logo
episode-header-image
Sep 2024
1h 4m

20VC: Tinder Founder Sean Rad on Lessons...

Harry Stebbings
About this episode

Sean Rad is the Founder and former CEO of Tinder. Sean has made more romantic connections between humans than anyone in history with Tinder having matched 50BN different people. Sean is also the Founder of Rad Fund which has made over 100 investments in companies and funds.

In Today's Episode with Sean Rad We Discuss:

1. Lessons Scaling Tinder to the Fastest Consumer Social App:

  • Starting: How did the idea for Tinder come to Sean in a restaurant in LA?
  • Scaling: What are Sean's biggest lessons for consumer apps scaling to their first 10,000 users?
  • User Acquisition: How did a party change the entire user acquisition strategy for dinner?
  • What did Tinder not do that Sean wishes they had done?
  • What did Tinder do that with the benefit of hindsight, they should not have done?

2. Leadership Lessons from Tinder CEOship:

  • Annual Product Redesign: Why does Sean believe that every consumer company should have a complete redesign of the app every year? What are the benefits?
  • Detachment: How does Sean advise founders when it comes to detaching their happiness from the performance of the company? What works? What does not work?
  • Common Mistakes: What are the most common mistakes that Sean sees early-stage founders make when it comes to leadership?

3. Money, Wealth and Creating a Family Office:

  • How does Sean analyse his own relationship to money? How has it changed over time?
  • At what stage of wealth does Sean believe you have true financial freedom?
  • What is the single best investment Sean has made? What did he learn?
  • What is the worst investment he has made? What did he learn?
  • What have been the single hardest and most surprising elements of creating a family office?

4. Love, Death, Marriage:

  • In what ways does Sean think love has changed with time? How do we deal with the loneliness pandemic?
  • What does Sean believe are the most non-obvious but important secrets to a happy marriage?
  • How does Sean approach and think about his own spirituality today? Why does he not fear death?

 

Up next
Yesterday
20VC: OpenAI's Multi $BN Deal with AMD | Polymarket, Vercel and Supabase Raise Mega Rounds | Does King Making Really Work in Venture Capital: Harvey vs Legora | Chamath is Back: The SPAC is Back
AGENDA: 03:29 OpenAI and AMD's Major Partnership 07:35 Microsoft Have F***** Up the OpenAI Partnership 17:08 OpenAI's Developer Day Announcements 20:45 Why VC is the Most Forgiving Asset Class on Price and Valuation 29:10 What Does it Take to IPO in 2025: Why Snyk Will Not IPO 42 ... Show More
1h 24m
Oct 6
20VC: Cerebras CEO on Why Raise $1BN and Delay the IPO | NVIDIA Showing Signs They Are Worried About Growth | Concentration of Value in Mag7: Will the AI Train Come to a Halt | Can the US Supply the Energy for AI with Andrew Feldman
Andrew Feldman is Co-Founder & CEO of Cerebras, building the world's fastest AI inference and training. Cerebras recently closed a $1.1BN Series G round at an $8.1 billion valuation, backed by top names including Fidelity, Atreides, Tiger Global, Valor Equity and 1789 Capital. Un ... Show More
1h 4m
Oct 3
20Growth: How to Use Influencers to Scale Growth Insanely Fast | How to Optimise User Onboaring for Growth | How the Best Growth Teams Create Organic Growth and Community | Why LTV/CAC Models are BS with Ketty Slonimsky
Ketty Slonimsky is Chief Growth Officer at Palta, the platform behind apps like Flo (the #1 female health app with 77M+ MAU), Simple, and Zing AI, where she leads a centralized growth function across the portfolio. She was previously first VP Product & Growth at HeliosX (£900M+ A ... Show More
1 h
Recommended Episodes
Oct 2024
From Swipe to Scale: How Tinder Became #1
In 1995, just 2% of couples met online. Today, that number has surged to over 50%, making online dating the top way couples connect.In this episode, a16z General Partner Andrew Chen chats with Tinder founder Sean Rad about how he built an app that changed culture. Sean shares why ... Show More
28m 32s
Nov 2024
#431 - Sean Rad - Tinder - How the swipe fever took over the world
The app that took over the world: downloaded over 530 million times and available in 190 countries.Sean Rad has a relentless passion for facilitating connections through smartphones. His initial strategy was centered on the enigmatic “Tinder events.”The idea was simple: a massive ... Show More
1h 40m
Mar 2025
Snapchat CEO: Exact Formula Used To Build A $130 Billion Company! I Said No To $3 Billion From Mark Zuckerberg! It’s Time To Quit Your Job When You Feel This!
From turning down $3 billion from Facebook to building a $100 billion empire, Evan Spiegel reveals the blueprint behind Snapchat. Evan Spiegel, co-founder & CEO of Snapchat (now Snap Inc.), founded the app while at Stanford and became the youngest billionaire at 25. In this conve ... Show More
2h 29m
Jun 2025
How to Survive Massive Changes - Sean Martin
What happens when you strip away excuses and look in the mirror? In this powerful episode, Sean Martin, founder of a multimillion-dollar medical supply business and host of The Real Mentors Podcast, shares his raw transformation from addiction and incarceration to fatherhood, fai ... Show More
35m 54s
Feb 2025
Corner Office Conversation: Sean (Hyunil) Sohn, CEO at Krafton India
India’s gaming industry is experiencing growth, driven by millions of players, a rapidly expanding esports culture, and increasing investments in game development. However, behind this success lies a complex landscape of regulatory challenges, evolving technology, and changing pl ... Show More
28m 43s
Dec 2024
How Neil Patel Spends $200K a Month
RE-RUNThere was a time when Neil Patel said a $15k/month burn rate was all he needed. But now his monthly burn is $200k. Roughly. He’s not completely certain… because he doesn’t budget. So what changed in his life to make his burn rate increase nearly 14 fold? That’s what this ep ... Show More
31m 13s
Jul 2024
Be Careful Who You Choose to Spend the Rest of Your Money With
Falling in love, getting married and spending the rest of your life together with someone can be one of the most magical things in the world. But when the matter of money gets involved, things can get well… complicated. What was once a dream can very quickly become a nightmare an ... Show More
32m 35s
Aug 20
579: Former Accenture Partner Brad Englert on Career Growth Through Relationships
Brad Englert, former Accenture partner, IT strategist, CIO, and author, shares how building genuine relationships has been the cornerstone of his career success. From his early days in technology consulting to leading large-scale initiatives, Brad reveals the mindset and habits t ... Show More
52m 24s
Mar 2025
Winning, Losing, and Leveling Up: The Raw Truth on Business, Fitness & Mindset | Sean Whalen | EP 62
In this high-energy episode, Sean Whalen joins me to deliver an unfiltered deep dive into success, failure, and the mindset needed to win in business, fitness, and life. We discuss the dangers of ego-driven decisions, the power of taking massive risks, and why most people stay st ... Show More
46m 18s
May 2024
Mastering the Art of Relationship Building for Business and Personal Success w/ Matt Higgins
Avoid the partnership traps everyone falls into and select and build strong relationships, that last.Matt Higgins is an incredibly successful serial entrepreneur and Shark Tank investor with a personal fortune +$150 million dollars. The unspoken ingredient to his success is relat ... Show More
25m 8s