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From LINKED Magazine, January 2007 issue (Special Edition)
The Wiz of Iheartcavemen.com
Amy Markle’s daughter couldn’t find a soulmate. So she did what any successful, wealthy, Internet-savvy person would do; she started an Internet dating site exclusively for those seeking a caveman partner. She named it iheartcavemen.com. Two years later, Markle’s daughter is engaged and iheartcavemen.com is one of the leading niche dating sites on the Web.
“I GUESS I’M NOW THE CUPID OF CAVEMEN,” she says with a laugh, while eating her lox bagel. “Growing up I was always proud of my heritage but I was never obsessed with it. But I can say that if my parents were alive today they would be proud of what I’ve done. Not the money or the success. They never cared about that. They would be proud that I helped my daughter find a nice boy to marry. And because of that, I’ve done all right for me and my family.”
And in the northeast corner of the floor is Markle’s small teak desk. Unsurprisingly she isn’t there.
Never much of a morning person, Amy Markle gets up around 8:00. She stops for a bagel and coffee and makes it into the office around 9:30. She spends her mornings walking around, speaking with her department heads. She peppers them with questions about advertising rates, shares, and even programming decisions. But she spends the majority of her time working on the project that brought her daughter such happiness, iheartcavemen.com.
What started as a simple Web site to help a loved one find her soul mate has become the $1.2 billion star in the crown of media empire, Interagent Enterprises. Markle didn’t start out looking for ways to market to the caveman community. She just did what she loves to do: innovate. Rising through the ranks of various IT firms, Markle’s focus was continually on the horizon, peering ahead to the future.Never one to say no to opportunity, she anticipated the niche dating demand and created iheartcavemen.com. Assembling a group of investors (a majority of which were not cavemen) Markle began her march toward a synergistic mass media integration. The Virginia headquarters of Interagent Enterprises still has the feel of an Internet startup. The employees walk around in button down shirts, with the sleeves rolled up, jeans and sneakers. There are no cubicles, only worktables almost haphazardly placed around an open floor.