Sean Rad, co-founder and former CEO of Tinder, shares his contrarian belief about organizational building during a rapid-fire Q&A on The 20 Minute VC podcast.
0:00 / 0:34exact quote · 34.3s
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“I think values within a company, within a society, are more important than a common mission, or a common because I think the mission changes. As companies grow, as societies grow, but the values, and, you know, we, you know, we might disagree on the mission, and we might reassess where we're going, and what we want to do as a company, and that's okay, but I think when you have a company where people have different values, and different belief systems, and different ways of doing things, that's when chaos ensues. So I think values are more important than company missions revolves.”
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More from Sean Rad
Opinion
Sean Rad: Bumble is elitist and its women-first model hurts women
“Bumble. Is elitist. Why, you know, women go first. Women have all the control. Why? Who are, you know, like that, that is a, I actually, I'm not even sure that's good for women.”
Sean RadSep 9, 2024▶ 41:31Sean Rad: Lessons Scaling Tinder to the Fastest Growing Consumer Social App in History | E1199 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
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Sean Rad: Tinder decayed after the core team left and prioritized revenue
“Once, once the core team left, I think that promise that mission. Was maybe replaced with. A desire for retention and desire for revenue. And I think that, that this, the sort of intention of why we created that company, what we were trying to achieve got lost…”
Sean RadSep 9, 2024▶ 21:05Sean Rad: Lessons Scaling Tinder to the Fastest Growing Consumer Social App in History | E1199 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Disclosure
Tinder's executive team threatened to quit unless Sean Rad returned as CEO
“There was one point where the entire executive team, unbeknownst to me, went to the board and basically said, if Sean doesn't come back in the CEO role, we're all quitting.”
Sean RadSep 9, 2024▶ 27:31Sean Rad: Lessons Scaling Tinder to the Fastest Growing Consumer Social App in History | E1199 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
Sean Rad: Outsourcing dating to AI agents is the stupidest idea ever
“I think that is a very sad idea. I think the journey Is part of the reward. Me actually talking to someone, getting to know them, helps me learn about myself, helps me learn about them. It's not about a transaction. Romance is a journey. It's not just an ends …”
Sean RadSep 9, 2024▶ 44:51Sean Rad: Lessons Scaling Tinder to the Fastest Growing Consumer Social App in History | E1199 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
AssertionContradicted
Sean Rad: Tinder enforced a rule to redesign the entire app yearly
“When I was there, when the team was there, we had a rule that every year we had to redesign the entire product because we didn't want people to get bored and stagnant, and we didn't want to become complacent as a team.”
Sean RadSep 9, 2024▶ 0:07Sean Rad: Lessons Scaling Tinder to the Fastest Growing Consumer Social App in History | E1199 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Sean Rad: Data from launching low-quality products is corrupted from the start
“If, you know, yes, you want to launch and get feedback, but if you launch a shitty product, what's the point? So I think there is a bar of quality that you still have to hit before that product is ready for people to play with. And if you haven't achieved that…”
Sean RadSep 9, 2024▶ 13:46Sean Rad: Lessons Scaling Tinder to the Fastest Growing Consumer Social App in History | E1199 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
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