First-date nerves are par for the course and Jake was no exception.
As he made his way to Marks, the Mayfair private members' club frequented by David Cameron and Boris Johnson, the 47-year-old venture capitalist struggled to contain a "rush of anxious energy".
He needn't have worried. Utterly charmed by Anna, a glamorous 38-year-old PR executive, Jake married her seven months later.
But this was no ordinary whirlwind romance. Jake had flown more than 5000km from New York to meet London-based Anna, to whom he had been introduced by Seventy-Thirty, a matchmaking service that helps high-net-worth individuals find love, wherever in the world they are based.
This couple is typical of this new jet-set dating elite - the super-rich whose lives are so international they don't see a few oceans as a barrier to true love.
Seventy-Thirty has a global membership of about 2000, the majority of its clients aged between 30 and 60.
When its managing director, Lemarc Thomas, told Jake he had found the perfect match for him in London, Jake saw it as an opportunity, not a problem.
It was reported this week that Berkeley International, another elite dating service, which has 5000 clients - "a mix of CEOs, barristers, doctors and hedge-fund types" - has shown a 50% increase in Londoners seeking to be introduced to New Yorkers.
The most famous example of a transatlantic love affair is that of London-based human rights lawyer Amal Clooney and her Hollywood actor husband, George Clooney.
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch demonstrated that a few thousand kilometres need not stand in the way of romance when he married Jerry Hall at the weekend.
Vida Consultancy, a Mayfair-based company that seeks to find "life partners for the world's most exceptional people" has a network of thousands of registered users.
Fees for an international search with Vida start at R391695.87, while Berkeley International commands R870437.87 for a global service.
Membership of Seventy-Thirty starts at R391695.87 but can go up to R1.31-million.
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