I gave up being a lawyer and pursued a dating startup with my husband. AMA!

Hi TIA Community!

My husband Jamie and I started Lunch Actually 11 years ago. At present, we are the largest dating agency in South East Asia, with offices in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Hong Kong.

Today, we have expanded our products and services for singles to include one-to-one dating (Lunch Actually), date coaching and image coaching (Lunch Actually Academy), online dating (eSynchrony), and mobile dating (LunchClick was launched in April 2015!)

We have 76 Cupids and Transformers based across 7 offices and we are proud of our vibrant and family-oriented culture which focuses on openness, innovation, and continuous growth.

Lunch Actually Group has been featured in more than 2500 media coverage including Bloomberg, CNBC, BBC, Channel News Asia, ABC News since our inception.

I’m happy to answer any questions, especially on these topics:

• Starting a business in a niche industry
• Managing a growing team and building a positive company culture
• Leveraging on PR and media to build your brand
• Scaling up and expansion to external markets
• Transitioning from brick-and-mortar to online
• Working with your spouse
• Integrating multiple roles – entrepreneur, wife, mother, change-maker

Looking forward to your questions, and I will do my best to answer them! 🙂

Note from Huiyi, TIA’s community manager:

Violet Lim graduated with a law degree and was expected to take the usual route of pursuing a career either in banking or law. But just when she received blessings from her parents in her entrepreneurial pursuit, she faced a whole set of new challenges: the stigma attached to dating agencies that prevented them from getting an office and advertising space to properly run the business a decade ago. You can watch our interview with her here.

Psst, you guys may also wanna ask something fun:
– Did she meet her husband through a dating service?
– Who are the hottest men/women on LunchClick in their opinion?
– Funniest incident from users 😉