Brandon Wade (born Lead Wey; 1970) is an American businessman who is the founder and chief executive officer of InfoStream Group, an online dating company. He is a graduate of the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

(MIT) and

MIT Sloan School of Management The MIT Sloan School of Management (MIT Sloan or Sloan) is the business school of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT Sloan offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree programs, ...

and a former software engineer. He is best known for founding the

sugar dating Sugar dating, also called sugaring, is a relationship of an older wealthy person and a younger person who is in need of financial assistance. This sometimes achieves mutual benefits, but is often abused to take advantage of and coerce poor peop ...

web site

SeekingArrangement Seeking.com (formerly known as SeekingArrangement) is an American online dating service founded by Brandon Wade in San Francisco, California, in 2006. Wade was previously the CEO of the company until June 2022 when he was succeeded by Ruben Bu ...

. Wade's web sites have been criticised for being comparable to escort services.

Early life

Born in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

ethnic Chinese The Chinese people or simply Chinese, are people or ethnic groups identified with China, usually through ethnicity, nationality, citizenship, or other affiliation. Chinese people are known as Zhongguoren () or as Huaren () by speakers of s ...

parents, Wade was raised in what he describes as a "

Tiger Mom Tiger parenting is a form of strict parenting, whereby parents are highly invested in ensuring their children's success. Specifically, tiger parents push their children to attain high levels of academic achievement or success in high-status ext ...

–type of upbringing" consisting of studying and not much else. While growing up in Singapore, Wade attended

Saint Andrew's Secondary School Saint Andrew's Secondary School is a government-aided Anglican boys' secondary school in Potong Pasir, Singapore. It was established in the 19th century, and still operates along traditional British lines. The school offers a four- or five-year pr ...

and

Hwa Chong Junior College The Hwa Chong Junior College () was a junior college in Singapore offering pre-university education. The school merged with The Chinese High School on 1 January 2005 to form the integrated Hwa Chong Institution. History Founding Hwa Chong Juni ...

. In 1993, Wade graduated from

(MIT), where he received a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

on an Overseas Merit Scholarship awarded by Singapore's Public Service Commission. Upon graduating in 1993, Wade opted to stay in the United States, breaking his contractual obligation to return to Singapore and forcing his parents to pay about $300,000 in damages. Wade then enrolled in the

, where he graduated with a

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

in 1995.

Career

After completing his MBA, he moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

to work for technology consultants

Booz Allen Booz may refer to: *Booz (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) * Strategy&, formerly known as Booz & Company, a global management consulting firm now part of PricewaterhouseCoopers *Booz Allen Hamilton, a global managemen ...

. He later joined

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...

as a technology infrastructure manager. Wade is the author of two books titled ''Seeking Arrangement: The Definitive Guide to Sugar Daddy and Mutually Beneficial Relationships'' and ''Connecting with the IN Crowd: How to Network, Hang Out, and Play with Millionaires Online''. In a 2014 essay for

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

titled '' "Dating website founder says love doesn't exist''", Wade wrote, "Love is a concept invented by poor people."

Dating websites

In 2006, Wade founded the

website

. In 2007, Wade launched a companion dating site WhatsYourPrice.com, a dating website where members bid for dates in an online auction environment. In May 2012 he launched MissTravel.com, which pairs 'generous' travelers with 'attractive' travelers who would love the opportunity to travel the world for free. Marlow Stern of ''

The Daily Beast ''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. It was founded in 2008. It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief from 2018 to 2021. In a 20 ...

'' criticised MissTravel.com for its lack of safety precautions, including the high potential for sex trafficking. And in May 2015, Wade launched OpenMinded.com, a dating website that caters to those who are monogamish with the goal of providing a safe and stigma-free environment that brings the ease and flexibility of online dating to the currently underserved world of open relationships. He further states the website caters to those looking to engage in 'ethical cheating'. In America, Wade has hosted Sugar Daddy dating events to publicise his sites. According to Wade, the website already has a large membership in the United Kingdom. Wade's websites, which are based around rich men paying for dates with attractive women, have received controversy and criticism in the media, with ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

'', ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'',

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...

and

MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...

all reporting on the moral ambiguity of the websites SeekingArrangement and WhatsYourPrice.com. The websites have been accused of treating their female members like prostitutes, with WhatsYourPrice.com being described as "indistinguishable from prostitution". It has been reported that a large proportion of women using the site are students, and about 40 percent of the male users are married men. Wade has strongly denied there is an illicit side to the site.Koppel, Nathan
"A Q&A With Brandon Wade, Mr. Sugar Daddy"
Wall Street Journal. August 17, 2011. Retrieved December 21, 2012.Padawer, Ruth

NYTimes.com. April 10, 2009. Retrieved December 21, 2012.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wade, Brandon 1970 births Living people People from Singapore Singaporean emigrants to the United States Businesspeople from Las Vegas MIT School of Engineering alumni American company founders MIT Sloan School of Management alumni