4 of Maxim's Top 10 Matchmakers Run Their Businesses on HoneyBee

Maxim just published its 2026 feature on the top 10 matchmakers, dating coaches, and relationship experts worth knowing this year. We read it, nodded along, and then did a quick headcount: four of the ten professionals spotlighted are HoneyBee customers.

Jill Dunn of Jillin' It. May Bugenhagen of Two Asian Matchmakers. Amanda Hood of The Crush Confidential. Sandy Sternbach of The Right Time Consultants.

Four matchmakers with wildly different specialties, client bases, and geographies, all building on the same platform. That felt worth talking about.

What These Four Have in Common (Besides Great Taste in Software)

Not much, honestly, and that's sort of the point.

Jill Dunn works with relationship-minded singles across Connecticut, New York, and nationwide, measuring success not by volume of introductions but by how few dates it takes to find the right one. Her philosophy centers on treating dating as an intentional experience rather than a numbers game, something that demands a CRM capable of tracking the nuance behind every interaction, not just the interaction itself.

May Bugenhagen has spent 17 years running a boutique practice out of Los Angeles that connects accomplished men with exceptional Asian and Asian-American women across the U.S. and Asia. Every match meets a 75% compatibility threshold before an introduction happens. That kind of precision requires structured data and reliable process underneath it, because intuition alone doesn't scale across international borders and time zones. We helped May migrate from a proprietary system last year; she is one of our biggest champions!

Amanda Hood, based in Dayton and serving clients nationwide, built The Crush Confidential around a proprietary three-date model that actively guides both people through the earliest stage of connection. Most matchmakers step back after the introduction. Hood stays in it, which means her operational workflow has to support ongoing coaching, real-time feedback loops, and per-client customization at a level that spreadsheets simply can't sustain.

Sandy Sternbach serves accomplished professionals ages 40 and older through The Right Time Consultants, running a process modeled on executive search with strict quality-over-volume discipline. Her clientele includes attorneys, executives, and entrepreneurs who expect concierge-level discretion. The operational bar for confidentiality and personalization in that market segment is high enough that choosing the wrong tools can cost you a client before you've even made an introduction.

Why This Matters to Us

We built HoneyBee for matchmakers, not for dating apps, not for generic CRMs that happen to store contacts. The platform exists because professional matchmaking has operational demands that off-the-shelf tools consistently fail to meet: compatibility tracking, client coaching workflows, cross-matchmaker collaboration through the Pollinator 🐝 Marketplace, and marketing automation that doesn't require a developer on retainer.

Seeing four HoneyBee customers show up in a single national feature tells us something we already suspected but appreciate having confirmed. The matchmakers doing the most interesting, most intentional work in this industry tend to gravitate toward tools built specifically for how they operate. Generic software forces workarounds. Purpose-built software gets out of the way.

Congratulations, Jill, May, Amanda, and Sandy

Being recognized by Maxim alongside names like Cinqe Matchmaking, Dr. Vanessa Vincent, and Soniyah Singh is a serious nod. These four earned that placement through years of building practices that prioritize depth over volume, real compatibility over algorithmic shortcuts, and client outcomes over vanity metrics.

We're proud to be the platform behind their work. And if you're a matchmaker reading this, wondering whether your current tech stack is helping or quietly holding you back, we'd love to show you what 40% of Maxim's top 10 are already using.