900 feet away… 700 feet away. Closest guy is… 400 feet away.
You know, I’ve been known to be in the middle of dinners and check, but my sense is that
people understand and forgive me for checking my Grindr.
There it is. So I’m Joel Simkhai. I’m the CEO and founder
of Grindr. When was the last time you used Grindr?
20 minutes ago.
Come on in. So we’re gonna go workout...
I try to work out maybe 3-4 times a week.
The impression of LA being all about fitness and looks I think is quite accurate. I mean it’s a very sexy city, and people care
a lot about their body and their diets. And all we really got is our body, right? Keeping
that in good shape is so important. Life basically all begins by meeting someone,
right? Hello there.
The most handsome under 6-foot fellow I ever met.
I sometimes think I have a type, and then I surprise myself… I like a nice smile…
I like someone nearby. You know, someone too far just doesn’t work.
Uhhh, yeah. Very friendly. As a gay man, I always am looking around seeing
who’s around, trying to figure out who’s gay.
Just looking around to see what, see who’s the closest here… maybe we can meet someone
right now. Closest guy is 400 feet away, and he was here
half an hour ago. ...You see somebody who’s 400 feet away,
just walk over and say hi and meet them there. It’s a lot more spontaneous, it’s a lot
more real time, it’s a lot more organic. I have no problem with people calling it a
hookup app, my problem is people calling it JUST a hookup app… a lot of our guys may
go in and just hook up, and then it turns into something magical, it turns into a relationship,
it turns into something different. Sure you don’t wanna join me?
So as a kid, I was teased, for being effeminate, for being gay… so a lot of my early life
was just denial about it, to myself and to others… But starting probably around 16,
I realized that I liked guys. Thanks so much for coming my name is Joel
Simkhai, the CEO and founder of Grindr. We have an event tonight, it's called Gay Geeks
We get together gay people in tech in LA
Unfortunately, here in the US it’s getting better, but we’re not quite there in terms of the equality front…
My story is the story of every gay man. That we’re a hidden minority in some ways, and
always looking to meet. And the services out there just weren’t great. I’m an introvert,
so I don’t do well at bars, I don’t do very well at meeting someone right away. It's just not what I'm good at.
so online was my comfort zone.
Before the smartphone you’d kind of have to stay home and be on the computer,
and I didn’t want that. I wanted something that was more natural, more spontaneous and
I think that’s what we got with Grindr. Right now we are focused on who's around me...
Steve Jobs announced the second generation iPhone in June 2008,
and finally the technology was there to allow it to happen. And I jumped
on it. Found some guys to help me. Build the app and get it out there, and in March 2009,
we launched the app. Not much money, not much of anything. No business plan.
Three months after we launched, Stephen Fry
mentioned us on Top Gear. And what is Grindr? It's basically a gay cruising application.
And that really blew us up. And to my surprise millions of men every day come on Grindr.
It's remarkable, really in my mind that it happened.
How many times was I on Grindr? Probably 8 or 9 times today. And I’ll probably go on a few more times.
The best part about my job is I don’t really know what’s gonna happen. It’s going to
be a completely different day. We’ll see what happens. We’ll rock on, and of course
we’ll GRIND on.