“I’m not really a big believer in words,” Joel Simkhai (pictured) tells the New York Times in a new interview.
That one short statement pretty much sums up his entire company.
Simkhai is the CEO of Grindr. With an estimated four million users in 192 countries, it is arguably the most popular gay hookup app currently on the market, though Simkhai doesn’t like the label “hookup app.” He prefers to think of Grindr as a more tasteful “online meeting place.”
“I see us as more of a bar than a sex club,” he says. “If you go to a bar, you don’t want to see someone with his genitals hanging out.”
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He continues: “Outside the gay community, people would probably say it’s just a hookup app. And absolutely, sex is going on. But it’s more than that, because there’s always the possibility you will hit the jackpot and find someone who will move you. It has this potential for making a huge impact in your life.”
Simkhai says he never dreamed that Grindr would have such a huge impact on the global gay community. In fact, that was never his intention.
“I never had any master plan to shift a culture,” Simkhai says. “I made something because I wanted it for myself.”
He says it all started back in 2009.
“I was thinking about what was out there at the time,” he explains. “Craigslist was so anonymous and explicit. And on Craigslist, you have no real identity. It’s just a post. It’s not your face or maybe not even a real ID.”
Simkhai wanted to offer users something different. His goal was to create what he calls a “visual experience” that employed the GPS function of a smartphone.
“When I first thought about Grindr, I had no idea how to make it happen, technically,” he says. “But that’s something I’m good at, taking the challenge of something people tell me can’t be done and then figuring it out.”
Today, Grindr is considered by many as the premier hookup app, er, “online meeting place” for gay men.
So what impact has it had on Simkhai personally, aside from making him a multi-millionaire?
“Grindr made me get fit and go to the gym more, get better abs,” he confesses. “People criticize it for being superficial, but I didn’t invent that in human nature. What Grindr does is makes you raise your game.”
And, contrary to what you might think, it hasn’t resulted in men beating down his front door.
“People think I can have any boy I want, that I can point and have. And I would love that, but it’s not my reality,” Simkhai says. “So I’m on the app 10 times a day looking, because you never know when you might have that magical, transformative encounter.”
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Has Grindr Turned Gay Men Into Boring Spineless Wallflowers?
Graham Gremore is a columnist and contributor for Queerty and Life of the Law. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.
Ladbrook
I was on Grindr for like 2 days and then deleted it. I find Adam4Adam more to my liking, but I have nothing against the app or those who use it. To each his own, and, or course, the more options we have, the better.
That being said, I do miss the now nearly dead bar culture from the 80’s and 90’s. If you lived in a mid-sized or small city, it was the best way to meet “the community.” I fear that younger gay men will only know gay life as one big hook-up app – each one sitting at home quickly scanning faces in search of the next quick encounter.
Daniel-Reader
Interesting that the app was created by such an ordinary, plain-looking guy. Disturbing, if true, that he uses the word boy instead of man or guy in his “People think…” quote. Fascinating that 4 million guys trust their privacy to someone who is not actually legally bound to maintain said privacy. Also, important people remember that bad things that happen to users of such apps so guys don’t inadvertently put themselves in harm’s way.
jason smeds
Who the hell does Simkhai think he is? Grindr is simply a cyberspace version of the pick-up scene. It’s just another conduit for the impulsive. In some cases, it can even lead to gay bashings.
The most hilarious thing about it is how impulsive and silly it all is. You can be using Grindr to talk to someone who is standing right next to you. Sad and pathetic – the two best words for it.
MisterDemand
Gay revolution is a little strong… its great if you’re horny in a different city…but besides that its pretty lackluster to Adam4Adam or Manhunt
Saint Law
@jason smeds: “In some cases, it can even lead to gay bashings.”
Let’s hope so.
OzJosh
Gay sex revolution? C’mon. If there was a way of actually quantifying this, I’m willing to bet there was way more sex happening before Grindr. Where once guys had to actually get up off their couches and go out to meet people – whether in bars, beats or on the street – now they sit at home flicking through Grindr snapshots, sending messages to guys they’ll never meet, and haughtily judging guys on the basis of their profile pix (guys they might well be genuinely attracted to if they met them in the flesh). Sure, for those determined to hook-up, Grindr has added another tool to their toolbox. But mostly it’s just made judgement a way of life for a bunch of couch potatoes.
money718
@OzJosh: Damn. You just described me. I chat, but rarely ever actually meet anyone on Grindr. Of course, I like the adventure of meeting guys at the gym, on the subway, etc…..
MarionPaige
“an estimated four million users in 192 countries” doesn’t sound very efficient.
MarionPaige
but then again there are less than 1/4 million married gay couples and just look at all the noise those fuckers are making
Ladbrook
@Saint Law: LOL
Ladbrook
@MarionPaige: OH HERE WE GO. Jason logs out and then logs back in as Marion and the gay bashing commences RIGHT ON CUE. Because yes, this is ALL ABOUT the evils of gay marriage. Right Jason? Right Marion?
If we just all slipped back into the shadows and sucked off truckers in the woods like good little closet cases and accepted that we are all just a big threat to heterosexual womanhood then everything would be just fabulous. Ain’t that right, Jason?
Saint Law
@MarionPaige: There are many many more than that but they don’t make nearly as much noise as you, you tragic monomaniac windbag.
joey
i wonder how many guys actually hook up on this app. i dl it about a year ago and haven’t hooked up once, i’m just too afraid too. you never know what nuts are out there, i read horror stories about thefts, bashings and even killing. i get a ton of offers but just cant bring myself to do it …
Damich
Grindr is a Swiss Army knife if you know how to use it. When I worked in sales I also made commissions from connections on there or find a roomie ect. I hung with Simkhai at Gaydays few years back. Nerdy, quirky, semi-shy is how I’d describe him. Regardless of opinions grindr was ground breaking and he’ll go down in gay history.
wpewen
This is horrid guys, sorry. Better to go to a bar and meet someone than an app. It’s akin to Woody Allen’s sleeper, sans the orgasmatron.
wpewen
@Damich: I wouldn’t want a Swiss Army knife to find someone to have sex with.
ChgoReason
I like Grndr. (And so does my 8 in. fatty.)
jason smeds
Homosexual sex between men has existed since time began. Grindr didn’t invent it, the gay rights movement didn’t invent it. So let’s stop kidding ourselves that it’s something revolutionary.
Grindr is just a cover for dysfunctional and impulsive twerps who get a rush of testosterone and suddenly want to get off.
Ladbrook
@jason smeds: And some day, after you’ve finally saved up enough money to pay some blind rentboy to have sex with you, you’ll realize what it’s all about. Until then, maybe you should just stick to idolizing the Duggars and writing checks to NOM.
Jacob23
What a disgusting, exploitative human being. Hopefully, we’ll look back on him and his app as the last gasp of a dying subculture based on loveless sex. BTW, a recent large multi-country survey in Europe links these hookup apps with increased HIV transmission and it is hardly the first to come to that conclusion. I doubt that this douchebag cares as long as the fees keep rolling in.
Ladbrook
@Jacob23: You can’t blame a phone app for a rise in HIV rates (if true). Doing so eliminates any personal responsibility individuals have when it comes to protecting themselves. Choosing to hookup via a phone app (or a website or a bar or a bookstore or a checkout line at the grocery store) doesn’t “promote” the spread of HIV. People making bad choices while hooking up is what spreads HIV. Put the blame where it belongs.
There is a lot to be said for hookup apps in general, and not all of it is good, but I don’t think “spreading disease” is one of its problems.
Garrett
@Jacob23: Dang, you sound like a man with some serious logic issues. Did you miss the whole cause-and-effect lecture in college? How about that Causation vs. Correlation thingy? Miss that one, too?
Charlie in Charge
And cue the finger wagging sayers of nay. The app has changed the way people approach dating and hooking up. I’ve found sex with it, I found a boyfriend with it, I even found people to chat with when I was traveling to a new area. And with the advent of Tinder, look what wonders it’s doing for straight people.
Paco
I was always under the impression that it was the old AOL chat rooms that changed how gay men met and hooked up. Also, Manhunt existed before Grindr as well. The culture had already shifted before he created his app for phones.
Charlie in Charge
The chat rooms were a big leap forward, the use of GPS and mobile accessibility was another leap. I’m sure at some point we will have neural implants that help us get laid.
jason smeds
I’ve seen guys in gay bars furiously looking at their apps and being totally oblivious to the social setting around them. Memo to these idiots: if you want to fiddle with your app, go home and do it. Leave the bars for people who actually want to talk to each other.
MarionPaige
Don’t know anything about Grindr but doesn’t the use of a smartphone and the internet for hookups leave a record? It’s like this thang that hookedup with Michael Phelps was quoted as saying it had a FORENSIC report done on her phone to prove that it was communicating with Phelps.
BadSeed
@Saint Law: Your comment could seem ambiguous. Please elaborate.
BadSeed
Comparing Grindr to gay bars or sex clubs is like comparing nuts with the seeds of apples and oranges. Everything is what it is and not something else. . . Don’t want to see junk in a gay bar, Joel? I beg to differ. Of course, everybody having his junk out might increase the already competitive atmosphere intolerably. Having a drink with boys needn’t be the same as entering a contest. Nevertheless, a flash from the crotch here and there and now and then makes for an alert clientele, mindful of what’s important.