Building Hinge with Justin McLeod: Intentional Design for Meaningful Dating

Rebuilding a company is one of the hardest challenges any founder can face. But for Justin McLeod, founder and CEO of Hinge, it was the only way forward. In today’s episode of Building One, Tomer Cohen sits down with Justin to dive into the journey of rebooting Hinge from a Tinder competitor to the fastest-growing dating app in the U.S., focused on helping people build meaningful, long-term relationships. Justin shares the lessons he learned from tearing down Hinge and starting over, emphasizing intentional product design, clear product principles, and how to avoid chasing engagement for engagement's sake.

As the dating app designed to be deleted, Hinge is built around one core goal: getting people into relationships and off the app. Justin's approach to onboarding, user interaction, and product design has created a platform that fosters genuine connections while avoiding the pitfalls of shallow dating apps.

In this episode, Justin reveals:

• Why Hinge intentionally loses 20% of new users during onboarding to ensure better quality matches
• How limiting user actions can improve the overall user experience and lead to more meaningful interactions
• The importance of finding good proxies for key metrics, especially when your core goal is difficult to measure (like getting people into relationships)
• The role of AI as a coach - not a replacement - for human-to-human interactions
• How product principles can help companies make tough decisions and stay true to their mission



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