Sean Rad

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sean Rad
Sean Rad 2018.jpg
Born (1986-05-22) May 22, 1986 (age 35)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
EducationUniversity of Southern California (dropped out)
Known forCo-founder of Tinder

Sean Rad (born May 22, 1986) is an American entrepreneur and co-founder of Tinder, the online dating app.[1][2] He served as Tinder's CEO and Chairman at various times from 2012-2017.[3]

Early life and career[]

Rad was born on May 22, 1986 in Los Angeles, California. His parents are Iranian Jews who emigrated from Iran in the 1970s.[4] He grew up in Beverly Hills[5] and interned for an entertainment manager during high school.[6] Rad enrolled at the University of Southern California (USC) but dropped out after two years in 2006.[7]

In 2004, at 18 years old, Rad started his first company, Orgoo, a messaging and video chat integration tool.[6] In 2009, he founded Adly an influencer social media management company.[8][9][6][10]

Tinder[]

In January 2012, Rad was hired as General Manager of the incubator Hatch Labs.[7] During a hackathon, Rad and Joe Munoz presented the idea for Matchbox which would later be renamed Tinder.[7][11] Together, Rad, Justin Mateen, Jonathan Badeen, Chris Gulczynski, Alexa Mateen, Ryan Ogle and Whitney Wolfe launched Tinder in the fall of 2012.[7][12][13]

Rad was Tinder's CEO from 2012 until March 2015 and then again from August 2015 until December 2016.

In November 2014, IAC (one of Tinder's parent companies) asked Rad to step down as CEO of Tinder[11] after co-founder Justin Mateen sent ex-girlfriend and Tinder marketing exec Whitney Wolfe abusive text messages. Rad continued to serve as CEO until March 2015, when former Ebay executive, Christopher Payne, was appointed.[14][15]

From March 2015 to August 2015 Rad served as president and head of product and marketing.[11][16][17] He returned as CEO in August 2015[18][16][19] and remained in the role until December 2016, when he was replaced by Greg Blatt.[14][20][17] Rad remained Tinder's Chairman of the board [21][14] to develop Swipe Ventures, an investment division of Match Group until late 2017.[15][22]

In 2015, Rad "appeared to make a veiled threat" to Vanity Fair reporter Nancy Jo Sales after an article she published on “hook up culture”.[23] Sales published an Open Letter in response to Rad.[24]

That same year, Match Group filed an 8K registration statement that Rad did not speak on behalf of the company after he disclosed inaccurate figures during an interview prior to an IPO.[25]

Lawsuits[]

In June 2014, Whitney Wolfe Herd filed a lawsuit against Tinder and IAC accusing Justin Mateen of "a barrage of horrendously sexist, racist, and otherwise inappropriate comments, emails and text messages" [26][27][11] and Rad as CEO of failing to respond to her complaints.[11][12][28][29][26][27][30] Rad said, "Justin is nuts" when Wolfe complained to him, ignoring her and calling her emotional.[31] Mateen was suspended from the company.[26] Rad was demoted to president [27][11] and temporarily replaced as CEO.[18][16] The lawsuit was settled out of court without admission of guilt from either party involved.[11]

In 2018, Rad and other former executives and employees of Tinder sued Match Group and IAC for $2 billion arguing the company manipulated the valuation of Tinder and denied them billions of dollars.[32][33] IAC and Match Group filed a motion to dismiss the case, but the appeals court upheld the trial court’s decision to deny this request and a trial date was scheduled.[34]

In 2019, in a counter $250 million lawsuit by Match Group and IAC, Match said that Rad recorded "sensitive business conversations" between his superiors and colleagues without consent and copying proprietary company files to his personal devices while working at Tinder.[35] Rad argued that his contract gave him the right to make those actions and he asked the New York Supreme Court to dismiss the lawsuit against him.[36]

References[]

  1. ^ Edwardes, Charlotte (2015-11-18). "Tinder? I'm an addict, says hook-up app's co-creator and CEO Sean Rad". www.standard.co.uk. Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  2. ^ Rogers, Taylor Nicole; Borden, Taylor. "8 major US companies with Iranian-American founders or CEOs". Business Insider. Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  3. ^ Storr, Farrah. "Sean Rad: the man who changed the way we date". ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2021-11-04.
  4. ^ "9 Quotes From Jewish Tinder Co-Founder Sean Rad That Will Make You Swipe Left". Forward. Retrieved 2021-05-21.
  5. ^ Bowles, Nellie (2014-06-11). "Three LA Boys: Snapchat's Evan Spiegel, Tinder's Sean Rad and Whisper's Michael Heyward". Vox. Retrieved 2021-03-25.
  6. ^ a b c Grigoriadis, Vanessa (2014-10-27). "Inside Tinder's Hookup Factory". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  7. ^ a b c d Carr, Austin (2016-01-11). "What's Really Going On Inside Tinder?". Fast Company. Retrieved 2021-03-25.
  8. ^ Casserly, Meghan. "What Does Celebrity Shilling Look Like In A Post-Snooki Age? Adly Speaks Up". Forbes. Retrieved 2021-11-13.
  9. ^ "Orgoo Launching Soon; 500 Invites Available Now". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2021-05-25.
  10. ^ "Ad.ly Brings Sponsored Tweets From Celebrities". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2021-05-25.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g Bertoni, Steven. "Exclusive: Sean Rad Out As Tinder CEO. Inside The Crazy Saga". Forbes. Retrieved 2021-03-23. Rad will act as president and remain on Tinder’s board, and will stay on as CEO until they find a replacement. “We’re looking for an Eric Schmidt-like person,” says Rad of the upcoming search. “There is no CEO coming in the door that I don’t get along with—that would be corporate suicide.”
  12. ^ a b "The Story Of Whitney Wolfe Vs. Tinder". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2021-04-04.
  13. ^ Fetters, Ashley (2018-12-21). "The Five Years That Changed Dating". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2021-11-01.
  14. ^ a b c Wagner, Kurt (2016-12-08). "Tinder's Sean Rad is stepping down as CEO to become chairman". Vox. Retrieved 2021-03-24.
  15. ^ a b "Tinder's CEO, Co-founder Sean Rad is stepping down". Fortune. Retrieved 2021-04-04.
  16. ^ a b c Swisher, Kara (2015-08-12). "Tinder Founder Sean Rad Returns as CEO, Replacing Chris Payne". Vox. Retrieved 2021-11-09.
  17. ^ a b Isaac, Mike (2015-03-20). "Tinder Appoints Chief Executive to Replace Sean Rad". Bits Blog. Retrieved 2021-04-04.
  18. ^ a b "Tinder Cofounder Sean Rad Back In As CEO". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2021-11-09.
  19. ^ Gorey, Colm (2015-08-13). "Sean Rad returns as Tinder CEO after just 5 months". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 2021-11-09.
  20. ^ Carman, Ashley (2018-08-27). "Tinder co-founder Sean Rad claims he was forced to sell his Match and IAC stock over threat of being fired". The Verge. Retrieved 2021-10-23.
  21. ^ "Tinder CEO Sean Rad Leaving Post For Second Time In Two Years". Consumerist. 2016-12-09. Retrieved 2021-11-13. Unlike that first exit, Rad will not be leaving the company this time. Instead, he’ll remain on board as chairman.
  22. ^ "Sean Rad Steps Down as Tinder CEO to Focus on Investment Vehicle". Fortune. Retrieved 2021-04-04.
  23. ^ Weiss, Geoff (2015-11-18). "Tinder CEO Sean Rad Makes Veiled Threat to Vanity Fair Reporter Ahead of IPO". Entrepreneur. Retrieved 2021-03-26.
  24. ^ Sales, Nancy Jo (2015-11-20). "AN OPEN LETTER TO TINDER'S SEAN RAD FROM V.F.'S NANCY JO SALES". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 2021-03-26.
  25. ^ Tinder CEO Sean Rad’s insane interview busted Match Group’s IPO quiet period
  26. ^ a b c Kleinman, Alexis (2014-09-08). "Tinder Settles Lawsuit Over 'Horrendously Sexist' Allegations". HuffPost. Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  27. ^ a b c "Swipe Left: Dating App Tinder Removes CEO Sean Rad". NBC News. Retrieved 2021-03-23. Over the summer, Rad was named in a lawsuit along with the company’s chief marketing officer, Justin Mateen, by former vice president of marketing Whitney Wolfe. She alleged that she was sexually harassed by Mateen, with whom she had a brief romantic relationship, both verbally and through text messages. Rad was accused of ignoring Wolfe's complaints and using inappropriate language towards her.
  28. ^ Townsend, Tess (2015-11-18). "Tinder's Sean Rad Is Weirder Than You Thought". Inc.com. Retrieved 2021-03-24.
  29. ^ Weisul, Kimberly (2014-11-06). "What Tinder's CEO Demotion Means for Silicon Valley Sexism". Inc.com. Retrieved 2021-03-24.
  30. ^ "Tinder Suspends Co-Founder In Wake Of Sexual Harassment Lawsuit". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2021-11-09.
  31. ^ Phillips, Abby (July 1, 2014). "Read the most surprising allegations from the Tinder sexual harassment lawsuit". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 9, 2021.
  32. ^ Business, Sara Ashley O'Brien, CNN. "Former Tinder executives are locked in a messy legal battle". CNN. Retrieved 2021-03-25.
  33. ^ Hartmans, Avery. "The rise of Sean Rad, who served as Tinder CEO twice and is now taking on Match Group and IAC in a $2 billion lawsuit". Business Insider. Retrieved 2021-11-01.
  34. ^ Stempel, Jonathan (2019-10-29). "IAC must face Tinder co-founder's $2 billion lawsuit: NY appeals court". Reuters. Retrieved 2021-03-25.
  35. ^ Dean, Sam (2019-11-23). "Former Tinder CEO Sean Rad accused of secretly recording employees and bosses in new court filing". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2021-03-24.
  36. ^ Carman, Ashley (2019-03-25). "Tinder co-founder asks court to dismiss $250 million lawsuit from Tinder's owner". The Verge. Retrieved 2021-03-25.
Retrieved from ""