The Dating App from Beverly Hills

My interviews with Tinder’s employees took place half in their offices, half in the leather interiors of luxury cars or while descending in the elevator from brunch at Soho House or waiting for the valet in the gardenia-scented drive of the Beverly Hills Hotel. Justin and Sean grew up rich and popular in a city of surface and sheen. They have none of the affectations of Hollywood executives. (They wear flannel shirts and sneakers; their shared office is littered with Nerf gun darts.) Still, their acute understanding of the metrics of social status seems a product of their environment. Sean is the homebody of the two, preferring the company of his girlfriend of six months, Alexa, who is the daughter of Michael Dell, the founder and CEO of Dell. They met on Tinder, and her friends call her “Tinderella.” Things get awkward at family functions when Sean opines that “computers are dead.”

OMG. Emily Witt’s piece for GQ on the success of the dating/hookup app Tinder is great. I have never used Tinder, or been to Soho House, but I do think the double opt-in (where you only find out if someone likes you if you like them, and vice versa) is brilliant.

Photo: TechCrunch

Support The Billfold

The Billfold continues to exist thanks to support from our readers. Help us continue to do our work by making a monthly pledge on Patreon or a one-time-only contribution through PayPal.