Founders
Jonathan Crutchley (shown above)
Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board
Jonathan Crutchley is co-founder and chairman of the board at Online Buddies Inc.
(OLB), a leading global online media innovator. OLB exclusively serves the gay market
segment through a variety of digital platforms focused on facilitating online dating,
social networking, and community involvement.
A 1973 graduate of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor with a BA in history,
Jonathan worked as a real estate broker in Boston before meeting business partner Larry
Basile. Crutchley joined Basile at Dial Information Services, a Boston and NYC-based
telephone service connecting gay men, in 1992.
Along with his co-founder Larry Basile, Crutchley launched Online Buddies Inc. (OLB)
in 2001. In its eleven years of existence, their flagship product
Manhunt has become a category leader. It consistently ranks among the top two websites
in the United States, according to the Hitwise Lifestyle Gay and Lesbian Quarterly Top
Ten Report. Manhunt boasts 6 million active members in over 100 countries worldwide.
Crutchley and his life partner maintain homes in Massachusetts and California, where
he often hosts benefit events for charities such as the Desert AIDS Project. Other
charitable organizations that he supports include the Community Research Initiative of
New England (CRINE), Boston’s Pine Street Inn, the AIDS Action Committee, the AIDS
Emergency Fund, and The Living Center. Jonathan has been the recipient of several awards,
including the Free Speech Coalition’s Netizen of the Year Award for his work in opposing
the 2257 censorship law.
Larry Basile
Co-Founder
Online Buddies’ other founder is Larry Basile. Along with Jonathan Crutchley, Larry
launched Online Buddies (OLB) in 2001. Larry and Jonathan have spent the last eight years
building their flagship product, Manhunt, into a category leader with 6 million members
worldwide.
Prior to his founding of OLB, Larry owned and operated historic gay bar Fritz
and the attached Chandler Inn hotel in Boston’s South End. He’s also the founder of OLB’s
precursor – Dial Information Services. Before the existence of Manhunt, Dial Information
Services connected gay men in the Boston and New York City areas. Basile was also the
treasurer and owner of New York City’s OutWeek magazine during the late 1980s.
Basile received an MBA in finance from William & Mary College in Virginia before
studying to be a priest for the Archdiocese of Boston and earning a degree in philosophy
from St. John’s Seminary. An activist on behalf of gay rights and AIDS research, Basile
is a member of the Human Rights Campaign, Act Up! and the National Gay & Lesbian Task
Force.
He takes special pride in having founded the Grass Roots Gay Rights Fund and the
Boston Gay Pride Street Dance, which have raised over $800k for community organizations
over the years. He also enjoys horticulture, collecting 16th- and 17th-century books, and
ornithology.