Brandon Wade and his wife, Tanya. Brandon Wade Brandon Wade has built a controversial online dating empire based around the concept that it's perfectly OK for people -- men, mostly -- to pay women for dates and relationships.

He's also a master of PR and word-of-mouth marketing. Just look at his media clips: From The New York Times to Playboy, editors can't resist his unapologetic mix of sex and money.

This month, Wade launched a new site, MissTravel.com, for "generous" travelers willing to pay the airfares and hotel bills of "attractive" partners. It's not prostitution, he insists. Rather, it's an honest approach to dating that takes into account the shallow truth about both men and women: That, initially, men judge by looks and women by wallets.

Wade is a former software engineer who moved to New York to work as a consultant at Booz Allen. He later joined GE as a technology infrastructure manager.

And then he started his sex-for-cash empire, which includes MissTravel.com (for travel hookups), SeekingArrangement.com (for "Sugar Daddies"), Seekingmillionaire.com (for single Sugar Daddies) and WhatsYourPrice.com (where users bid on dates).

Wade told his story to Business Insider Advertising. The following gallery tells that story in pictures; Wade's account is in text below each image, in his own words.