#61: Joel Simkhai, Founder & CEO of Grindr

Listen to the interview by clicking the arrow on the audio player below.

Grindr is an award-winning, location-based app that helps gay men to connect with one other. Launched in 2009, Grindr now has more than 4.5 million users in 192 countries around the world.

When I asked Grindr’s Founder and CEO, Joel Simkhai, what he had in mind when he started the company, he said that he didn’t even set out to build a business; he just wanted to make it easier to meet other gay men. “The main problem,” he said, “is that you don’t know who else is gay.” Grindr employs the GPS or Wi-fi technology on a user’s mobile device to determine their exact location; the app then displays the profiles of other Grindr users in the area who might want to chat and meet.

About Joel Simkhai: Born in Tel Aviv, Simkhai moved to New York with his family at the age of three. He attended Tufts University, where he majored in International Relations and Economics. Before founding Grindr,  Simkhai started his own Internet marketing firm. Prior to that, he worked in several different roles, first in the finance industry, then at an Internet start-up, and also at NBC News. He currently resides in Los Angeles.

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