Imagine you go on a Tinder date that goes okay, but you decide you still want to see other people. Then a few months later you take the chance of seeing that first person again, only to realize “yeah, this isn’t going to work.” Now replace “date” with “CEO” and you’ve basically got the story of Sean Rad, who will be stepping aside as CEO for the second time in two years.
Rad, co-founder of the swipe-happy dating app, was first pushed out as CEO in 2015, notes Recode. He was brought back into the fold only six months later. Unlike that first exit, Rad will not be leaving the company this time. Instead, he’ll remain on board as chairman.
He’ll be replaced by Tinder’s current chairman and Match Group CEO Greg Blatt. The move was announced in a press release about a new investment vehicle from the company called Swipe Ventures, which Rad will run along with his duties as Tinder’s chairman.
The fund will serve as a way to “expand Tinder’s footprint through acquisitions, development of new businesses and investments in new and existing businesses, all within the dating and the broader social space.”
Translation: Rad is in charge of finding the next big thing to join Tinder, Match, OkCupid, and PlentyOfFish.
“If you look at Google, Facebook, Snapchat — all of these companies get to the next wave of growth through acquisition,” Rad told Recode. “The goal here is to basically just free up some time for me to go do that.”
He adds this time, the job switcheroo is “absolutely different” from the last time he had to step down, and that this new position was “80%” his idea.
Rad becomes the latest high-profile CEO to step aside in favor of becoming chairman of the board of the same company. Just this week, Starbucks’ CEO Howard Schultz said he’s moving into the chairman position, and today, Coca-Cola’s top executive announced he’s doing the same thing at his company.
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist