20VC: Grindr: The Most Insane Story in Startups | How the Chinese Bought and Lost Grindr | The Successful IPO with $300M Revenues and 40% EBITDA Margins | How Grindr Built a Free Cash Flow Machine

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

The Twenty Minute VC

Finance, Venturecapital, Tech News, News, Siliconvalley, Technology, Investing, Startups, Business

4.4 • 637 Ratings

🗓️ 4 December 2024

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

George Arison is the CEO of Grindr. The app that results in 40% of lesbian and gay marriages, the average user uses the app for 1 hour per day and sends more messages on Grindr than they do Whatsapp. The company will do over $300M in revenue in 2024 with a 40% EBITDA margin. One of the insane public company success stories. Prior to Grindr, George was the Founder and CEO of Shift, which he took public in 2020.

In Today’s Episode with George Arison We Discuss:

1. Wild Story of How the Chinese Bought and Lost Grindr:

How did the Chinese come to buy Grindr and then fire the founder?
Why did the US government force the sale of the company from the Chinese?
What happened when the whole development team was in Taiwan and then resigned overnight?
George got the CEO role in Sept and the company went public in Oct. How did that all happen so fast?

2. How Grindr is a Free Cash Flow Machine:

What are the three core ways that Grindr is able to print money with a 40% EBITDA margin?
Why does Grindr not spend any money on marketing or customer acquisition?
Why does George think that most companies have way too many people?
Why does George believe that most startups are very badly managed?
What will Grindr do with the insane amount of free cash flow the company is producing?

3. Lessons Building Grindr to $300M in Revenue:

What has George done with Grindr that he wishes he had not done?
What has he not done that he wishes he had done?
Why does George not make political statements today? Does George think we have freedom of speech when CEOs face such repercussions for political views?
What does Wall St not understand about Grindr that it really should understand?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Second thing that I think Silicon Valley showed and has learned is that there's insane
0:03.8	inefficiency in each individual that you have working for you because there's very bad
0:08.5	management. Management does not mean micromanagement. Grinder has less than 150 full-time employees.
0:14.5	We are very, very efficient. You know, our revenue per head is very high. It's over two million
0:19.7	bucks per full-time employee.
0:21.2	We shouldn't be just comped to dating apps when they talk about what the multiple on the stock
0:26.4	should be, that we should be comped as much as to social network products as much as we're
0:31.9	comp to dating products.
0:33.1	This is 20VC with me, Harry Stubben. Today we feature the truly incredible story of Grindr,
0:38.6	a company founded by a non-technical founder that was a cash printing machine for years before he sold it to the Chinese.
0:45.7	The US government then forced the sale of the company from the Chinese to a US private equity house,
0:52.0	who took the company public, they installed George's CEO,
0:55.7	and today the company does north of $300 million in revenue with 40% EBITDA margins.
1:01.8	It is one of the best businesses of our time, truly insane story, and joining me in the hot seat
1:07.0	is George Arison, Grindr's CEO. Before we begin, one of the easiest investment decisions
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1:25.4	intelligence, they're revolutionizing how work gets done.
1:28.9	From prospecting to closing, 11x is the all-in-one platform that allows you to reduce costs,
1:35.0	increase pipeline, and boost conversion rates. And that's why companies like Plio,
1:39.7	handshakes, saucecroft and more are customers and lovers of 11x. Check them out today at 11x.
1:46.2	You will not regret it. And speaking of incredible products, I want to share something interesting
	...

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