reSee.it Podcast Summary
I'm very fortunate and grateful for what I have and what I've achieved, but at the same time, I would give up so much of it just to go back to the early days of building Tinder. The energy, the love, the camaraderie, that is the greatest high. It's all that love. It's like when you're flowing and doing something you love with people you love, there's no greater gift. I would tell people these days that unless you get Silicon Valley cash, unless you go VC backed, you're not a success.
Shawn says, 'as an entrepreneur, you have to sort of take sticks and build a house.' 'If I had a dream, if I had a vision, it wasn't a question of if, it was a question of how.' He adds, 'I never had this mindset of, I don't have resources or I can't do something.' Tinder began with grit, not luck.
'My parents came here from Iran, Iranian Jewish. They built a successful business, lost it all. They had to flee when Jews were being persecuted.' He cites an immigrant mentality—resilience, responsibility, contribute to society. 'Life's hard, an entrepreneur's life is excruciatingly hard,' but 'you can accomplish a lot' with agency and not blaming others.
'If you're starting a business, you have to be willing to sacrifice a lot, a lot of comfort.' 'The only reason to do that is because you really love what you're doing.' 'Money doesn't solve problems.' 'Constraints can sometimes be your friend.' 'Don't focus on money; focus on value and efficient use of what you have.'
'As a leader you have to give equal love to every part of your business.' 'Questions are more important than answers.' 'Product-market fit is iterative: test, iterate, test.' 'We wanted everyone to feel included.' 'There was no rank or rigidity; ideas mattered more than status.'
'Tinder created this magical environment where the Matchmaker is the phone; you could say double opt-in was revolutionary.' 'We didn't want to judge. What you do with it is completely up to you.' 'There are more marriages, there are more friendships.' 'We didn't want to define Tinder as a hookup app or dating app; it's an introduction tool.'
'There are universal laws of energy. Masculine energies and feminine energies.' 'We must respect differences; don't demonize desires men and women have.' 'America is the beacon... freedom of speech.' 'Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak, and sit down and listen.' 'Meritocracy and freedom of speech' 'Identity politics is bad'