Ajaz Iqbal said that it was a step into the unknown when he decided to start his own speed dating company
15:23, 30 Jan 2026Updated 13:50, 31 Jan 2026
Ajaz Iqbal began his own speed dating company in 2003(Image: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)
Ajaz Iqbal runs a successful speed dating business and says that the emergence of dating apps in recent years, far from wrecking his livelihood, has only helped him to grow his company. Ajaz said that the idea to first start the company came about after he had visited various events held in other parts of the country.
He told the ECHO: “I went to a speed dating event in Manchester in 2003 when it first came over to the UK and I had a really good time, but the companies that were running speed dating back then were based in London, the north was an afterthought for them.”
Ajaz, 55, added: “They had their hands in places like Manchester and Leeds, but they didn’t even think that Liverpool was worth coming to, so I thought ‘why don’t I give it a go?’ so I started running events in Liverpool.”
He said that it dawned on him quickly that ‘if you want to do it seriously then you have got to do it full time’.
Ajaz’s idea came about after spotting a gap in the market in Liverpool(Image: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)
Having left his previous job in an estate agent behind to go “full-time”, it wasn’t long before he experienced some initial teething problems after setting up Fastlove Speed Dating.
He said: “When I first tried to do it, I had no idea how to promote it at all, so the first couple of tries we just didn’t get enough people at all and I had to cancel. I kind of realised that you couldn’t just chuck a few flyers out, so I started advertising properly.”
However, after learning from his early mistakes, his jump into the unknown paid off when guests began telling him he had ‘to keep on doing this”‘
In the years since he first started his business over 20 years ago, the speed dating industry has faced a number of setbacks including the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and the emergence of online dating apps.
Ajaz said that the emergence of online dating apps has only helped his business(Image: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)
But, he believes that the growth of dating apps has only been helped his business. He said: “What we find is that the more popular that the apps get, the more popular that we get because there are more and more people who have had a bad experience [on the apps]. I know not everybody does, a lot of people do meet that way. But, a lot of people do have a bad experience and they meet a person and they don’t look anything like what they’re supposed [to look like].”
He added: “When you’re talking about people not being very nice to each other, it’s much easier to do it when you’re hiding behind a screen than it is to do it face to face and you’re surrounded by other people, so social norms make you behave yourself.”
Additionally, he believes that attitudes have changed in recent years when it comes to dating. He said: “Over the years speed dating has become more popular, and I would say that’s because social attitudes towards meeting this way or through dating apps have changed. When we first started in 2003 there was a lot of social stigma around speed dating or internet dating [before apps], but over time these methods have become the way that most people meet.”
Ajaz said that “stigma” towards speed dating has lessened in recent years(Image: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)
Taking place weekly, Ajaz hosts most of his events from the Hilton hotel in the city centre while he employs a team of staff to host events in Manchester and Yorkshire.
He added: “We’re now finding that people of all ages come to speed dating as an alternative to apps as it’s a more real experience – you get to have a great night out and have real conversations with real people instead of constantly messaging and often not getting to the point of meeting people. Our age groups range from 21-35 at the young end to 50-65, with everything in between.”
While he said that people attend his events for various reasons, he said that one thing has given him huge satisfaction.
He said: “It’s important to say that people have various reasons for coming speed dating, whether it’s having a fun night out with a load of single people, looking for friendship or looking for a serious relationship leading to marriage. Having said that, we’ve had over 200 marriages that I know of, and there may be many more that we don’t know about.”