You're only as good as your ability to listen to the people using your products.

If there was an easy way to get information without me inputting a lot of information, we always pursued that. It was really this idea that it

had to be passive and magical. If I have to do work it might make me feel like a

little desperate. A lot of startups put marketing ahead of product. If you don't

have product market fit before you do that, you're not actually getting quality

feedback. If I don't understand it in five words and I can't connect with it, then you're

probably not going to be that viral. In 1995, just 30 years ago, 2% of couples met online through sites like Match.com, which, by the way, was one of the few

dating sites that even existed prior to 2000.

Now today, that number is well over 50%, meaning it's the primary way

that couples meet. Perhaps that alone is not surprising to you, but it was right

around 2012 that we saw online become that primary channel

eclipsing meeting for friends work the bar family school you name it

That also happens to be the year that Tinder was founded.

At the beginning of this episode, A16Z general partner Andrew Chen asked the audience

how many people in the room have used Tinder?

Well, count me in Andrew, but I want you the listener to reflect on the same.

If you haven't used it, how many of your friends have used it? How many couples do you know that have met

through it? Any marriages? Well today you'll get to hear

from Sean Rad, founder and longtime CEO of Tinder about how he created a product that

changed culture. This podcast was recorded live in LA during our

A16Z games speedrun program. So if you'd like to learn more about speedrun

which is returning for its fourth iteration in San Francisco head head on over to a systems.com slash

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