I've run into women who can be highly problematic, detrimental, and mean, just like I've seen that in men.
In our digital age, the Golden Rule is not enforced online.
I've thought long and hard about this, and I think a lot of the dysfunction around dating has to do with men having the control.
I was always extremely creative. I was very artistic and never strong with numbers or science. I wanted to be an artist or a fashion designer. I wanted to be something that allowed for a lot of imagination.
We are becoming so fickle and self involved. Always looking for the next best thing - especially when it comes to people. We spend hours buried in our phones trying to keep up with the social lives of people we may not even know. Envy and the fear of missing out have taken over. Yet we are all still longing for human connection.
Look at what is broken in society, figure out how to make it better, and then, around that, formulate a business.
Feminism is not about girl power. It is about equal power.
I realized that that Golden Rule does not exist online. You are not held to that same standard as when there is a teacher in the room or someone monitoring behavior.
After graduating in International Relations in 2011, I turned down safe, corporate job offers and instead accepted a position at an 'incubator' in L.A. - a tech word for a team of people who are funded by investors to create apps. I knew the future was digital and that I had to take a risk.
I was 24 when I was embroiled in a high-profile lawsuit. This was 2014, long before, en masse and on social media, we said #MeToo and #TimesUp. At the time, I felt completely alone. Visceral, hateful online harassment from strangers left me paranoid and anxious for years afterward.
I sleep with the drapes open to rise with the sun. I think that's a healthy thing to do because even if you don't like to wake up early, your body does adjust.
Have a dream, chase it down, jump over every single hurdle, and run through fire and ice to get there.
I think that a big shame of how women are approached in business is they're oftentimes looked to for perspective and not implementation.
I think it's smart to always keep an eye on the companies that sit within incubator communities, which bring together the skills and expertise needed to grow an enterprise.
Being solicited on LinkedIn is a real thing that happens.
I truly believe that what we're seeing with online dating is very similar to what happened with the Myspace-Facebook era, where Myspace was once this place for online connecting for a very select group of young people. And then Facebook kind of hit at this moment where it was acceptable for everybody to do it.
I really try to ask myself the question of nine. Will this matter in nine minutes, nine hours, nine days, nine weeks, nine months or nine years? If it will truly matter for all of those, pay attention to it.
My goal is not to overtake Tinder or compete with Tinder. To be fully honest with you, I think Tinder is a great product. It's still my baby at the end of the day. So I wish it continued success. I still have equity in Tinder.
I was paralyzed for so long by people's opinions. I would be devastated to the point where I didn't know if I could make it through the day.
My biggest struggle being a woman in the workforce has not only been with my mother, my grandmother, and a lot of my girlfriends. When I'm working late hours, I'm almost punished for it by them. It's almost absurd that I would prioritize work over catching up with my girlfriends. If I were a man, that would just come second nature.
