New St. Louis matchmaking service aims to crack a tough nut: Men over 60

A new boutique matchmaking firm has been targeting households in certain St. Louis-area ZIP codes with an unusual message: They’re looking for a few older men.

L&M Matchmaking, which launched in October, aims to help “accomplished men meet exceptional women”—with services focused on men who are 60 and over. The company charges a flat fee of $15,000 to provide qualified clients with introductions to six carefully screened women, ages 50 and over.

But while there are far more single women of a certain age than men, co-founders Lori Yancey and Michele Burghardt say men need help too. A lot of it. 

“I don’t see how this doesn’t work,” says Burghardt in response to skepticism from a reporter. “Men over 50 are one of the loneliest demographics.” Within days of L&M’s first postcard going out, they say, they notched a client. 

Herself widowed at 47, Yancey says she’s witnessed the reality of the St. Louis dating scene. She says her friends frequently complain that no good men are on the dating sites. But as she and Burghardt have conducted focus groups with men, they’ve heard something similar. “This attorney at our focus group is talking about the women that he’s dating, and he just wants to be able to carry on an intelligent conversation, he wants to date a woman that can pay for her own cell phone. And I’m like, Where are you meeting these women? And I’m thinking about my group, and I’m like, I could introduce you to five amazing women.” Now she hopes to do just that, for a fee.

Why It Matters: The dating services industry is expected to notch $8.2 billion in revenue globally in 2025, according to Statista. While that’s centered on online dating, matchmaking is itself a sizable industry, with $2.6 billion in revenue in the U.S. alone (more than half the global total).

The market is increasingly niche. Gone are the days when everyone signed up for Match.com. People instead might join an app focused on their faith or culture or seek out a platform that caters to their age or even level of professional success. The Raya app, for example, requires a personal referral and includes screening by a committee. MillionaireMatch caters to people who are “rich” (its word). 

Where L&M Matchmaking’s business plan may prove challenging is that they’re charging men, not women—and there are many more older women who are single than men. That’s in part because there are simply more older women, period, but also because older men are more likely to date someone younger than them. The Pew Research Trust says that 49 percent of women ages 65 and older are unpartnered. That’s true of only 21 percent of men that age. (Things are more even in the 50 to 64-year-old demographic.) 

But the same Pew study found that many single men are ready to mingle: Of those who are single and over 40, only 42 percent say they aren’t looking to date. (For women, that jumps to 71 percent.) How much are they willing to pay to solve that? It surely varies greatly. But Statista notes, across the dating industry, the average revenue per user in the U.S. is just $13.41.

What’s Next: Yancey and Burghardt were friends before they were business partners, and each brings a different expertise: Yancey is a career coach and Burghardt is a dating coach. They plan to spend a good amount of time with each client, getting to understand his hopes, dreams, and lifestyle before presenting him with matches to meet—and if the women in their database don’t fit the bill, they’ll seek out women who do. “We work with them through the entire process,” says Burghardt.

In addition to those personalized interactions, they plan to immerse themselves in the world of seniors seeking love connections by offering free workshops on dating safely after 60. (Organizations wanting more information or to schedule a workshop can contact them via [email protected] or at 636-459-1111.) In December, they also plan to launch a podcast, The Attraction Code: The Elite Single Man’s Guide to Dating with Confidence After 60.