Tinder and Tinderallas

Tinder and Tinderallas    

The Gist

Any single twenty-something in the country has heard of, or is on, the phone app Tinder (we don’t actually know how many people are on Tinder, because they refuse to release actual numbers). Tinder is the easy, if just a little shallow, way to meet new people. Unlike eHarmony or Match, it doesn't care what your favorite color is, what book you are currently reading, or where you want to be in ten years. Your Facebook profile and your location (your roster of potential dates, sex partners, or friends is determined by how close you live near them) is all it needs to create your profile. People can then judge you by your looks and swipe your picture right (if they think you are worthy) or left (if they think you aren’t worth a hill of beans). Tinder’s success can be attributed to its 27 year old Beverly Hills born and bred founders: Sean Rad, Justin Mateen (both members of Beverly Hills' affluent Iranian Jewish community) and Jonathon Badeen. They used their background as party promoters to both promote Tinder and attract the attractive and popular to the app. Although most agree that Tinder’s goal is not create long lasting relationships, there is hope: Sean Rad met his girlfriend Alexa Dell (yes, as in THE Dells) on Tinder over a year ago (employees call her the original Tinderalla). Tinder is also very VERY lucrative: IAC (owner of The Princeton Review and Match.com) paid $500 million to buy another 10 percent stake in Tinder…and now you know the gist.