Upon taking the helm at Grindr in 2022, George Arison stepped into a company that transitioned from Chinese ownership to a mandated divestiture followed by a private-equity intervention — a lucrative enterprise lacking a clear product or strategic direction. Fast forward four years, following a SPAC listing and a contentious return-to-office policy, and Grindr now presents a compelling growth narrative. Revenue is expected to nearly triple, soaring from $195 million in 2022 to a projected $540 million-plus this year, with adjusted EBITDA margins remaining above 40%.

This surge in revenue has primarily been fueled by getting current users to spend more rather than significantly expanding its user base. In Q2 of this year, the platform boasted 1.4 million paying users, making up 9% of its total users, yet the average revenue per user has significantly increased since 2022, with Arison keenly focused on the source of the next growth surge. Part of this vision aims to transform Grindr into a “gayborhood in your pocket” — a service that offers not only dating and hookups but also healthcare solutions (from ED medications to HIV prevention and ultimately, facilitating connections with gay doctors) and travel (assisting users in finding community regardless of their location). This reflects the widespread “everything app” trend currently shaping consumer technology.

However, that’s not all Arison is pursuing; Grindr is set to launch a subscription model later this year that he’s convinced will be well-received, introducing a more expensive “EDGE” tier that has already sparked backlash online (“literally who’s paying for this,” and “we need 2012 Grindr back”).

Arison, who founded and led Shift Technologies, an online marketplace for used cars that he took public via a SPAC in 2020, is actively courting media attention to argue that institutional investors are undervaluing Grindr’s stock merely because it operates as a gay dating platform. In a Zoom interview with TechCrunch on Thursday, he recounted an instance where an investor presented him with a financial model that included a distinct “Grindr discount” line item, subtracting 25% from a fair-value assessment.

Not everyone agrees that such a discount is warranted. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and Raymond James have all elevated their price targets for the stock this year, with Morgan Stanley upgrading it to “overweight” in July, referencing the EDGE tier and Grindr’s foray into telehealth as contributing factors — part of a stock appreciation that has seen shares increase approximately a third in the past six months. Nonetheless, the discount is not a figment of Arison’s imagination — the stock currently trades at around 11 times 2027 EBITDA, representing a roughly 35% discount compared to competitors — though the reasoning for this remains unclear.

Arison — friendly, with traces of his Georgian roots evident in his accent — was open to discussing all these matters in a Q&A that has been edited for coherence and brevity.

You joined Grindr in 2022 when it was somewhat aimless. What was your initial priority?

Three main priorities arose. Firstly, building the company. Many employees had been hired during the height of COVID when in-office productivity expectations were minimal, resulting in an average of perhaps three to four genuine work hours daily. We reinstated a two-day in-office schedule in the summer of 2023 — a move that attracted both significant media coverage and considerable dissent. Consequently, our employee count dropped to about 70. Currently, only around 25 individuals who were here when I arrived remain employed at Grindr, and we maintain a streamlined workforce: 175 employees in the U.S. alongside a team in Colombia, achieving $540 million in projected revenue for this year.

The second focus was generating revenue growth by delivering products that users would willingly pay for — thus, pay conversion surged from below 6% to over 9%, and ARPU nearly doubled. Finally, establishing a long-term vision: the “gayborhood in your pocket” concept, along with all supplementary elements — healthcare, travel — which emanate from it.

You’ve claimed Grindr’s engineering culture is underrated. How small is the actual engineering team?

Roughly 94 or 95 individuals across various technical positions. A CEO from a major tech firm once told me that AI would enable me to achieve with far fewer individuals what I thought would require 300 to 350 — he was correct. We’re accomplishing what equates to about 350 people’s output with around 100. Approximately 80% of our code is now AI-generated, and we’ve recorded a 2.5x boost in engineering productivity over the past year.

Grindr trialed an AI-enhanced premium tier, EDGE, with pricing in Canada translating to about $350–375 monthly in U.S. dollars — a figure that faced ridicule online for being pricier than dating itself. What was the outcome there?

We have not yet launched EDGE — it’s currently in testing, and select users have access as part of that process. It is positioned above our existing XTRA ($23.99) and Unlimited ($44.99) tiers. We are not selling AI itself; we’re offering features made possible by it — leveraging user behavior and intent data, with consent, to create much better matches than an incomplete profile could. Retention rates for these features thus far have surpassed anything we’ve previously experienced.

The prices mentioned were one test scenario among several — we explored a range to gauge elasticity, not establishing final pricing. EDGE is anticipated to launch by late this year or early next, and we’ll have clarity on its position by then. We perceive it similarly to a Tesla Model X or S: a premium flagship product now, with its underlying capabilities gradually extending to the broader offering over time.

Regarding matching — you’ve indicated plans to use AI to suggest partners outside users’ localities, given the limited gay-dating pools even in cities like San Francisco. What evidence supports that long-distance matches are viable?

Even in San Francisco, where the proportion of the gay population is among the highest in the country, the total number of gay individuals may only range from 50,000 to 60,000. That’s a limited pool to seek potential partners, contributing to the overall challenges facing gay men in dating. So what if AI could entirely remove geographic barriers and reveal someone in St. Louis who truly aligns with your desires, based on actual behaviors rather than what’s presented in a profile?

As for whether it leads to real relationships: we don’t monitor users’ post-interactions — that’d be overstepping. However, we do know that Grindr is the platform most gay men report using to meet others for relationships, and there’s a notable shift among younger generations desiring different outcomes compared to older ones: about 50% of gay men under 35 express a wish for long-term monogamous relationships, while 25% desire children — figures that would have seemed inconceivable for my generation. When asked why they’re single, the frequent reply is difficulty in finding partners. While I can’t guarantee this solves that problem, exploring new methods is essential, as the existing approaches have evidently failed.

There are numerous avenues to broaden your potential market beyond just the dating application. The healthcare initiatives are particularly noteworthy — could you elaborate on those efforts, and whether you’re developing these products internally or serving as a gateway to external providers?

We initiated cash-pay offerings under the line we call Woodwork — ED medications, GLP-1s, peptides, etc. — as cash-pay was the most straightforward avenue to kickstart our initiatives, and we’ve recently launched an AI bot that facilitates transactions directly within the app instead of directing users to Woodwork.com. The second category involves HIV prevention and treatment: we’ve pledged to provide 10 million people with direct access to information on acquiring PrEP, both in the U.S. where we already supply this resource within our in-app health center, and internationally.

The third category — actual clinical care, such as connecting users with gay doctors through telehealth — is a longer-term vision. Currently, that’s not something we’re building, but I genuinely believe there’s a future, a decade ahead, where healthcare could surpass our existing revenue streams at Grindr.

As it stands, though, non-subscription revenue — including ads and healthcare initiatives — constitutes a minor portion of the business.

Currently, subscriptions represent about 83% of revenue, slightly down from around 86% in 2022, although subscription revenue itself has significantly grown — indicative of the overall expansion of the base. The emerging segments are indeed small right now. My aspiration is to create a company that, 10 years from now, boasts a robust subscription business, a solid advertising arm, a legitimate healthcare division, and an established travel vertical alongside it. Presently, however, those final two aspects are still in early stages.

You’ve pointed out that investors still apply what one termed a “Grindr discount” to the stock due to the company’s nature. Despite the stock’s recent sharp rise, Morgan Stanley’s upgrade, and it trading at a premium compared to Match Group, doesn’t the market imply that the discount has diminished?

I hope we’re now perceived as a growth entity — we’ve consistently increased revenue by over 25% for 16 consecutive quarters under my leadership, so that’s a reasonable expectation. The stigma discussion is very much real; we’ve encountered a consulting firm refusing to collaborate with us due to reputational concerns, along with a bank denying service during the Silicon Valley Bank crisis, even though major institutions like Goldman and Morgan Stanley have been strong allies. Much of this seems to revolve around Grindr being a gay dating platform rather than dating itself being inherently contentious — no one applies that label to Tinder, which features a “free tonight” button prominently on its homepage. However, I agree the market’s perception of us has evidently improved.