Shirt Buttons Inspired This $245 Million Hook-Up App

A recent episode of How I Built This tells the story of Joel Simkhai 🎧

The blurb…

In 2008 [Joel] was living in LA and looking for an easy way to meet other gay men. He saw the early potential of the GPS-enabled iPhone, and a year later, launched Grindr: an app where users could determine if a potential date – or a quick hookup – was down the block or ten miles away.

With no background in coding or app design, Joel bootstrapped Grindr into a global phenomenon – all the while dealing with technical meltdowns, safety issues, and criticism about toxicity on the app.

Joel ended up selling Grindr “to a Chinese gaming outfit for $245 million in two deals between 2016 and 2018” 🤯

That exit explains how he was able to afford a $13 million house in Hollywood and a $30 million penthouse in NYC 💰

About 10 minutes into the HIBT episode, Joel explains how he developed an entrepreneurial spirit as a kid…

I remember my dad would always say to me, people out there have become very, very successful in selling shirt buttons… he’d point to the buttons on my shirt and say that there are millionaires who made their wealth by selling buttons. And it might not be glamorous, but it’s a great business for a bunch of people.

Very true.

Pick pretty much any object you see around you… chances are someone somewhere has made a fortune selling that object 🤑

And a bunch of other people have likely earned a fortune providing products or services to that first business.

Sitting in my office right now I can see bird spikes outside the window 🐦

I googled bird spikes and quickly found a “bird proofing company” in New Jersey that does $1.6 million a year in revenue. They’ve been in business for 17 years and are selling for $4.3 million.

That’s millions of dollars from selling tiny steel spikes.

And that’s just one company in New Jersey. There are likely a bunch more successful bird spike companies in the US alone 🇺🇸

All that to say: money is everywhere.

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