Finding love in 2026 looks nothing like it did a decade ago. Between AI-curated dating apps, a post-pandemic reset of relationship expectations, and a growing demand for real human connection over algorithmic swipes, more singles than ever are turning to professional matchmakers and relationship coaches to navigate it all. Whether you’re a busy executive who’s mastered everything but your love life or simply someone who’s done doing it alone, these experts have built their careers on one belief: The right relationship changes everything. Many of these professionals were recommended by their peers, a testament to the camaraderie and mutual respect that defines the matchmaking and coaching community. Here are 10 matchmakers, dating coaches, and relationship experts worth knowing this year:
Emyli Lovz, Cofounder of emlovz
Most dating advice tells you to be patient and wait for the right person to come along. Emyli Lovz took a different approach. She went on 101 dates with 52 different men and documented everything. The insights from that experience became the foundation for her coaching program, Dating Decoded, where she teaches MegaDating, the process of going on 20 dates in 90 days to find your person with clarity and confidence. That approach has helped thousands of singles find love, and she has been helping people navigate dating and relationships since 2012.
emlovz is a full-service dating coach for men and women that helps clients go from frustrated, stuck, or burned out to confidently meeting the right person and building a real relationship. Guided by Lovz’s MegaDating system, clients are supported by a team of highly trained coaches who specialize in every stage of the dating process. Clients learn how to date multiple people early, reduce anxiety, avoid settling, and quickly identify true alignment for a healthy long-term relationship. The emlovz coaching team works hands-on with clients throughout the entire process: dating app strategy, profile writing, photo selection, messaging, flirting, confidence, date strategy, sex and intimacy, and relationship selection. Clients also receive lifetime membership and ongoing support until they find the right relationship, a rare offering in this industry.
A UC Berkeley alumna with post-baccalaureate work in psychology and counseling, Lovz is a certified relationship coach who brings both professional expertise and real-life experience to her work as a wife and mother. She recently launched a certification program to train other coaches in the MegaDating method, extending her impact well beyond her own client roster. For singles who are done waiting and ready to date with intention, Lovz offers something the apps never could: a system, a coach, and a community built around actually finding love. Follow Lovz on TikTok.
Melanie Shores, CEO, Matchmaker and Dating Coach, Modern Mingle
For professional singles tired of apps, ghosting, and going nowhere fast, Melanie Shores built Modern Mingle to offer something modern dating rarely delivers: a process that feels intentional, safe, and genuinely human. Based in San Antonio, Texas, her matchmaking and dating service runs on real human insight, not algorithms. Every client is personally met, vetted, and truly understood before a single introduction is made.
But matchmaking alone isn’t what gets results. It’s the combination of strategy, feedback, and real-life interaction. Shores guides clients through the entire process, helping them identify patterns, improve how they show up, and refine matches after each introduction. Modern Mingle also creates in-person events where chemistry can be observed in real time, something apps simply can’t do. Her goal isn’t just to set people up; it’s to help them become better daters, make more aligned choices, and build lasting relationships.
Shores often tells clients that the biggest shift is moving from evaluating someone to actually experiencing them, staying open, present, and willing, rather than treating dating like a checklist. That mindset shift is where real connection begins.
After years in the matchmaking industry, including with large national companies, Shores founded Modern Mingle to put people first. She has since helped thousands of professional singles find compatible partners and become more confident, self-aware daters. A 2026 Consumer Choice Award winner for Dating Services, Modern Mingle has been featured in the San Antonio Express-News, MySA, San Antonio Living, Daytime, KENS 5, and Fox. Follow Shores on Instagram.
Rachel June London, VIP & Celebrity Matchmaker, Cinqe Matchmaking
There is a particular kind of person who has mastered almost everything and finds that their love life is the one area that doesn’t respond to the same intelligence, drive, or strategy that built everything else. Then there are those who are simply exceptional and know exactly what they want but just haven’t found someone who matches that standard yet. That’s where Rachel June London comes in.
One of the world’s most sought-after elite matchmakers and a partner at Cinqe Matchmaking, London holds a Stanford MBA and works with some of the most influential individuals across industries and continents. Royal family members, presidential candidates, founders, investors, and cultural leaders who require the highest level of discretion, discernment, and strategic insight. Her methodology blends data, behavioral insight, and real-world experience to create deeply aligned partnerships rooted in shared values, long-term vision, and genuine compatibility.
What sets her apart is harder to quantify. A former No. 1 charting singer-songwriter whose music has been released through major labels and heard on radio around the world, London brings an emotional intelligence and intuitive understanding of human dynamics that goes well beyond credentials. Beyond introductions, she provides high-level coaching designed to support clients in cultivating meaningful, lasting love while navigating the complexities of modern dating. Her clients don’t just find a partner, they experience transformational results and genuine personal evolution. For those who have built an exceptional life and are ready to share it with someone equally extraordinary, London makes that possible. Follow London on Instagram.
May Bugenhagen, Founder & Elite Matchmaker, Two Asian Matchmakers
For accomplished men winning in business but losing patience with modern dating—exhausted by the cycle of swiping, ghosting, and dead-end dates—May Bugenhagen offers a different path. Since 2009, her boutique firm, Two Asian Matchmakers, has quietly advised and introduced discerning men to exceptional Asian and Asian-American women who are equally intentional about partnership. Based in Los Angeles with an international reach spanning the U.S. and Asia, her practice is built on discretion, precision, and results.
True matchmaking transcends “on-paper” data. Bugenhagen invests deeply in understanding the person behind the profile, their lifestyle, ambitions, and long-term vision before facilitating a single introduction. Every match meets a rigorous 75% compatibility threshold, but the real magic lies in her process. Bugenhagen manages all screening and coordination with a core philosophy: She never convinces; she connects. By the time an introduction occurs, the interest is already mutual and enthusiastic, ensuring every first meeting feels organic and effortless.
Bugenhagen is equally a fierce advocate for the women in her network, curating opportunities for them to meet respectful, successful men who genuinely value their culture and character. She often reminds her clients that the most significant shift isn’t just moving from apps to matchmaking, it’s moving from quantity to quality. It is the transition from passive dating to pursuing partnership with intention. It isn’t about meeting someone; it’s about meeting the right someone. For over 17 years, that is exactly what Bugenhagen has helped high-performing men achieve. Follow Bugenhagen on Instagram.
Amanda Hood, Founder & CEO, The Crush Confidential
The first three dates make or break almost every relationship. Amanda Hood is a matchmaker who refuses to leave them to chance. As the founder of The Crush Confidential—based in Dayton, Ohio and serving clients nationwide—Hood works with high-achieving, commitment-minded singles who are ready for something more intentional than another app and disappointment. At the center of her process is a proprietary, evidence-based three-date model that doesn’t just introduce two compatible people, it actively guides them through the earliest and most fragile stage of a new connection. Miscommunication, premature judgment, and misaligned expectations are the quiet killers of relationships that could have been great. Hood’s framework is specifically designed to eliminate them. Instead of stepping back after the introduction, she keeps both people supported as the connection develops real room to breathe, leaving nothing to guesswork.
But Hood isn’t just curating matches, she’s developing people. Drawing on her background as a college instructor and entrepreneur, she brings a rare blend of analytical rigor and human intuition to every client relationship. There is no one size fits all here: Every match is highly tailored, and every client is being developed throughout the entire process, not just at the finish line. Through personalized coaching woven in from day one, clients don’t just meet someone worth keeping, they become someone worth keeping. They leave with sharper self-awareness, better dating instincts, and patterns broken that had been quietly costing them for years. At The Crush Confidential, the goal was never more dates. It was always one relationship that actually lasts. Follow Hood on Instagram.
Claudia Duran, VIP Matchmaker
For ultra-high-net-worth individuals, time is a coveted asset. Leaving love to chance is a risk they simply cannot afford. That’s where Claudia Duran comes in. She doesn’t operate as a traditional matchmaker. Instead, she serves as a trusted advisor to CEOs, entrepreneurs, and athletes who require absolute discretion and expect highly discerning standards. Based in Miami with a global reach, Duran works the way her clients do: fast, discreetly, and with precision.
Duran’s approach is rooted in the belief that at the highest levels of performance and success, it isn’t about access to people, it’s about exposure to the right person. She builds highly curated, intentional introductions based on psychological compatibility, long-term vision, and lifestyle alignment. By filtering out the noise and protecting her clients’ time, she positions them to meet someone who isn’t just impressive on paper, but also emotionally invested and fits the life they have built.
With a background building global media strategies for top brands such as Playboy TV International and Jet Edge, Duran brings a “disruptor” energy to the industry and is backed by her decade-long partnership with Elite Connections, an agency that’s been in business for 30 years and holds A+, BBB, and BCA ratings. Duran understands that while her clients are decisive in business, relationships require a different skill set. She bridges that gap, helping them move from professional excellence to personal fulfillment. Follow Claudia on Instagram.
Jill Dunn, Matchmaker and Dating Expert, Jillin’ It
Most matchmakers measure success by the number of dates they facilitate; Jill Dunn measures it by how few dates her clients need to find the right one. As the founder of Jillin’ It, she serves successful, relationship-minded singles who are exhausted by the cycle of disappointing connections and ready to date with clarity, intention, and actually enjoy the process. Based in Connecticut and New York with a nationwide reach, Dunn offers a sophisticated alternative to volume-based services, delivering higher-quality connections, deeper confidence, and relationships that move clients out of the dating loop and into something real.
Dunn’s approach is rooted in this belief: the juice, and the joy, is in the journey. She treats every introduction as part of a larger, intentional experience rather than just a night out. After each introduction, she and her clients extract real-time insight, refining what worked, what didn’t, and what felt truly aligned. That level of reflection doesn’t just refine the search; it transforms how clients show up and what they’re truly available for. In that process, dating becomes lighter, more expansive, and genuinely enjoyable again.
Born from her own experience navigating life after divorce, Dunn brings personal depth and sharp intuitive insight to everything she does. Blending elite matchmaking with strategic coaching, she creates matches rooted in lifestyle alignment, emotional readiness, and long-term potential. She never asks clients to ignore their intuition, but works with them to distinguish between true misalignment and a connection that simply hasn’t had a chance to unfold. Follow Dunn on Instagram.
Dr. Vanessa Vincent, Licensed Psychologist & Dating Coach
Most dating coaches help you find the right person. Dr. Vanessa Vincent helps you become ready for them. As a licensed psychologist with almost a decade of clinical experience spanning individual therapy, couples counseling, and intimacy therapy, Dr. Vincent brings a depth to dating coaching that goes well beyond strategy and self-presentation. Her work is rooted in a genuine understanding of motivating factors for how people show up in relationships, and what it takes to build authentic, lasting, and loving partnerships. Through highly personalized coaching built around each client’s goals, personality, and relationship patterns, she addresses communication, confidence, and helps shift destructive dynamics. In addition, she created The Power Profile, which offers hands-on dating profile optimization across photos, prompts, and content, built through direct collaboration and reflecting each client’s personality, needs, and desires while attracting authentic potential matches.
Dr. Vincent frequently partners with matchmaking services catering to high-achieving professionals, such as The Standard Agency. For many successful individuals, the demands and intensity of their careers can make finding the right partner feel unexpectedly complex. Together, Dr. Vincent and her matchmaking partners not only create exceptional dating opportunities, but also ensure clients are fully prepared to recognize, receive, and build the kind of relationship they truly want. She is often regarded as a “secret weapon” in relationship readiness, helping clients move beyond surface-level success into genuine and lasting connection. Dr. Vincent has worked with a diverse range of clientele spanning different cultures, sexual and gender identities, and ages. Her range of experience provides a high level of cultural sensitivity and compassionate insight that transforms dating coaching into a genuinely meaningful and deeply personal adventure. Working with Dr. Vincent is a genuine investment in how you relate to yourself, to others, and to love. Follow Dr. Vincent on Instagram.
Soniyah Singh, Founder Of Finding Bliss, Empowered Matchmaker And Relationship Coach
Soniyah Singh is the founder of Finding Bliss, a matchmaker, and relationship coach with over 17 years of experience devoted to understanding the one thing most people experience, yet rarely understand: love. Through her work, she has discovered a simple truth: When our mindset comes into alignment with our intention, finding love is an inevitability, not a matter of luck. She works with singles and couples of all ages, orientations, and backgrounds, supporting every stage of the relationship journey.
Through nearly two decades of Love Research, Singh developed Empowered Matchmaking, a signature approach that integrates matchmaking with experiential relationship coaching. Rather than focusing solely on introductions, her work guides clients to understand their patterns, cultivate compassion, and return to their natural state of lovability. This internal alignment becomes the foundation from which meaningful connection unfolds.
Singh makes introductions when two people are destined to meet. As her clients’ internal world shifts, many find they meet their beloved in unexpected, serendipitous ways. She is deeply passionate about supporting those who are looking for love, those just beginning to explore a new connection, and couples who have been together for decades and are ready to evolve their relationship with intention. Her philosophy is simple yet profound: Be the love you seek. Love is inevitable when we are ready to receive it. Find the love you want with Soniyah Singh. Follow Singh on Instagram.
Sandy Sternbach, Founder & Principal, The Right Time Consultants
There is a particular stage of life where conventional dating advice simply stops applying. The apps were built for a different generation. The bar is higher, the time is shorter, and the stakes, emotionally, professionally, socially, are real. Sandy Sternbach is the go-to matchmaker for accomplished professionals ages 40 and older, and she has spent her career serving exactly that client: the high-achiever who knows precisely what they want and is done leaving this important aspect of life to chance.
As founder of The Right Time Consultants, LLC, Sternbach leads a boutique matchmaking and coaching firm for a highly discerning clientele; attorneys, executives, entrepreneurs, and individuals who have already built expansive, meaningful lives and now want a partner to share them with. At its core, her work is about time management and clarity. She is an astute coach who helps clients get out of their own way, refining how they show up and what they prioritize so that they can move toward their goal of partnership. Meanwhile, she eliminates the inefficiencies and frustrations of modern dating. The introductions she curates are intentional: people who are emotionally and physically available, aligned in lifestyle and values, and genuinely ready to meet someone. The result experiences are respectful and positive—no ghosting or hidden agendas.
Her process is highly confidential, deeply personalized and modeled on an executive search approach with a strict focus on quality over volume. She offers access to a network of eligible, like-minded professionals—individuals her clients would be unlikely to encounter organically—while maintaining a concierge level of discretion and care. As people continue to live longer and fuller lives, travel the world, and evolve, the desire for partnership doesn’t fade; it becomes more defined. Sternbach’s work reflects that reality: thoughtful, strategic, and designed for those who are ready to meet the right person, with intention, at the right time. Sternbach studied art and psychology at New York University, earned her first master’s degree in art psychotherapy, and was awarded a teaching and research scholarship at the USC Annenberg School for communication and Journalism. Follow Sternbach on LinkedIn.