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MAY 9, 2005
By Sarah Lacy Dinner, Movie, Background Check [Page 2 of 2] PUBLICITY BONANZA? She and other critics claim Vest is using the legislative system to gain a foothold in the online-dating market. "This didn't come from a groundswell of single people using online-dating sites. This came from a tiny company whose business model is to offer background checks," Kelly says. "This is a small company in a very competitive industry looking to become a big company." Vest counters that background checks are True.com's competitive advantage right now, and that if the law passes, that edge will be gone. Still, this push has earned Vest free publicity as a company already performing background checks. Since it came late to the industry, any notice it might gain is invaluable. Legislators point out that some 180 organizations have come out in favor of the bill, including local sheriff's offices and victims' support groups -- or the "good guys," as Vest calls them. And some senators emphasize they rewrote their bills to be more palatable to the rest of the industry. MAJOR VICTORY. This isn't the first time in his career that Vest, 60, has stirred the pot. Before starting True.com, he owned a financial firm called HD Vest, a network of independent accountants who also gave financial-planning advice. In the early 1990s, it was either illegal or against accounting rules to take commissions in 40 out of 50 states. Vest's affiliated accountants were practicing all over the country, and Vest told them to ignore such rules -- and pushed it to a head by turning himself in to the Texas accounting board, ultimately daring it to revoke his license. The Federal Trade Commission backed Vest's stance, Texas backed down, and the American Institute of CPAs reversed its anticommission stance, causing many of the states to follow suit. Vest's firm prospered and was sold to Wells Fargo (WFC ) in 2001 for $127 million. He doesn't shrink from his reputation. "I'm perceived as a troublemaker," he says. "I like to look at rules that aren't logical, and then I like to get them changed. I like looking up how bad a guy I am on the blogs. I guess I'm pretty thick-skinned." BACK OFF, BARRY. Vest has also squared off with Match.com before. Last summer, True.com hired nine former Match.com employees, who were then subpoenaed to investigate claims that they may have disclosed trade secrets. Vest took out a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal that was a letter to Barry Diller, whose company, IAC/InterActiveCorp. (IACI ), owns Match.com. "I got real mad," Vest says. "I told Barry Diller not to intimidate my employees and said he'd have to come through me first. They didn't have any trade secrets we would want." He says nothing has happened since the depositions. Match.com declined to discuss the issue. No matter what critics claim, Vest insists he's motivated by high ideals. In the case of his former securities firm, he says he didn't think it was fair that families couldn't get investment advice from their trusted CPA. Regarding online dating, his goal is much more lofty -- he says he's trying to lower the national divorce rate. In addition to doing background checks, True.com has a psychological test geared toward finding whether couples are compatible. It includes questions surrounding how lenient or strict a parent potential daters would be. WON'T GO AWAY. If background checks do become de rigueur in online dating, don't expect Vest to rest there -- he's already planning to take on sites that use the word "scientific" to describe their matching techniques. He argues that scientific implies independent verification, and many of these sites' quizzes and tests haven't been subject to such review. No matter what happens on the state level with background checks, Vest aims to be a thorn in the online-dating industry's side for years to come.
 Lacy is a reporter for BusinessWeek Online in Silicon Valley Edited by Rod Kurtz
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