Wolfe alleged that Rad and Tinder cofounder Justin Mateen sexually harassed her. She said she endured the harassment for most of the time she was employed at Tinder, Business Insider's Alyson Shontell reported when Wolfe first filed the lawsuit this summer.
Wolfe claimed she was called a slut and a liar, and that after she and Mateen broke up after dating on-and-off in 2013, Mateen became “verbally controlling and abusive" toward her. She said Mateen's actions after their breakup allegedly forced her to resign from Tinder.
"Whitney’s lawsuit against Tinder has been resolved (without admission of wrongdoing)," John Mullan, a partner at Rudy, Exelrod, Zieff & Lowe, LLP, the firm representing Wolfe, said in an email to BuzzFeed in September.
"She is proud of her role as a cofounder of Tinder and of the role she played in the app’s success. She is now pleased to be able to focus her energy, talents, and ideas on exciting new opportunities."
In other Tinder news, the company's CEO Sean Rad decided to step down on Tuesday.
Now, one of the company's founders has talked to the New York Post in reaction to the news of his former boss's firing.
"Karma's a bitch," said Chris Gulczynski about Rad's announcement. He goes on to explain that Rad's company operated in a "frat-like" environment, accusing Rad of being a "haphazard" manager.
We reached out to Tinder for comment on this story and will update this post if we hear back.
Gulczynski also explained that Rad would often talk about ways to free Tinder from its parent company's control, as well as hiding the fact that Tinder was not an independent company.
Tinder's co-founder also claims that there are many former employees who left the company on bad terms. "We have a whole family of Tinder people," he said. "It’s like an ex-Tinder support group."
Swipe right, swipe left, swipe right, chat a little, set up a date, go out, come home and write about it.
It's 2014, and this is the life of "Tinderella," a woman who blogs her way through Tinder date after Tinder date, hoping to meet Prince Charming...or at least someone who isn't totally terrible.
DNAInfo calls her the "real life a mirror-image of the heroine from the movie "Bridget Jones's Diary," minus the chain-smoking and fashion blunders."
Tinderella, 27, wishes to remain anonymous but describes herself as blonde and British.
She also keeps her dates anonymous. "The Married Tinder" and "The Republican Tinder" are guys she went out with — DNAInfo reports "When "The Married Tinder" was recognized by another Tinder user (who forwarded Married Tinder the blog post), she said he emailed her and thanked her "for being discreet" with her writing."
One of her dates even cried about his ex to her . She'll also record what she wore. A few thousand people a month, according to the blogger, tune in. She says each date post gets about 2,000 hits.
Med Student was already there, sitting at a table with a beer. He was even more attractive in person but I was so annoyed by my surroundings that I only noticed this begrudgingly. We shared awkward hellos that I could barely hear over the Irish jigging and I sat down. He didn’t offer me a drink so after a stony silence I said, ‘Well, I’m just going to get myself a drink’. Perhaps remembering that he was on a date and not in the student halls he suddenly leapt up and took my order.
I told him I’d like a glass of wine then tried to ‘smile sweetly’ (but probably glared maliciously) and asked if he wouldn’t mind telling the bartender to turn the music down. He looked a bit taken aback, as though he hadn’t even noticed the loud and terrible Irish music (HOW?)
If I’m going to spend an evening sitting in puddles of old beer, I draw the line at concurrently becoming deaf at the hands of an Irish jig.
It's being called the "Tinder for Parties" app — Kick On will allow users to swipe right on events nearby.
The host of the event will then decide whether to include the swiper in the festivities and can share the address of the goings-on. And parents in Queensland, Australia are calling it "a nightmare" because it's opening the doors for their kids to rowdy parties.
The Courier reports the app was founded by Brisbane-bred Charles Stewart "who said the app was a 'fun new way to discover parties near you.'"
“It’s completely gone off. We knew there was going to be interest – but never like this,” he told The Courier.
But critics of the app say it's not about the app itself, but the people who use it for all of the wrong reasons.
Child psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg told The Courier parents should not allow their children to use the app, calling Kick On “a perfect digital storm with the immature teenage brain and a technology that’s in the moment and of the moment.”
In Queensland, the penalties for organizing a party that ends up getting out of hand, regardless of the host's original intent of the event, are harsh.
Under the new laws, a person who organizes a party that becomes an out-of-control event, their parents or gate crashers, face a maximum penalty of 12 months jail or $12,100.
The spokesman said if police faced aggravated and violent circumstances when shutting down wild parties, the party organisers may be faced with fines up to $18,150 and three years in prison.
One enterprising engineer decided to maximize his chances of obtaining a Tinder match by building a battery-operated robot to endlessly swipe right for him.
The Java developer, James Befurt, constructed the apparatus by writing a computer program that hooks up with what appears to be some type of microcontroller, a small piston, and stylus.
Right swiping on Tinder indicates interest in your potential match. So by right swiping on every match Befurt is essentially maximizing his options by automatically saying "yes" to anyone who might be interested.
He can leave the machine running for as long as he decides while the robotic finger flips endlessly though women.
This isn’t the first time a users has tried to hack the app.
Back in September, one man built a Google Chrome extension that transforms Tinder into a desktop interface to more easily swipe though and like or dislike matches.
Some users, however, prefer the old fashioned method.
So maybe you’ve used Tinder. But have girls ever picked you up in their car and driven you 37 miles at a time to help you complete a hitchhiking adventure?
In May 2014, I embarked on what turned out to be a 12,000 mile, 6-month hitchhiking adventure across North America. I started out the old-fashioned way – thumbs up at the side of the road, car after car rejecting me, storm after storm drenching me, can after can of cold beans for dinner.
The novelty quickly wore off.
On one very cold early morning three months and 5,000 miles into my trip, I was messing around on my phone while waiting for a lift on a quiet country road in western Canada.
I’d installed Tinder a couple of months back but hadn't really used it. After a bit of playing around on the app, I noticed I was getting quite a few matches. As I tucked into my 27th can of warm tuna, my most creative moment of the trip so far hit me:
Why don't I use Tinder to get car rides across America?
And that was the beginning of how I leveraged a dating technology app — along with other online platforms including CouchSurfing and Craigslist — to successfully coordinate around 7,500 miles of my hitchhiking adventure across North America.
My Tinder Profile
To accomplish this, I had to change my Tinder profile so that people knew that I was an adventurous traveler who was hitchhiking North America.
Here's a breakdown of my profile:
My Bio: Nomadic traveler of 2 years from Britain. Currently hitchhiking 12,000 miles across North America. Trying to get by through the generosity of wonderful people. Need to reach New York City by early November. Can you help me get there?
Pictures: All smiling, portraying fun and adventure.
Age Range: 18-50 (From my experience hitchhiking there isn’t a certain demographic that picks up hitchhikers).
Tactics: Swipe right to everyone (Since when did dating get so methodical? Come on, everybody deserves a chance!!).
Opening Line: Sometimes an observation about their profile. Usually something blunt and straight to the point: "Can you drive me 60km south?"
Results
I was astonished by the response I was getting on Tinder. I was matching with a lot of curious American girls who wanted to know more about my travels. They all seemed to dig the British thing, too. Peculiarly, a lot of matches opened up with “OMG do you have an accent?” to which I replied, “Ever heard James Bond speak? I sound like him.”
In just 3-months in America, I matched with 3,766 people. I managed to hitchhike around 7,500 miles to New York City primarily using Tinder, CouchSurfing, travel forums and Craigslist.
As a comparison, I covered 5,000 miles across Canada, hitchhiking from the side of the road 100% of the time. In USA, I covered 7,500 miles, hitchhiking from the side of the road just 15% of the time.
Amusingly, I also recall a very low point in my adventure when I had to email Tinder Support (screenshot below) because my account crashed and deleted all my matches. Oh my, I can only imagine the look on the woman’s face dealing with my request and wondering how desperately deluded my life was.
Swiping right and playing the law of averages isn’t a load of fun. After 20 days, the excruciating pain in my thumb and potential onset of RSI made me question what the hell I was doing. Yes, in hindsight, Tinder, I would’ve really appreciated a “Like Everybody in America” button installed on my account. Next time, please?
From my Tinder experiment, I observed that since I’d set my profile up to ask for help, swiping right to everyone worked well as a natural filtering system for matching with people who were willing to help. I matched with curious, like-minded, adventurous girls, some of whom had traveled extensively themselves and others who wanted advice on how to start traveling.
An overwhelming number liked the idea of long-term travel but often gave me reasons why they couldn't start a similar journey themselves.
The top five reasons were:
1. I don’t have enough money to travel. 2. I need to get a proper a job so I can pay the bills. 3. I have a mortgage and car to pay for first. 4. I have to finish university and pay my debt back first. 5. I'll get murdered.
My longest single Tinder hitchhike was around 500km down the beautiful Route 101 on the West Coast of USA. My most memorable story came when I matched with a girl from Phoenix, Arizona. It was late at night and I was just about to go to bed when she asked me to go for drinks with her and her mate. It turned out that her friend was a 40-year old guy who was a bit of a wheeler-dealer. He owned marijuana farms, oil companies and property. He was heading in the same direction as me to check out a new marijuana plot.
After a bit of persuasion and a few JD and Cokes later, he agreed to take me. This hitchhike turned out to be one of my most memorable hitches. He was an extremely interesting character and had many fascinating stories about close encounters with the law – Tony Montana sprung to mind. Beneath all the debatable business endeavors, he was a very kind man with a good heart. We met for drinks a couple of times after the hitch and I’m still in touch with him today.
In addition to hitchhiking, I also used Tinder to arrange a tour around Hollywood in Los Angeles, a trip to the Grand Canyon, a weekend adventure climbing in the Rocky Mountains, and a camping trip on the West Coast of USA.
Conclusions
Luckily, the arrangement wasn't just a one-way street. I wasn't always the one being helped. It wasn’t like that at all. I would cook for girls, adventure with them, make them laugh, and inspire many to change some part of their life, big or small. One girl I met made the decision to quit her job and embark on a solo-backpacking trip across South America.
Some people ask why I didn't stick to the traditional method of hitchhiking.
Here's my answer: Proactive approach > Reactive approach.
A reactive approach entails waiting for the right situation to arise. A proactive approach entails creating the situation you want to arise.
When hitchhiking, a reactive approach would involve me sitting at the side of the road, aimlessly hoping that the right person would come along, pick me up and take me to my destination. The outcome of this situation is very much out of my control. Proactively exploring other mediums such as Tinder, CouchSurfing and Craigslist increases potential, possibility and the likelihood of finding the right people who were willing to help.
This Tinder experiment taught me a very valuable lesson.
If you never ask the answer will always be NO.
I battled with my ego for a very long time and could never find the courage to go beyond myself and ask others for help. Sometimes you need drop that, erase the fear of being judged, and let yourself become beautifully vulnerable.
Human beings are wired to help each other, and from what I’ve seen in two and a half years of travel, no matter where you go in the world, regardless of cultural differences, there are ALWAYS tons of amazing souls who are willing to lend a helping hand.
He says using the popular dating app "seems like the easiest way to get her face in front of a few thousand San Francisco residents." Hundreds of local people have most likely already seen the image while perusing potential "matches."
The Tinder profile shows a snapshot of footage and comes with the tagline: "I rob offices in SF. $5,000 reward for identifying me." It's the latest move in an ongoing search for an apparently notorious thief who targets startups.
Wei alleges that the woman, whom he calls "Lauren," and says on Tinder is 28, broke into his office in July. He adds she came back later with a male accomplice.
On Dec. 12 Wei posted on his blog that he managed to obtain high-res footage of the suspect. He released reams of CCTV image stills of "Lauren" and initially offered $2,500 for her capture. Wei says his Mac was one of the laptops taken. Here's his Mac tracking page noting it had been "locked."
There's footage on both YouTube and Vimeo of a woman in the BuildZoom office. The tech-based company "helps homeowners find reliable contractors" and also assists contractors promote their businesses. It seems the suspect makes a habit of breaking into startups in the Bay Area.
After local news channel ABC7 covered the burglary, another startup got in touch with Wei to tell him about a similar crime. Wei mentions how the woman "is breaking into SF startups with a Doorking /DFS code entry systems"— which is some sort of master key to enter "any office with any system."
ABC7 reports: "You can see a female burglar calmly walk into the office after hours. She gives the space a quick look just to make sure no one is around and then snags a bag from under a desk and starts digging through the office for stuff to snatch." Apparently she took only Apple devices and left PCs.
Wei writes the BuildZoom corporate office was broken into several throughout July, which inspired the team to install a video camera to record the goings on.
The Tinder profile shows a snapshot of the footage and comes with the tagline: "I rob offices in SF. $5,000 reward for identifying me."
The woman seems to have a habit of breaking into startups in the Bay Area.
BuildZoom's Tinder plan was preceded by months of searching, all fruitless. The company posted photos and information on its blog and used more traditional methods to track her down. It led to widespread coverage but no solid leads.
But it took only a few days to snag a lead using the smartphone dating app.
The BuildZoom team came up with the idea of using Tinder this month and created a fake profile on Tuesday. Business Insider previously reported that the woman had been named "Lauren" and imagined as 28 years old. Two days later, BuildZoom cofounder David Peterson tells us the suspect has been identified after someone using the app recognised her. He adds there's a warrant out for the woman on a separate issue, and the police will question her regarding the BuildZoom thefts once she's in custody. Peterson notes he'll pay the reward once there is an arrest.
"We caught her — and it was a result of Tinder!" Peterson says. "It is pretty funny that Tinder actually worked, although I had a feeling it would. After all, a ton of people use it."
As of Thursday, Peterson and his colleagues were waiting for the police to make a formal arrest. He says the authorities have both a name and a photo.
He adds: "I'm 100% sure it is her. I don't like making absolute statements like that unless I am sure. I am, though. It's her."
We'll update this post if the police make an arrest.
But the newest Tinder trend involves using emoji to literally play games — like Connect Four and tic-tac-toe— with the people you're matched with.
First, you use the colored circle emojis or the red X and O emoji to set up a game board. This may involve the use of dashes or other extraneous punctuation marks. Once you make the first move, the person you're playing against copies and pastes the board as their response, adding in another emoji every time it's their "move."
Here's what it looks like in action:
If the guy wins, he asks for the girl's phone number. And if he loses, he'll probably still ask for the girl's phone number by saying he owes her drinks or dinner.
As the Daily Dot points out, this game seems to be a recurring strategy on the Reddit r/Tinder forum. At the very least, it's a unique way to break the ice when you're talking to a complete stranger.
The Atlanta Hawks are hosting a Tinder-themed "Swipe Right Night" on Jan. 7.
The event will take place throughout the game, when the Hawks face off against the Memphis Grizzlies.
“Hawks games have always been a great place to meet fun and vibrant people and we think ‘Swipe Right Night’ will take that to a whole new level,” Hawks CEO Steve Koonin said in a press release.
“We were pioneers of the in-game ‘Kiss Cam’ and are hopeful that we can assist in making some more love connections at our games.”
Fans who use the app are encouraged to swipe right to indicate interest in fellow Hawks fans while at the game. Tinder is a location-based dating app, so the chances of meeting fellow Hawks fans will be incrementally higher than normal.
The team will be providing designated in-arena locations that Tinder users can use to rendezvous with their matches. Fans will also be given the opportunity to meet with Jezebel Magazine’s Most Eligible Atlantans, who will also be at the game.
It is unclear whether Hawks players themselves will be using the mobile dating platform.
For info on how to buy tickets to the game, check out Hawks.com.
Amanda Bradford doesn't think her dating app, The League, is elitist. She prefers the word "curated," the same way Ivy League schools and top employers select only the best candidates.
The League, which just raised a $2.1 million seed round, is operating with 4,500 beta users in San Francisco. The goal is to make a more selective Tinder that's only for the most interesting and motivated single people in cities around the world.
Ultimately, Bradford wants to match tons of power couples. Since November, the app has paired 20,000 people, resulting in 19 couples.
Right now, the app skews slightly female, and its users often have advanced degrees. They tend to be in their late 20s; all have been carefully selected by Bradford's team using an are-you-cool-enough algorithm her tech team built.
Those accepted into The League get one "ticket" they can give to another single friend, and about 50% of The League's users were referred by another member. All other singles have to wait in a virtual line and hope they're top-notch enough to join The League's elite pool of prospects. Lawyers, doctors, and tech executives frequent the app. Many of the beta users have never signed up for a dating service before. Or if they were on Tinder, they weren't pleased with the experience.
"We want people to think of The League as a little more grown up and tasteful, for young professionals who want to go out for a coffee or a drink and aren't just about hooking up," Bradford says. To get only the most serious singles, Bradford feels it's important to be highly selective rather than target hard-partying college students.
"The best universities curate students. Employers curate their employees. Work and school are the top places where 20-somethings meet each other. So it makes sense for a dating community" to curate as well, Bradford says.
Unlike Hinge and Tinder, The League relies more on LinkedIn than Facebook to determine who is up to snuff. Bradford says she and her friends frequently LinkedIn-stalk dates before meeting them for coffee to make sure they aren't scary and that their goals align.
The acceptance algorithm that The League uses scans the social networks to ensure applicants are in the right age group and that they are career-oriented. That doesn't mean they have to be Ivy graduates or work for a big-name firm. But they should have accomplished something in their 20s.
"It's not an 'If this, then yes, or, if no, then no' algorithm," Bradford says, insisting that membership isn't based on salaries. "We want our users to say, 'Hey, we trust your judgment.' These people are going after their dreams. They're just interesting, ambitious, and doing something they're excited about."
The League also looks at users' social graphs to see who they know who is already a member of The League.
Once accepted, users are shown only a handful of matches per day. They can log back in during "happy hour" at 5 p.m. for a new batch of matches to scan. The League makes sure users aren't shown first connections or current coworkers, to minimize awkward virtual encounters.
Bradford, who worked at Salesforce, attended Stanford Graduate school and interned with the top venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, was hoping to raise $750,000. But she found numerous angel investors — including five of her professors at Stanford — eager to invest. IDG Ventures gave her the first check in June followed by Sherpa Ventures and others. She has a computer science background and was offered a product management role at Facebook, but she opted to launch a startup instead.
Bradford is using her millions to grow her team of four and to hire engineers. The League will most likely launch in New York City next, where Bradford says there is already a sizable wait list. She is also eager to launch in London, where motivated individuals tend to flock. She would rather tackle the world's most interesting cities than smaller US towns.
"I'm healthy. I have a great family. I have a great group of friends."
Whitney Wolfe had to remind herself of that often in August when she was in the middle of a very public sexual-harassment lawsuit with a company she cofounded, Tinder.
Tinder is one of the world's hottest new companies. Founded in 2012 by Wolfe, Sean Rad, Chris Gulzcynski, and Justin Mateen in an IAC startup incubator, Tinder is now valued by Silicon Valley investors at about $750 million.
"I don’t wish for anyone to go through that, especially right as you’re turning 25," Wolfe says of the lawsuit.
Wolfe joined Hatch Labs, the IAC incubator that yielded Tinder, when she was 22. She met Sean Rad, a Tinder cofounder, at a dinner with mutual friends in Los Angeles. Rad was leading a project in the incubator, a customer-service startup called Cardify and hired Wolfe. But when Cardify failed to gain traction, the team began spinning its wheels on other projects, including a dating app that allowed users to quickly swipe through Facebook profiles of local single people, like Hot or Not.
Wolfe took the idea for Tinder under her wing. She says she came up with the name of the app and initially promoted it on college campuses. She was given a cofounder title.
Then, her direct manager and fellow cofounder, Justin Mateen, took a liking to her. The pair dated in February 2013 and dated on and off for the remainder of the year. Wolfe says her relationship with Mateen ended for good when he became “verbally controlling and abusive.”
The way he acted after their breakup allegedly forced her to resign from the company, resulting in a lawsuit that has since been settled, netting Wolfe more than $1 million and stock in Tinder.
"It wasn’t about the money," Wolfe says, insisting she tried to resolve the matter privately for a long time before the lawsuit was filed. "It was about my hard work. I had been erased from the company's history ... I’m not here to take credit fully for Tinder. It’s about the team, and I think I played a really important role in the team. I was there from inception of this app that’s now known by the world."
The lawsuit attracted a lot of attention with the media, and some accused Wolfe of being equally nasty to Mateen and trying to get rich off of someone else's success.
"It’s easy to say, 'She asked for it,' or 'Oh, she was dramatic,'" Wolfe says. "I think insecurities sometimes are extremely loud. The average person out there reading an article [about me] wants to say whatever they want. I know my truth and I know what really matters to me."
Wolfe received notes of encouragement too. One person who reached out to Wolfe in August was Andrey Andreev, whom Wolfe had met briefly at Tinder. Andreev is the cofounder of Badoo, a dating website that has 250 million users. He asked Wolfe to meet, and the two discussed what she planned to work on next.
Wolfe initially wanted to make an Instagram competitor for a younger audience, where only positive comments could be left. Andreev encouraged her to think about getting back into the dating space.
"I wanted to do something that would promote a responsible user online. There’s a lot of room to be negligent and nasty to each other," Wolfe says. "I figured, whatever I do next I want to narrow that down. I wasn’t going to do it in the dating space at all."
Andreev got her to reconsider, and now he's partnered with her on a new dating app that resembles Tinder, Bumble. They recruited another Tinder cofounder who departed, Chris Gulzcynski, and Tinder's former VP of Design, Sarah Mick.
In late 2014, the four launched Bumble. Wolfe is marketing the app to young adults and college sororities (Wolfe was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma). Her efforts have created traction at a few southern schools like Auburn and UT Austin where thousands of students are on the app.
Bumble, like Tinder, uses profile swiping to match single people in the same town. But on Bumble, women are forced to make the first move. They have 24 hours to message a match, otherwise the match disappears. Men are left to pine over women, powerless, unless they're reached out to. If a relationship is same-sex however, either person who's matched can reach out.
Wolfe says the decision to empower women was inspired by Sadie Hawkins dances.
"We're definitely not trying to be sexist, that’s not the goal," Wolfe says. "I know guys get sick of making the first move all the time. Why does a girl feel like she should sit and wait around? Why is there this standard that, as a woman, you can get your dream job but you can’t talk to a guy first? Let’s make dating feel more modern."
The ephemeral nature of Bumble is meant to eliminate dead-end matches.
"On Tinder, maybe you get 100 matches, then the guy either feels like he has to do 100 chats or the girl feels uncomfortable starting a chat, so I think it gets convoluted for the user and results in dead-end matches [where no one reaches out]," says Wolfe. "60% of matches on Bumble are turning into conversations. That means women are saving 60% of their matches."
While Wolfe says founding Tinder was exciting, it's easy to take a startup rocket ship for granted. With Bumble, she's hoping she'll get a second chance to witness success
"I remember when we were starting Tinder we were like, 'We’re going to be the next Instagram!,'" Wolfe says. "I remember sending my parents emails being like, 'We got 300 members!' It was crazy, but as much as we appreciated it, you take [that kind of growth] for granted a little bit too ... To go from zero to [tens of millions of users] in a short amount of time ... it’s like the human mind can’t understand success on that level ... It was phenomenal and so surreal."
Bumble's launch looks promising. Wolfe says the initial traction is even better than Tinder's was, with nearly 100,000 downloads in a little over one month, and high user engagement.
"Any startup would dream for what we’re seeing," says Wolfe. "I know everyone wants to refute my role at tinder but the truth is the truth. I played my role at that company and I’m going to do it again in a different way. I don’t think anyone should be limited in continuing on in their career."
Wolfe adds, "I realize, yes, maybe Tinder ended in a lawsuit and we all went our own ways. But two years ago we were all just kids who were working on a company that didn't have users yet. It was just a really crazy ride."
His profile includes a wide range of reviews from his exes (most of whom want Chapman to leave them alone.)
"We were young and dumb - you were an a**hole. Looks like you've changed and like you're doing awesome now," reads a review from ex-girlfriend Danielle.
The Daily Mail reports Chapman"a web engineer, revealed his new profile - and the attention he has received on social media - has made his Tinder profile blow up."
"I wanted to put up an honest view of what my exes thought of me, with just a bit of confidence about it because it's Tinder," Chapman told The Daily Mail.
It was written by a man known only as "Max" and is sponsored by Tinder Advisor, an advice service for users of the popular dating/hookup app. Max says it is based on "accredited seduction psychology," whatever that means.
Max, who describes himself as a serial entrepreneur, built on his personal struggle to match with women on Tinder. By seeing it as a "sales process,” he made himself better at self-promotion.
Indeed, it all sounds a bit Julien Blanc — like a book designed specifically for pickup artists to use one of the most prolific dating apps out there to get even more action.
But Max tells us this isn't the case. Instead, he says, his intention is to save men time and embarrassment. Tinder is not just a tool for hooking up, but an opportunity to "attract quality women they might not have dared approach in real life," he says, adding that people can "find truly remarkable women" on the app.
It still sounds somewhat suspect. But we'll let you judge for yourselves. Below, we have republished some of Max's key Tinder advice with the author's permission.
1. Tinder isn't just a "sex app." It's a massive resource that can have a more fruitful effect than trying to meet women at a bar.
Max writes that many describe Tinder as an "app serving strictly to have a one-night stand." But he says girls on Tinder aren't any more inclined to go straight to bed than girls at the bar. Max tells readers that the only reason more men get lucky on the app is because of the number of users — but while Tinder helps men hook up more, it is not necessarily with the women they really want to be with.
Understand that sleeping with the normal girls — the ones you truly want — is going to be harder than if you'd had the luck of running into her alone at the bar. Think about it, you need to convince a girl who has never seen you that she needs to spend some time with you, preferably one-on-one, as opposed to go on with life as usual or meet one of the other million guys on the app. The good news is that the law of large numbers ensures that you will succeed far more than at the bar, and there are techniques to multiply your odds.
2. Be the "absolute biggest sweetheart."
I am talking about Ryan Gosling in The Notebook. The guy who can do no wrong and was brought up to do anything for a woman. Someone who respects them so much that he is shy by nature and would never dare to approach a girl in a bar or do anything player-like for that matter. This is the guy that all women dream about, but would never actually be attracted to in reality. The Sweetheart Principle will enable you to pleasantly surprise a woman ...
... the Sweetheart approach will yield the highest success because it appeals to a broad base of normal girls. In the later chapter, you will see many examples of how to put this frame into practice at every step until the meet-up. Don't forget, once you finally do meet her, Ryan Gosling needs to turn into James Bond if you want to avoid a wedding and, instead, guide her seamlessly into your bed.
3. Set the right range.
To stay optimal, I highly recommend increasing the range incrementally. Start small and if you run out of girls and if you feel your plate is not yet full, increase the range gradually. This will make you prioritize your energy on the ones closest with the highest chance of success.
4. Create the perfect profile photo.
How does Max think men can get maximum impact for just one photo? First, formatting is very important.
He explains:
Avoid posting a photo with:
Only your face
You standing somewhere in the distance
You turned away from the camera
You sporting the "serious" look
You posing with anyone else. People in the background can be OK
Blurry resolution. Women are very weary of this while swiping and you should be too
Parts of the photo hidden by darkness. Same principle as previous point. Avoid black and white photos, you wearing sunglasses
Instead:
Have a photo of only you, the sole focus of all attention
We must be able to see your entire head, down to at least your chest*. Anything past the knees will be too zoomed out
Stare at the camera, or slightly away if you want to have the "in action" look
Smile genuinely
Make sure it is a crisp shot, such that someone who saw the photo could later recognize you in person. This being said, use apps like Instagram to optimize the lighting and smooth over your features. This needs to be the absolute best version of you
Display one or several of the following value indicators: taste for luxury, physical activity, artistic side, travel experience or acute sense of style
Max clarifies the whole thing in another section: "avoid the d*bag trap," he says. That means doing away with anything that will lower your "perceived value." He advises against selfies, "cool serious faces," and "showing off."
5. Swipe instead of clicking on the "X" or love heart.
Max says not to click the "X" or the love heart, as it takes more time than swiping. Crucially, he goes through the pros and cons of using a "swipe all girls right" process, or operating a "swipe right or left depending on profile picture" style. The first, Max says, is the fastest possible method and gains the maximum number of matches; the latter, though, means "no scary matches" and provides "minimal thought or emotional engagement."
6. Give girls time to match you first.
You can swipe at anytime of the day or night. However, I recommend doing this when you are stuck waiting and have absolutely nothing better to do. Otherwise, do it while you are in the middle of a Tinder conversation since you are logged on and distracted anyways. Since swiping is extremely time-flexible, set rules for yourself and don’t let it interfere with regular life. Swipe at least once, every one or two days, because active users have a priority over other men.
You can swipe many times in a day, you are better off spacing out the sessions, here is why: Tinder will have time to sort through the girls and show you the active ones in priority. Some matches may check up on when you were last logged on and get turned off if the number is always under five minutes. Give some girls time to match you first. This last point is called herding and can differentiate a king from a mere expert.
7. Don't be too picky.
Max tells men to be honest with themselves and says it's not realistic to right-swipe only models. He also explains that having friends "objectively rate your profile" is beneficial:
Since men only rate women on their looks, their scoring is simpler: a number between 1 and 10. Even women subconsciously know that this is their value on the dating scene, especially on Tinder. Right swipe women that score between your baseline and your ceiling. You will rarely match women above your ceiling, never mind meet them! Similarly, women below your baseline are the ones you do not want to meet even if they offer you sex on a silver platter.
8. The art of chatting.
In this section, Max talks about "when to engage," tapping into what he calls "prime-times." He divides the periods into Monday to Thursday, 7-11 p.m., Friday and Saturday, 3-9 p.m., and Sunday, 4-11 p.m. Each carries different weight.
This is Sunday, for example:
This time is devoted to relaxation and frivolous activities like Tinder. This is a great opportunity to schedule dates for the week because girls do not usually feel so "busy." In many cities, a lot of girls will have followed a friend's recommendation and downloaded Tinder over the weekend. On Sundays, you have plenty of time to build rapport with these newcomers.
There's also a "late night match" subsection, which Max says could lead to the most promiscuous conversations.
9. Working out who the girl actually is.
Max tells men that a Tinder profile isn't enough to judge somebody. He's got a solution: Find her on Facebook.
Most times, a girl's Tinder profile is not enough to let you know if she is truly worth meeting. Having her on Facebook means that you can get a better grasp of who she really is and what she really looks like.
Max says women often hide their true identity through things like selective photos or give away their desires by posting photos only of luxury items.
10. Don't move too fast.
Sexual escalation refers to making the girl imagine you as a sexual partner. This does not mean you should talk dirty right away and risk alienating most self-respecting girls. The escalation is done through gradual steps to avoid burning promising leads. Although this strategy is risky, I recommend a minimum of sexual escalation in all interactions because it makes them more fun and paints you as a confident male.
To do this skillfully, you need to apply two steps forward with the ability to take one step back. This way, if you sense that the girl is uncomfortable, you can still recover. Some of these notions have already been explored in previous chapters. Creating a fantasy is a light form of sexual escalation. Saying something very forward, but covering with a smiley, is a good way to escalate sexually while maintaining the ability to take a step back. These, as well as other techniques, are elaborated in this section in progressive order of intensity.
11. Dirty pictures are OK, apparently.
Max describes how he used to think naughty images were only for internet perverts and convicted felons. Then, he writes, he went traveling with another man who regularly sent intimate photos to Tinder matches — apparently to great effect.
The term "accredited seduction psychology," or ASP, sounds like the literature of pickup artists — men who deploy schemes to hook up with women, of which dating coach Julien Blanc is a notorious example. But the author of the new e-book "Tinder for Experts," which is based on ASP, doesn't see it that way.
The book's anonymous writer, known only as "Max," views the dating app Tinder as a "sales process." His book gives men what he describes as tips for being more successful at self-promotion, as opposed to formulaic methods for securing dates.
Although some of Max's lighter advice includes sending "naughty pictures," checking out matches on Facebook, and planning out chat sequences and the best time to correspond, he insists "Tinder for Experts" is not the work of a pickup artist. We spoke to Max to find out why and to see how the mysterious author is faring on the app.
Business Insider: You say you're not a pickup artist, but the book does appear to be similar to that sort of material and literature. It uses much of the same language and does seem to point toward being a pickup-artist guide specifically for Tinder?
Max: A pickup artist is someone that practices seduction as a career by offering classes and "boot camps." Nowadays, given the negative connotation, they refer to themselves as dating coaches. I cannot call myself either because although seduction is a subject that fascinates me, I do not offer such programs.
From the very beginning of my e-book, I state that I have internalized literature written by pickup artists. Their advice helped me get over my fear of talking to women and to develop a charming personality in my early adult life. These skills and confidence led me to find success with women and even in business.
Naturally, when explaining how to properly use Tinder, I build upon concepts often first defined by pickup artists. Whether to name it a "pickup-artist guide" depends on whether you are willing to go as far as to call it an art.
BI: What do you think of people like Julien Blanc?
M: Julien Blanc is a pickup artist that happens to also have a twisted sense of humor and a low esteem of women. Any pickup artists who share his views are not fit to be teaching men how to interact with women. Instructors have a moral obligation to teach their skills for the right reasons, especially when they can be used to do harm.
BI: Men and women use Tinder. But does it hold the capacity for men to exploit/objectify women?
M: I do not see how Tinder grants men the capacity to exploit women. Perhaps if they were to lie or put up fake photos, but this is immoral and potentially illegal. This problem is as old as online dating, and women are usually conscious to meet men in public places after having gotten to know them properly via chat.
Tinder is a superficial game. This may lead some men objectify women and address them inappropriately. These guys almost never get far and I adamantly discourage such behavior. To outwit other men, you need to be open to getting to know the woman and having her discover your attractive personality. Women are very sought after on Tinder, they will usually not waste a minute on a guy that treats them disrespectfully.
BI: Have you had any testimonials? People who've struggled, read your book, and subsequently met their "match"?
M: The e-book was only released a couple of months ago, so I have not yet received any wedding invitations. However, one of the reasons I decided to write this e-book happened when one of my best friends fell for a girl he met on Tinder. He had been following my advice and going on more dates than any other time in his life. Eventually, without even expecting it, he met a great girl that won him over. They are still together and he has had to retire from Tinder!
BI: How have you been doing on Tinder?
M: Leading up to my decision to write "Tinder for Experts," I was going on one or two dates per week thanks to Tinder. I was also getting invited to events and shown around new cities I was visiting. Amazingly, the women I was meeting were really great, better than I could hope to find in bars or clubs. I am still good friends with many of them.
When I was almost finished writing, I met the most charming woman of all. She is a doctor and never has time to meet men the "normal" social way. In the final chapter, I do not mention her, but I do explain how to turn a Tinder date into a relationship. As it turns out, I am one of the rare examples that love can be found on Tinder!
Tinder's been testing a paid version of its dating app called "Tinder Plus" for some time now, and it's arriving in the US next month.
Tinder Plus introduces the much-requested Undo button, which allows users having second thoughts to rewind a swipe from ever happening. There's also Passport, which lets people widen their search area to find more (or different) people.
Details about the impending launch were first discovered by TechCrunch, which noticed a few lines in the most recent Tinder app update that mentioned the Undo button and Passport.
While everyone who downloaded the most recent update technically has all the ingredients for Tinder Plus inside the app's software, Tinder told TechCrunch it's waiting until March to enable the service.
Both of Tinder’s mobile apps recently received updates on the respective app stores where the feature was mentioned in the app’s update text – hinting at an imminent arrival. However, Tinder says that Plus is not yet being enabled for end users in the U.S. at this time – and the app’s update text descriptions will be edited to reflect this.
Instead, the dating service says its U.S. launch is still on track for a mid-to-late March time frame.
Tinder has yet to reveal official pricing for Tinder Plus, but recent leaks have suggested a $6.99 monthly subscription. So far, Tinder has been testing multiple price points, charging anywhere from $1.99 to $19.99 in various markets.
Aside from all the objectification and creepy men, Tinder is amazing. It's makes "dating" quick and simple in a frenzied world.
Sadly, it burst onto the scene long after I'd found my "match," Laura.
We're both still on it, though.
Don't worry. It's not what you're thinking! We just signed up to see what all the fuss was about and to see who could get more right swipes (spoiler: she did, unsurprisingly).
Call it friendly competition — we occasionally compare our Tinder lists to see who's on their game. We're a really normal couple.
But there's something more here. The point is, Tinder isn't just a hook-up tool. Its use isn't purely mindless debauchery and honing cheesy pick-up lines. I'm not talking about cheating. I'm just saying you don't have to lose out on the Tinder fun just because you're in a relationship.
Here are some alternative ways to use everyone's favourite dating app:
1. Role play.
After years of going out, funnily enough, my other half and I actually found one another on Tinder while doing our competition thing — thankfully we both swiped right. Afterwards, we chatted for a while pretending we were strangers. It wasn't planned, it just happened. We talked about Nandos, the spiced chicken joint, mainly. After a few minutes it got weird and I bailed, but for more adventurous types it'd be a good way to go.
2. Alternative chatting.
It doesn't have to be role play. Tinder has a decent chat function and is a decent alternative to WhatsApp or iMessage. If David Cameron really does block those tools, perhaps it might even act as a free method to communicate. A colleague of mine at BI has used it to talk to friends in the past.
3. Competition.
Who can get the most matches? An exciting game to play with your other half, friends, or colleagues.
Tinder is an awesome way to map your area; to find out more about the social demographics of where you live; discover other parts of towns and cities. I live in the murky depths of south London and using Tinder to see how people change between communities while travelling north on the Overground is fascinating. In New Cross, home of Goldsmiths University, there are loads of arty students, for example; in Highbury and Islington, you'll see tons of girls sporting Arsenal scarfs.
6. Something to do on the commute.
Tinder is simply something to do while bored on the bus. You never know who you might find while journeying on the 249 to Clapham Common — it can take ages, especially in traffic. Basically, if you haven't downloaded the latest episode of Catastrophe on 4OD, hit up Tinder and see what's going on. You can talk to random people about Nandos.
7. Brand marketing.
Yes, companies use Tinder to reach out to potential customers. Domino's UK used the app to advertise its 2014 Valentine's Day promotion. Marking Week reported that the pizza chain gave away free or discounted meals to Tinder users who matched with the company on February 14. Iris Worldwide said Domino's had a social reach of more than 230,000 people.
Tinder, the outrageously popular free dating app, is going through a huge change. It's in the middle of launching a paid subscription product called Tinder Plus, currently being tested in some European countries.
Many Tinder users feel that the update ruins everything that made the original version great, namely because it will limit the number of swipes users have.
Tinder is popular, in large part, because it's so easy to use: you swipe right if you like someone and left if you don't. Users have an unlimited number of swipes, so it feels like a mobile game as much as a dating app (important for those who are still hesitant about online dating). In fact, lots of users keep the app in the "Games" folder of their phones.
And Tinder doesn't require the lengthy, time-intensive profiles of OkCupid or Match.com. All you can see about other users is a maximum of five photographs and a short bio.
Here's what you see on Tinder: a photo, name, age, shared friends, and interests.
Other apps — some of which aren't free — make dating seem like a chore. But Tinder is effortless. It's easy to pick up, swipe, and ignore.
You can see in the chart below that Tinder currently dominates the US dating app market.
Tinder hasn't seen any serious dips in popularity since emerged on the scene in January 2013. It only dropped out of the top 250 US App Store ranking once.
Here's a chart from App Annie that shows Tinder's iOS App Store ranking. The blue line is the app's overall ranking in the US App Store.
The app has continued to grow, even after 2013's sudden rise. Monthly active users have tripled in the last year.
But early signs indicate that Tinder Plus, which right now is being deployed to 40% of users in countries like the UK, Brazil, and Germany according to TechCrunch, won't be received in the same way as its predecessor.
Tinder Plus is an in-app subscription (not a separate app) that adds some interesting features to Tinder. Right now, users only encounter people who are nearby. With Tinder Plus, the dating radius will expand. You can connect to people in other cities using a feature called "Passport." You can also undo any accidental swipes, eliminating the possibility of more serendipitous meetings. These are actually cool features, and nobody is freaking out about them (yet).
This is what it looks like when you encounter someone using Passport to swipe people in other places:
The biggest complaint is over what's going to happen to the free version of the app. Once the paid subscription service officially rolls out, Tinder users will have limited swipes. It's not clear yet how many right swipes people will have each day, as the amount is still being tested.
Fans of Tinder are already complaining about the update. Take a look at the long list of disappointed customer reviews on Tinder's UK App Store page, days after the company began testing Tinder Plus on European users:
App Store reviews aren't always an accurate indicator of an app's popularity, as an angry user is far more likely to leave a rating than a satisfied one. But the App Store does show a dip in Tinder's customer rating, now averaging at 1.5 stars compared to the 3.5 stars overall rating that includes previous versions of the app without Tinder Plus.
Most of the angry App Store reviews talk about what Tinder has taken away, instead of what it has added. It seems that the swipe limit has really upset some hardcore Tinder fans.
Here, via TechCrunch, is what Tinder users are so angry about:
So why is Tinder deciding to transform the casual dating app into something resembling a premium dating app? What you might not know about Tinder is that it isn't a small startup. In fact, it never has been.
Tinder originated as an experimental project from inside IAC, the giant company that owns some of the internet's most popular websites. As well as Tinder, IAC owns popular dating sites Match.com and OkCupid. IAC's Tinder experiment has been a success — now it's time to make some money.
The Tinder Plus model works for sites like OkCupid: Pay extra for cool new features. But Tinder isn't like IAC's other dating sites. In fact, you could argue that it's not a dating site at all. Tinder's casual, game-like nature has been a major part of its appeal. A subscription model makes Tinder more serious, more like online dating. And if early App Store reviews are anything to go by, Tinder users aren't taking kindly to Tinder Plus.
But soon after the news published about the Tinder element of the campaign, the dating app decided to shut it down.
In a tweet to Adweek reporter Garrett Sloane (who wrote — and has now updated — the original story about Gap's "Tinder ads"), Tinder's vice president of corporate communications and brand partnerships Rosette Pambakian said it would be swiftly removing Gap's profile from the dating app.
@GarettSloane we will be deleting those GAP profiles. It violates our TOS. We did not approve this campaign and it is not an ad.
Tinder's terms of service state that the service is "for personal use only" and that users may not use the service or any content contained in the service for "advertising or soliciting any user to buy or sell any products or services not offered by the company."
Tinder is also rolling out a paid subscription product called Tinder Plus that will expand the radius in which users can find matches, allow users to undo accidental swipes, and offer unlimited right-swipes. One of the benefits of paying could also include eliminating ads.
For Gap, being effectively left-swiped from the Tinder app is a blip to its marketing plans. Its advertising agency Wieden + Kennedy has created a series of 12 short films telling a love story between "Marcel the Shell" creator Jenny Slate and actor Paul Dano. One episode will be released each week. Further elements were also due to be distributed across other "dating websites and apps," according to a press release from Wieden + Kennedy. In addition, Gap's Spring campaign will also include "broader print and online components" featuring upcoming artist modeling its clothing.
Last month Gap's creative director Rebekka Bay left the company. Gap restructured its marketing team by eliminating the creative director role and promoting its customer engagement chief, Scott Key, to senior vice president and general manager of customer experience.
Pictures: All smiling, portraying fun and adventure.
It was late at night and I was just about to go to bed when she asked me to go for drinks with her and her mate. It turned out that her friend was a 40-year old guy who was a bit of a wheeler-dealer. He owned marijuana farms, oil companies and property. He was heading in the same direction as me to check out a new marijuana plot.
After a bit of persuasion and a few JD and Cokes later, he agreed to take me. This hitchhike turned out to be one of my most memorable hitches. He was an extremely interesting character and had many fascinating stories about close encounters with the law – Tony Montana sprung to mind. Beneath all the debatable business endeavors, he was a very kind man with a good heart. We met for drinks a couple of times after the hitch and I’m still in touch with him today.
A reactive approach entails waiting for the right situation to arise. A proactive approach entails creating the situation you want to arise.
Wei alleges that the woman, whom he calls "Lauren," and says on Tinder is 28, broke into his office in July. He adds she came back later with a male accomplice.
And here's the YouTube footage in full: 
The Atlanta Hawks are hosting a Tinder-themed "Swipe Right Night" on Jan. 7. 
Then, her direct manager and fellow cofounder, Justin Mateen, took a liking to her. The pair dated in February 2013 and dated on and off for the remainder of the year. Wolfe says her relationship with Mateen ended for good when he became “verbally controlling and abusive.”
