Tinder’s CMO Has a Hard No for Dating AI Chatbots | Next to Lead

You were previously global CMO of OkCupid.

That was a platform built around compatibility, personality, detailed long-form self-expression.

Yeah.

Tinder became iconic through simplicity, through immediacy and that swiping function.

How did those different starting points shape your current marketing approach? They seem quite disparate.

Certainly similar, but still disparate.

But so many differences.

I mean, you nailed it.

So many differences.

Um, OkCupid was started by two Harvard math majors who were like, "We're nerds who wanna meet someone kind and interesting, and it's really-- dating is really hard for us.

We're not the guy at the bar that girls are gonna talk to." The onboarding, the UX/UI, um, that rich experience was driven by, "I wanna, I wanna extrapolate more insights from what is Ruth like? What is she into? Does she love to travel? Is she a homebody? Is she passionate about sustainability or allyship for the queer community?" And use that to help you find your person.

At Tinder, it's very different.

Tinder's almost anti-filter.

The insight at Tinder, which I didn't appreciate until I came to Tinder-

When you say anti-filter, what do you mean by that?

We want you to set up your profile at Tinder in a couple minutes and then go.

Start connecting, start flirting, start meeting people.

There's a couple of reasons why we're really bad at choosing who we might wanna be with.

When you ask your single friends, "Hey, what are you looking for?" Single friends will say, "I want this.

I want at least, at least a graduate degree.

I want this neighborhood.

They see their grandmother every Sunday.

They're kind.

They rescue puppies.

They speak four languages.