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The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan

320: Why Hinge’s Justin McLeod Decided To Rebuild His Dating App From The Ground Up

The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan

Nathan Chan

Marketing, Business, Entrepreneurship

4.8662 Ratings

🗓️ 18 August 2020

⏱️ 40 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It’s not easy to rebuild an entire company—especially when things are going well. But that’s exactly what Justin McLeod did with his dating app, Hinge. After Hinge first launched in 2012, it saw exponential growth. Despite this, McLeod made the risky decision to rebuild his app from scratch in 2016. Why? He felt that the company had strayed too from its original vision or helping people find and build meaningful connections. So instead of remaining the brand that connects “friends with friends,” it rebranded to become “the dating app designed to be deleted.” McLeod’s decision paid off. Today, Hinge is a subsidiary under Match.com, has seen huge growth on a global scale, and is setting up a date every three seconds globally. In this podcast episode, McLeod shares exactly what it took to get through this challenging transition and what’s in store for this beloved dating app in the near future.  If there’s any other type of content you’d like to see that would be valuable to you during this time, please don’t hesitate to reach out at [email protected].  Key Takeaways McLeod’s own love story, and how it inspired the idea behind Hinge  Why, after years of success, McLeod decided to rebuild his dating app from scratch The reaction of Hinge’s board of directors and team in response to this change  How Hinge fulfills its mission of getting more people out on great dates The type of data that Hinge collects to set itself apart from competitors The power of word-of-mouth when it came to Hinge’s growth  What McLeod thinks are the mistakes he made while building Hinge for the first time (and how he fixed them the second time around)  Why McLeod decided to join forces with Match.com, and how this decision has helped the business scale globally  The type of research that’s happening at Hinge Labs  McLeod’s approach to user testing and product development with Hinge  Why McLeod recommends being firm about your vision but flexible about your tactics

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is episode number 320 with Justin McLeod of the Founder Podcast.

0:07.3

What you need is thirst.

0:09.1

You need to be a thirsty human who is intent on learning.

0:13.1

It's a really fascinating exploration of human potential.

0:16.9

Now.

0:19.3

The Founder Podcast.

0:22.0

Even the greatest entrepreneurs had help.

0:24.9

If you want to learn from the most successful founders on the planet, you are in the right place.

0:30.6

Branson, Mark Cuban, Tony Robbins, Tim Ferriss, Arianna Huffington, Steve Case, Gary V, Sophia

0:35.3

Amorosa, Barbara Corcoran, Damon John.

0:37.6

Learn from the greatest minds in business today with interviews hosted by Nathan Chan.

0:42.2

This is not your average entrepreneur podcast.

0:45.8

The Founder Podcast.

0:52.8

Hey guys, thank you so much for tuning in. Before we start today's episode, I just want to let

0:59.0

you know that our goal at founder is to help entrepreneurs succeed however we can by giving

1:04.6

away high quality content in the form of interviews, blog posts, podcasts, YouTube videos,

1:10.8

you name it. We put out so much content to help you.

1:14.0

And another interesting project that we're working on right now is partnering with world-class

1:18.8

founders like Damon John, Alexa von Tobel, Greta Van Riel, and so many more to teach crucial

1:24.8

skills like negotiation, finance, e-commerce, and so much more.

1:31.0

So if you'd like to get access to these free trainings with founders like this, which is

1:36.5

100% free, just go to founder.com forward slash free.

...

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