Brad Stephenson

Brad Stephenson is the founder and CEO of Datebook, best-selling author and former baseball player.
Out of high school, Stephenson received scholarship offers from UVA, East Carolina and Harvard. After choosing ECU, Stephenson played backup to the NCAA Catcher of the Year his freshman year.
He spent his summer in the Cape Cod League for the Falmouth Commodores, playing against Evan Longoria of the Chatham A’s and also making his first connection in the tech world through an original member of Lotus Software (sold to IBM for $3.5B).
Stephenson transferred to VCU to receive more playing time and ended up splitting roles. A third transfer to NSU gave Stephenson the starting role, where he hit .364 and was selected to Division 1 2nd Team All-State as a catcher, earning an invitation back to the Cape Cod League.
After one week, The Bourne Braves released him. Instead of going home, he slept in his car and convinced the coach to let him catch bullpens while he shopped for another team.
One week later, the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox signed him as the backup to , where he caught and shared a host family with . Knowing playing time would be limited behind Sanchez, the 4th overall pick, Stephenson repurposed himself as a pitcher and although he hadn’t pitched in 10 years, he threw two scoreless innings, striking out two.
When a catcher from Team USA returned, Stephenson was out of a roster spot and interestingly enough, the Bourne Braves wanted to sign him back again. He spent the rest of the summer in Bourne batting .297 and threw an additional scoreless inning against his former team the Red Sox.
After the season ended, Stephenson traveled to Tampa with Justin Upton to watch his brother BJ Upton play in the World Series. The three stayed in Tampa for the offseason, along with , Evan Longoria and Scott Kazmir (a group who has made close to a billion dollars combined).
Kazmir ended up hiring Stephenson mid-season to manage day to day activities and keep him in shape, which proved wise after he was acquired by the Los Angeles Angels to compete in the playoffs, bringing Stephenson to LA and New York.
The following offseason, Stephenson opted to stay in Arizona and briefly caught bullpens for the Detroit Tigers during spring training. He then decided to focus on starting his own tech business.
In 2014, Stephenson founded Datebook , a competitor to Match.com and eHarmony and launched an iOS app and an Android app, both of which have grown at an alarming rate.
A short time later, Stephenson was selected to the Who's Who for Executives and Business Professionals, noting the importance of a female's perspective being incorporated into the online dating experience (his co-founder is female).
According to Alexa, Datebook ranks far above average for female visitors, and well below average for males. This aspect alone makes Datebook an anomaly, a company that has literally reversed the norms of online dating by having the women outnumber the men.
In 2015, Datebook became the first dating site allowing users to chat via live video, much like Skype, a game changing feature which creates trust amongst users by ensuring legitimacy.
It is noted that Stephenson has volunteered his time with the Special Olympics for several years.
Datebook was featured by ABC News in early 2016.

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