By Anju Rupal, an EO Switzerland-Zurich member and COO of Finaxis AG.

If you hang around other EOers long enough, you might just get inspired to start another company. Take me, for instance. Thanks to my Indian genes, I have always been a passionate and avid matchmaker. Within EO, I finally found a perfect outlet for my passion— my second company, Sense2love, which was founded with fellow member Bill Liao of EO Germany.

Statistically speaking, most long-term relationships are found at school or your workplace. Within my own circle of friends, I realized that many had “missed the boat” for various reasons. They now had the time and energy to invest in a sustainable relationship, but traditional dating sites did not appeal to them.

I thought that it would be great to have an easy alternative to tacky dating sites so that I could match my single friends, so Bill and I got to work. We built an invitation-only network that serves the natural matchmaker in us all. Inspired by Indian traditions and new trends in social networking, the site is an easy tool that allows people to build a network of trusted friends so that those who are matched by our system have some connection through their “six degrees of affection.”

First, people join as “matchmakers” and can then decide if they would like to be matched themselves. To find a match, people must first discover what their “lovesense” is by answering a brief, 25-question survey, which provides us with the information needed to create a “lovesense” profile. The profile takes into account the affective, cognitive and behavioral traits unique to each person and then helps find compatible matches.

The site is different than other dating sites— it’s confidential and doesn’t contain pictures, lists, adverts, profiles or search tools. I created it this way based on feedback and support from my fellow EO members.

I have been an EO member since 2004, but the past one-and-a-half years in particular have taken me on quite a journey. I have attended EO University circuits and approached my peers as a sounding board for my ideas. EO has become for me an extended family with an upside— it provides a nurturing environment that lets me grow and thrive while I share experiences, ideas and fears – however bizarre they sound – with friends. I am infinitely grateful to those who have supported me along the way and allowed me to tap into their knowledge and experiences.

We just launched the Sense2love beta site, and I’m confident that I will continue to get constructive feedback and encouragement from other EOers.

I’m also excited about putting together a great Sense2love team that can help me redefine ideas and concepts while keeping our main goal in mind— finally bringing friends “to their senses.”