from Hacker News

Tinder's Forgotten Woman: Whitney Wolfe, Sexism, and Startup Creation Myths

by dbloom on 7/2/14, 9:26 PM with 98 comments

  • by rayiner on 7/2/14, 9:54 PM

    The "Tinderslut"[1] comment says a lot about how Rad and Mateen view the women who use their app. It's consistent with Wolfe's claim in her complaint that Mateen told her it would be "slutty" to be a female Tinder co-founder, because it was an app people used to hook up.

    As an aside, Mateen exhibits the textbook Madonna-whore dichotomy. To him, women are either someone he can see being a wife (Wolfe pre-breakup), or a whore/bimbo/slut (the women on his Instagram feed). When she rejected him, in classic fashion she went from the former bucket to the latter. This is a case study for a gender-studies paper.

    [1] http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Tinderslut

  • by dbloom on 7/2/14, 10:12 PM

    It's ironic that Mr. Rad went to such great lengths to keep his friend Mr. Mateen from facing the consequences of his behavior for so long. Because by putting his friend above his company, he ended up hurting both even more.

    If Rad had just forced his friend Mateen to resign earlier on for "creative differences" before his behavior got out of hand, everyone -- including Mateen! -- would have been strictly better off.

    And this definitely isn't the first time that this has happened (Rap Genius, and I'm sure there are others too...)

    TL;DR: Do your sexist, racist friends a favor by getting them out of your workplace.

    (By the way, to be clear, I don't feel bad for any of these guys. They deserved what happened. But this sort of thing really shouldn't be happening again, and again, and again...)

  • by WoodenChair on 7/2/14, 10:02 PM

    While the allegations are shocking, it was irresponsible for the journalist to add the little bit in the very last paragraph on the third page about one of the founder's former startups having an FBI investigation as a kind of final pot-shot. How was that relevant to the thrust of the rest of the article? What did it add? Was it fair to include it without elaborating?

  • by austenallred on 7/2/14, 10:11 PM

    "Here is the truth as I see it, having spoken to nearly everyone who was involved in the project: What made Tinder Tinder was the work of a team:"

    You could replace "Tinder" with any company and find that the above statement holds true. Twitter isn't Jack or Ev or Biz, it's the combination of the three. Facebook was mostly Zuck, but not all. Apple was indeed [very] heavily influenced by Steve Jobs, but Apple wasn't Steve Jobs.

    I've found the idea of a single genius founder being behind anything is largely a myth; they're just the public face of a company that is doing great things in the background.

  • by minimaxir on 7/2/14, 9:38 PM

    Despite the linkbaity headline, this article actually adds new information and context to the controversy.

    Also, NSFW Instagram images.

  • by jpeg_hero on 7/2/14, 10:16 PM

    So they were dating? IAC is screwed. Dating an direct report is essentially sexual harassment in the eyes of the court.

    I am adding "anti-fraternization" policy to my employee handbook today.

    Seriously, does anybody know how to handle the hr on discovering a supervisor / direct report are dating?

    I've been told that best practices is to immediately suggest one or the other resign, and if they don't, fire both for violating policy.

    How does one handle this situation?

  • by henryw on 7/2/14, 9:53 PM

    Interesting that Tinder is owned by the company behind Match.com.

  • by bearnun on 7/2/14, 11:07 PM

    There is something interesting about the fact that conversation is, again, revolving around the men in this scenario instead of the woman. Just an observation.

    EDIT: Referencing top comments.

  • by msie on 7/2/14, 9:44 PM

    Pretty shocking revelations. Was this ever revealed before? Only because of Wolfe's firing?

  • by afterburner on 7/2/14, 10:28 PM

    "a mere early employee"

    Founder or nothing these days, eh?

  • by jessaustin on 7/2/14, 11:18 PM

    ...depicting IAC Chairman Barry Diller "as a penis."

    I wish I could believe this isn't the actual reason that Mateen is gone.

  • by tzs on 7/3/14, 2:36 AM

  • by michaelochurch on 7/2/14, 10:39 PM

    What seems like a side story is actually, I think, quite indicative.

    Tinder isn't a real startup, but a manufactured success for a couple of well-connected douchebags (who behave as if they're above the law). It's the Disneypreneur phenomenon (http://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2014/06/09/silicon-valle...). If you look into it, both of these guys are invaders from the MBA culture.

    These phony startups, that are actually pre-arranged by powerful players in the mainstream corporate/McKinsey world, are becoming a lot more common and they're often difficult for genuine, old-style startups to compete with. (They blow up big, suck up a lot of talent and attention, then fail and lose credibility, so their inferior capability still leads to a both-lose outcome.)

    This is going to blow up big in a couple of years: this massive proliferation of propped-up junk businesses and pseudo-startups run by incompetents. We're already seeing the embarrassing-but-not-yet-devastating fuckups. We haven't seen an Enron yet. But that's going to come, and it's going to have massive effects (and probably negative ones, on good and bad players) on the startup scene.

  • by jjsz on 7/2/14, 10:14 PM

    Does one really lose the freedom to express themselves once they are VC backed founders? Tinder is a hook up app, and yes, perhaps Tinderslut is too revealing and direct about what any female or male users do with it, but, if he were to use promiscuous tinderian and have a gender neutral tone: would there be that much controversy? If I love naked women and art do I have to throw naked men and art in the mix to not be called a misogynist? The author exaggerated his article with those pictures. Tinder, being male dominated, will naturally have a slight chauvinistic culture. She wasn't pushed aside for being a female, the author hasn't provided evidence to support such a claim. As one of my favorite YouTuber said in his video [1], "if a women has a skill and passion for something she is already pursuing it." Thus, to not be brushed aside she had to battle for relevancy like anyone else does with skillful work instead of lightly accepting her irrelevancy and looking for the media to gain an undisclosed agreement.

    Edit: As usual, anything not supporting the usual response gains downvotes.

    [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_dRt00ufp4

  • by surprised12 on 7/2/14, 10:33 PM

    Hmmm so i wondered if this reporter went through many other successful start-up guys in their early to mid 20s (even late 20s) instragram and twitter feeds would he find similar stuff?

    Their actions aren't right, but they are not surprising based on age and level of success.

  • by tzs on 7/2/14, 11:31 PM

    > She says that Mateen, whom she dated

    ...and now I have no reason to believe either her allegations or his defenses. People are simply unreliable witnesses in matters concerning former romantic partners that they are not on good terms with.

  • by jacquesm on 7/2/14, 10:18 PM

    Off-topic: That photo of her looks like she was hit in the face on the left hand side. One eye much wider than the other, big swelling.