You’d think that building Canada’s top dating site (and one of the most-visited websites on the planet) and receiving a $1-million Google Adsense cheque would turn an entrepreneur into an egomaniac.

Markus Frind is not your typical startup founder.

Frind, 28, is the sole creator of www.plentyoffish.com, Canada’s first free online dating site, which he operates single-handedly from his Vancouver condo.

Frind had spent years working as a web developer, finding little job security or satisfaction. He needed to enhance his skills, and the only way to accomplish that was to actually do it and not just read about it.

He launched the site in 2003, simply because he wanted to learn how to use asp.net, a web application framework.

“I was jumping jobs every six months because of the dot-com bust. Everything in Vancouver was going under. I needed to teach myself how to program,” he says.

His goal was to create something that could generate enough income for him to quit his full-time job. He ended up becoming a millionaire.

The fact that Frind found other dating networks such as Lavalife “annoying,” meant that the choice to create an online dating site was natural; plentyoffish.com was created in just two weeks.

Little did Frind know that the rest of the world felt the same way.

“It’s about making something that people like and use and [that] works for them,” he says.

In Frind’s personal blog, he says that there are still a lot of markets that you can enter that “will generate 20 million a year plus.”

“The only problem is that you have to be first,” he writes.

It’s this basic idea that has resulted in the website’s exponential growth. Frind disrupted a Canadian market that was only really occupied by one other dating site, Lavalife. He offered something new and different to a virtually competition-free market, and the dating forum took off from there.

After launching the site, Frind knew that traditional forms of advertising weren’t going to be effective. Unlike Match.com, which spends $10 million in marketing, plentyoffish.com works entirely through word of mouth.

"It’s pretty much the biggest site in the world now. And it’s only going to get way bigger," he says.

Plentyoffish.com is all about barebones functionality, from its ridiculously easy navigation to its ugly design. It only takes seconds to create a profile and complete the free compatibility test.

Then, the site automatically lists people who would be a potential match and sends you an email whenever people contact you. The site also lets members rate each other, earning titles like “fish again” or “great catch”, and hosts forums for local meet ups, get-togethers and discussions of upcoming events.

But in the end, what sets plentyoffish.com apart from the competition is the fact that every aspect of the service is 100 per cent free.

People laughed when Frind decided to launch a free online dating site.

”’Who can make money off a free site?’ they said. Within three months, I made $1000 a month” – Frind

Today, Frind pulls in $10,000 a day from Adsense. Recently, he sparked a lot of talk after posting a photo of himself holding up a $1-million cheque.

And it’s money that he makes by putting in only two hours of work a day.

“Everything I do is automated. It’s just the emails. I monitor the site, making sure that people aren’t putting up fake profiles and that sort of stuff,” he says.

Despite the huge amounts of traffic on plentyoffish.com, Frind says there’s no need to hire employees to operate the site, because it’s practically run by the users.

Other companies are trying desperately to grab a bite out of plentyoffish and its growing profits. Frind says that he’s contacted at least once a week by suitors who want to buy the site.

Frind, on the other hand, has no plans of selling.

“I just want to see how far I can take it now,” he says.

“It’s more of a hobby than a business for me.”

It’s remarkable to think about the millions of dollars that Frind could be making.

He could be another Google-buys-YouTube success story, earning himself a 100% share of the buyout pie.

But Frind is not your typical executive.

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