dating as a whole industry rather than just the company, in order to develop a market for dating sites.[5][6] Following the sale of Match.com in 1998, Maier then worked with several other start-ups,[7] including Women.com[8] and Bluelight.com.[9]

In 2001, she joined as executive director of Truste, a nonprofit Internet privacy organization.[10][11][12] During her work with the company, now named TrustARC, Maier transitioned the company from a non-profit industry association to a venture-backed company, raising its first round of capital from Accel Partner.[13] Following her tenure, Maier became a mentor to new start-ups in Silicon Valley, starting in 2013 after providing a keynote speech before that year's Women 2.0 conference. Through her advisory business, she has focused on primarily female company founders in the technology industry.[14]

In 2016, Maier became the co-founder[15] and CEO of BabyQuip (originally Babierge), which rents baby and toddler gear through a peer-to-peer online network.[1] One of the focuses of the company is matching parents to baby equipment while travelling.[16]

Personal life

Fran Maier is a mother of two.[3]

References
  1. Mexican, Bruce KrasnowThe New. "Santa Fe startup Babierge uses Airbnb-like network to rent out baby gear". Santa Fe New Mexican.
  2. "Fran Maier of Match.com and TRUSTe: Driven By a Passion for Internet Privacy". Business Trends and Insights.
  3. Kushner, David (April 6, 2019). "Recruiting Women to Online Dating Was a Challenge". The Atlantic.
  4. "LICENSEES WIPE SMUDGE OFF PRINT CLASSIFIED ADS:BUT NATIONAL VERSUS LOCAL DEBATE MUDDIES THE FIELD FOR EAGER PROVIDERS". adage.com. April 29, 1996.
  5. Melendez, Steven (October 19, 2015). "How Match.com Has Helped Us Hook Up And Find Love Since 1995". Fast Company.
  6. Stephanie Helen Blake (2007). A Virtual Love Triangle: Mainstream Online Dating Sites, the Companies that Own Them and Women Subscribers, Volume 2. University of Minnesota. p. 197.
  7. Stillman, Jessica (November 29, 2012). "Lessons From a Bad Exit". Inc.com.
  8. "IVillage is not alone". MarketWatch.
  9. "Free ISPs Changing Online Marketplace". Los Angeles Times. April 27, 2000.
  10. "How women in tech see Ellen Pao's gender discrimination case". PBS NewsHour. March 27, 2015.
  11. Kauflin, Jeff (July 14, 2014). "How To Get The Most Out Of The Network You Already Have". Fast Company.
  12. Hansell, Saul (July 15, 2008). "Will the Profit Motive Undermine Trust in Truste?".
  13. "TrustArc raises $70 million to help companies implement privacy and compliance programs". July 10, 2019.
  14. Gascoigne, Adriana (June 4, 2019). Tech Boss Lady: How to Start-up, Disrupt, and Thrive as a Female Founder. Basic Books. ISBN 9781580058308 – via Google Books.
  15. "Babierge raises $1.3 million for baby gear rental service". April 19, 2018.
  16. "Here's a travel hack that lets you leave all your baby gear at home". finance.yahoo.com.
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