Focus on the Positives
What: Online dating/networking service for the HIV/AIDS community
Who: Brandon Koechlin(l.) and Paul Graves, founders of PositivesDating.com (above)
Where: Columbus, Ohio
When: Started in 2005

Paul Graves and Brandon Koechlin had always wanted to go into business together, but the 21-year-old best friends never expected to find something quite as fulfilling as the website they founded.

PositivesDating.com is a personal dating and networking service for the HIV/AIDS community that offers both free and paid memberships. Visitors can log in to the site's chat rooms and search through thousands of available member profiles. Paid memberships allow users to keep in contact via e-mail and see who's been viewing their profiles.

The pair got the idea after Koechlin took a sociology class at his local community college. "I was talking to a professor about people who, once they contract HIV, start to become social outcasts," Koechlin says. He and Graves borrowed close to $50,000 from family members and turned to a family friend to help them construct the site, which they launched in January 2005.

For the first four months, PositivesDating.com operated as a free site as the partners built their membership. They also sent out informational postcards to support groups all over the country, such as AIDS Project Los Angeles, and they conducted online surveys of their members to get feedback.

Since beginning to offer paid memberships last June, PositivesDating.com has generated $60,000 in 2005 sales, with close to 2,500 members. Monthly memberships start at $14.95, while yearly memberships are $89.95. The latest feature Graves and Koechlin have added to the site allows users to take a free personality profile survey, after which they receive an analysis of their personality type and what kind of partner would best suit them. They also receive a list of possible member matches based on their characteristics and personality.

Projected 2006 sales are $110,000, and the two hope to have 50,000 members by their two-year mark. But the business means more to them than just numbers. Says Graves, "It feels like we're giving back to society--helping people--not just selling something."

-James Park