We had the good fortune of connecting with Gabriella Aratow and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Gabriella, what do you attribute your success to?

One of the interesting things to me about success as a matchmaker is that the best ones have a combination of seemingly contradictory traits. For example, I am an excellent listener, an absolute must in my business, yet I also know when listening to my client is not actually in my client’s best interest.  Their way of thinking has generally not worked and my way of thinking works all the time. I must balance learning from them in order to know how to match each of them uniquely and well and also I must teach them new perspectives to help them get the connection that’s alluding them. Similarly, I need to be both tremendously compassionate towards their experience in single-hood, which is often full of disappointment, frustration, and uncertainly but I also have to be a bit of a tough cookie and not indulge them.  We are not together for self-pity but to drive forward towards them achieving a great relationship. I have to be an on-the-ball businessperson — I always have more calls to make and I don’t have time to waste — but I’m also attempting to create true magic in this person’s life and I have to make mental and spiritual space to sprinkle a little love dust around. Matchmakers, I like to say, are where an agent meets a fairy.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Keeper Introduction Services is about a holistic approach to matchmaking. When you look for a best friend who is also your partner in romance, it’s not the same method as when you shop for a car. People often don’t know how to harness their own inner compass to find this different route. We put great candidates in front of our clients but we also want to elevate their approach so they can find the fulfillment they seek.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I pick my friend up at my local airport, ASE, Aspen, and go straight to lunch in Willits at El Korita, which makes a sublime chicken mole. Then we drive up the Frying Pan River and hike above the Ruedi Reservoir. I love the fir forests and aspen canopies and glimpses of water on that nice starter trail. We follow by strolling the historic walking tour in the old town of Basalt, and take some pictures on the swinging bridge, and after we go to Free Range for dinner. (With Free Range, the Tipsy Trout and the The Brick Pony — all places I enjoy — I like to ask, “The chicken, the fish or the equine tonight?”) At Free Range we can get anything, it’s all so good, but I won’t leave without their Brussels sprouts, which you can order two different ways, Moroccan or Tuscan. In the morning we do a bike ride on the Rio Grande path. The part between Basalt and Carbondale is my favorite, so meandering and meditative. In Carbondale we have Boulder ice cream at the Fat Belly burger stand. Depending on the season we might later go cast a few flies and catch trout. We can choose from the Roaring Fork, Frying Pan or Crystal River. Going into Aspen that evening, we visit some art galleries followed by Peking Duck at Bosq, topped off with a craft cocktail at Hooch or perhaps the Hotel Jerome. The next day we go over McClure pass to Telluride, stopping through Marble, the site of America’s only marble mine, to look at the big white slabs. When we arrive in T-ride I stop into Hell Bent Silver and Leather where I buy my hand-carved Native fetishes which I include in the First Date Box I sell on my web site, as they are powerful charms for good luck in love. Then we take in views on the free gondola and from the bar in Allred’s at San Sofia station at the top. Over the next couple of days, we might do more challenging hikes, from Judd Weibe to Silver Lake, take a pilates class in Mountain Village, get a massage, and dine at the National, which has the best burger on the planet. It’s not on the menu so you have to ask for it at the bar. At night we sleep at the historic Sheridan Hotel right on Colorado Ave and we won’t forget at some point to look at some great pictures of the area in the Telluride room at the local library. If we are having a little low blood sugar — just because of the altitude of course — a creme filled doughnut from Baked in Telluride just might help, or a Telluride Truffle (maybe 4) shaped like a ski slope. Whatever movie is at the Nugget Theater, back to operations post-Covid, we’re going! Finally, we top off our Colorado adventure by heading southwest. First stop is Lizard Head Pass for mushroom hunting or to snow shoe, and then we go over a winding dirt road for a couple nights at my very favorite place, the Dunton Hot Springs. In the morning we climb to Colorado’s only geyser, just a couple miles away, and for the afternoon we arrange a horseback ride with views of all the local peaks. The evening has us rest our weary muscles in the three wonderful natural hot baths, both before and after being farm-to-table fed by staff chefs. Finally I’ll bring my friend to the airport in Cortez or Montrose to fly home. That’s where they will cry that they have to leave, but the next year and the next season is just another reason to return.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I met a client at a previous company named Thomas. I told him that I thought there was an approach to matchmaking and a greater matchmaking service that could be better than anything I was seeing. He had only dating a few weeks, following the death of his wife of 25 years, which happened around the time he stepped down from running an energy company.  We decided that creating a superior matchmaking business together is something we would like to do.  I’d had plenty of 5-star reviews from clients in the past, but his affirmation and support are what allowed me to go, as they say, off the charts.

Website: keeperintros.com
Other: It’s totally FREE to enter my singles network! You can go straight in from my website above. There are no guarantees to get a date unless you are a paying client, but I always need people in my network to send out with the clients, so you never know!  If you are interested in becoming a client, and guaranteed to have a series of custom curated dates, please email me at gaby@keeperintros.com

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutDenver is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.