PortalsOS

Despite Grindr's controversial nature, the app was an incredible business opportunity due to its profitability and strong market position. The company was growing rapidly, and users loved the product.

Grindr had several challenges: a public privacy issue with user data, complications with Chinese ownership, and a PR problem. Despite these, we saw potential due to the strong customer love for the product.

We bought Grindr for about $600 million, which was under market value due to a lack of competition in the process. The company was doing less than $50 million in EBITDA at the time, translating to a 12-13x EBITDA multiple, while public companies were trading at around 20x.

When Grindr was up for sale, many typical buyers were deterred due to the app's association with gay dating, revealing latent homophobia in the investment process. This allowed non-traditional private equity firms to purchase the company.

Despite the stress and physical toll, the acquisition of Grindr was a perfect match for our skillset, built over 20 years. The high user engagement made it the most rewarding work as a product manager.