27 Facts About Sean Rad

Sean Rad was born on May 22,1986 and is an Iranian-American entrepreneur and the Founder of Tinder.

Sean Rad holds 15 patents for his work, including the patent for Tinder's "double opt-in" system, in which users must match before they can exchange messages.

Sean Rad was born in Los Angeles, California to an Iranian Jewish family.

Sean Rad has a large family with 12 uncles and aunts and 42 first cousins.

Sean Rad later decided that being an artist wasn't for him.

In 2004, at 18 years old, Sean Rad enrolled at the University of Southern California.

In 2006, Sean Rad left USC to pursue his business ventures.

However, within weeks of his joining, the incubator held an internal 48-hour hackathon, where Sean Rad presented the idea for a double opt-in dating app called Matchbox.

Sean Rad served as Tinder's CEO from 2012 until March 2015 and then again from August 2015 until December 2016.

From March to August 2015, Sean Rad was replaced as CEO by former Ebay executive, Christopher Payne.

Sean Rad returned as CEO in August 2015 and remained in the role until December 2016, when he was replaced by Match Group's CEO Greg Blatt.

Sean Rad remained Tinder's Chairman of the Board until late 2017.

In 2017, Sean Rad left Tinder over an RSU valuation dispute and in 2018 he filed a $2 billion dollar lawsuit against Tinder's parent company, IAC.

Sean Rad is a Founding Board Member of Good Today, a non-profit organization that promotes daily support of various charitable organizations.

Sean Rad was included on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2014.

Sean Rad was recognized by Fast Company as one of the Most Creative People in the business community.

In May 2016, Sean Rad received an honoree diploma from University of Southern California and delivered the 2016 USC Marshall School of Business undergraduate commencement speech.

Also in 2016, Sean Rad accepted a Webby Award for Tinder.

In 2017, Sean Rad was honored as a "30 Under 30" by the Jewish Journal.

In 2020, Sean Rad was again recognized by Forbes as one of the Top 10 Under 30 Founders of the decade.

Sean Rad said, "Justin is nuts" when Wolfe complained to him, ignoring her and calling her emotional.

In 2015, Sean Rad "appeared to make a veiled threat" to Vanity Fair reporter Nancy Jo Sales after an article she published on "hook up culture".

That same year, Match Group filed an 8K registration statement that Sean Rad did not speak on behalf of the company after he disclosed inaccurate figures during an interview prior to an IPO.

In 2019, in a counter $250 million lawsuit by Match Group and IAC, Match said that Sean Rad recorded "sensitive business conversations" between his superiors and colleagues without consent and copied proprietary company files to his personal devices while working at Tinder.

Sean Rad argued that his contract gave him the right to take those actions and he asked the New York Supreme Court to dismiss the lawsuit against him.

In 2018, Sean Rad married his longtime partner, Lizzie Grover, in a ceremony at their Montecito home.

Sean Rad serves on the board of the Milken Community High School.