Tinder's Founder Conflict

Tinder is by far the most recognized online dating app in the US. Everyone knows how it works, with the matching system. It's the reason why we can say we "swiped right" on something we wanted, or "swiped left" on something we weren't interested in.

But what I've discovered is that many people, even those dialed into the happenings of tech startups, don't know is that there was a messy founder breakup in Tinder's early years which led to the minting of the youngest self-made female billionaire at that time.

So I made a video about it.

The story includes super nasty text messages, a sexual harassment lawsuit, and two strong clashing personalities that never learned how to work together: Whitney Wolfe and Justin Mateen.

As careful readers have known, my coaching practice focuses heavily on repairing cofounder conflict. And I have quietly started a Youtube channel making videos on dealing with tension, arguments, and disputes among founders.

I started by taking the advice to niche down my videos to heart, publishing very tactical content like like "5 questions to ask yourself before you fire your cofounder". Unfortunately, that just led to the these videos getting almost no views.

So I tried again. Instead of something only a fraction of an already small audience of venture-backed founders cared about, I widened the lens. Everyone loves messy drama, everyone knows what online dating is, and everyone's understands that different personality types can clash.

I also tried to amp up the videos—shooting it in the Kit Studios in NYC and invested in more video editing support and having a thumbnail expert work on the video's cover image.

In this video, I use the Enneagram to compare a Wolfe, a Type Three (Achiever) with Mateen, a Type Eight (Challenger). The Achiever type is probably the most common entrepreneur archetype, followed by Type Five (Investigator), with Challenger coming in third. After breaking down how Threes and Eights get into conflict, I share what I would have done to repair their relationship (assuming they chose to hire me), and how likely it is that I could have saved their breakup.

So what do you think? Interested in watching a 13 minute video on the topic? Then just head to my channel and click on the video titled Why Did the Founders of Tinder Break Up? (A Conflict Coach Weighs In).

If not, no worries and I'll see you in the next post!