Gary Frisch

Who was Gary Frisch?

Gary Frisch was co-founder of the Gaydar website. He was one of the UK's leading gay businessmen.

Frisch was born in South Africa. His father, Eric, worked in engineering, and his mother, Rona, was an accountant. He was educated at Boksburg High School and studied computer science at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg while working for De Beers' industrial diamond division. After graduation, he set up a computer software company, Frisoft Software, which he sold to Q Data in 1994. He was a technical director with Q Data until he left South Africa in 1997.

He moved to the UK in 1997 with his partner, Henry Badenhorst, to set up QSoft Consulting, an information technology consultancy firm. After a friend complained that he was too busy to look for a new boyfriend, they launched the Gaydar internet dating website in November 1999 from their home in Twickenham. The website rapidly became very popular. By 2007, Gaydar had more than 3.5 million users in 23 countries. In the UK, it accounts for more than 72 per cent of gay and lesbian traffic on the internet, with more than 1 million members. The Gaydar brand expanded into other areas: Frisch was chairman of GaydarRadio, a digital radio station founded in 2002.