Arison, who joined Grindr in 2022 after the company was forced to divest its Chinese ownership and was rescued by private equity, says his initial priorities were rebuilding the workforce, driving revenue and shipping products customers would pay for. The company cut staff after a return-to-office mandate in mid-2023, and today runs with about 175 U.S. employees plus a team in Colombia, generating the guided $540 million in revenue.
Growth has come largely from getting existing users to pay more rather than adding users. In the second quarter, Grindr counted 1.4 million paying users, about 9% of its user base, with average revenue per user rising significantly since 2022. Pay conversion has climbed from under 6% to over 9%.
The next leg of growth, Arison says, is turning Grindr into a "gayborhood in your pocket" — handling dating and hookups alongside healthcare services such as ED medication and HIV prevention, with a future plan to connect users with gay-identifying doctors, plus travel features to help users find community. Later this year, the company is also rolling out "EDGE," a more expensive subscription tier that has already drawn online criticism, with some users asking "literally who's paying for this."
Arison, who previously founded online used-car marketplace Shift Technologies and took it public via a SPAC, argues institutional investors are unfairly discounting Grindr. He told TechCrunch about an investor whose financial model included a "Grindr discount" line item, knocking 25% off a fair-value estimate. Not all analysts agree: Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Raymond James have raised price targets this year, with Morgan Stanley upgrading the stock to "overweight" in July on the strength of EDGE and Grindr's telehealth push. Still, the stock trades at roughly 11 times 2027 EBITDA, about 35% below peers.