PCMAG - July 23 - Grindr is a geosocial networking app used by ~6M gay, bisexual, and bi-curious men in all 192 countries across the globe. Launched by Joel Simkhai in 2009 using only $5K of his savings, Grindr's popularity exploded thanks to word of mouth and mainstream media coverage.
Q: What were you doing five years ago?
A: I worked in finance and in news for a little bit. I had my own magazine subscription business.
Q: You founded Grindr because you wanted an easier, discrete way to hook-up?
A: The main reason for me was just to find out who else is gay.
Q: So gaydar is a myth?
A: It's not a sure thing, right?
Q: Can you tell us about your premium business model?
A: A paid version doesn't have ads, shows you more guys, has push notifications, and has a bunch of extra features. The cost varies from $3.75 to $5.99 per month. 75% of our revenue comes from our subscribers and the other 25 percent comes from our advertisers.
Q: Do you advertise Grindr at all?
A: We don't currently. Most of our growth is based on word of mouth, press-mentions.
Q: How is Blendr doing?
A: It's growing nicely. We quite like where it's at right now but it's not our focus.
Q: Can you tell us about your backers and how you gained funding?
A: We're self-funded and we are glad for it.
Q: What sort of return you've had on your $5,000 investment?
A: I don't know; I've never quite calculated it. But as you can imagine it's been a good return.
