Intermediate 
In typical bad-boyfriend style, Dan Sullivan was late to breakfast with the Guardian because he got pulled over on his motorcycle.
Sullivan works too much, he says. He misses dinner dates. He forgets to give presents.
And so, like many others in Silicon Valley, the 27-year-old venture capitalist has come up with a start-up: BetterBoyfriend.me, a service that sends girlfriends and wives a present every month for about $70.
Sullivan, who works in finance, has been testing the service and has signed up about 350 boyfriends. Most members, he says, are his friends from Harvard and other friends who are either venture capitalists, founders of start-ups or employees of companies like Apple, Google and Facebook. The girlfriends of these friends have been getting presents from Sullivan for the last year.
Each month, Sullivans members choose from a list of seven possible gifts (chocolate, tea sets, manicures). The package is sent to the boyfriend unbranded and unlabelled.
He tests his ideas by buying Facebook ads to see what kind of interest they get. BetterBoyfriend.me took off. People seemed to like BetterBoyfriend, Sullivan said.
Another start-up, called InvisibleBoyfriend, allows users to design and build a believable partner who is everything you want and is always available to talk, whenever you want. The end result is a boyfriend who can text with you all day.
Founder Kyle Tabor launched it to give users a fake boyfriend to deter unwanted advances but has found people have grown attached to their imaginary partners: Many more users are looking for companionship through conversation rather than external proof of a relationship.
For Sullivan and Tabor, the surprise was the real relationships that they have formed with their customers. Sullivan says he has begun to see himself as a sort of relationship consultant for the boyfriends.
Sullivan admits hes made mistakes. Early on, the packages he sent included receipts that had his name on them, Dan Sullivan. One of the boyfriends wrote to me and said, Listen, shes not mad but Cynthia found out.
Of all the women BetterBoyfriend.me deliver packages to, about 50% know about Dan Sullivans involvement in their relationships: Its connected with age. I think, after youve been married for a while, you dont keep many secrets.
And over the year, the young founder says hes got to know the boyfriends really well. Theyve even sent a package to a hospital delivery room. The key, he said, is to remember that his relationship is with the boyfriend.
When he first started his company, he attached tags that said BetterBoyfriend.me to flower bouquets and set off for Dolores Park in Mission District, San Francisco.
I looked for couples and gave the bouquet to the girl but the boyfriends didnt like that. Not at all. I understood why. It was cool, he said. So I changed my idea and started handing out the bouquets to the boyfriends.