Joel Simkhai


Joel Simkhai is an Israeli-American-French tech entrepreneur. He is the founder and former CEO of Grindr and Blendr. His original goal in starting Grindr was for people with similar interests to find new friends nearby.
In 2022, he launched a new dating app called Motto; this app ceased operations in September 2024.

Early life and education

Joel Simkhai was born in Tel Aviv, Israel. His mother was a jeweler, and his father was a diamond dealer. When Simkhai was three years old, his family moved to New York City. While in high school, he says he dated women; he remarked that he was not being dishonest about his sexuality, but that his "coming out of the closet was a process".
He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations & Economics from Tufts University in May 1998. After starting college, he came out to his parents and friends. He has two brothers, who are also gay. Simkhai owns several pieces of real estate, but primarily resides in New York. In 2021, Dave Keuning bought a mansion that Simkhai had owned in Outpost Estates in Los Angeles.

Business career

After college, Simkhai worked in mergers and acquisitions. He conceived the idea of the app to answer the need to know "who else around you is also gay". While he started with little money or expertise, and never expected Grindr to become international, he became a multimillionaire CEO of an app with millions of users worldwide. In 2014, Simkhai demonstrated that he was a user of his own app. He ceased including in his profile information regarding his role behind Grindr In January 2018, he left Grindr after the company was sold to the Chinese gaming company Beijing Kunlun Tech.
Simkhai is a charter member of the Young Presidents' Organization.
In 2022, Simkhai launched a mobile app called MOTTO for the gay and queer community. He labeled it as an attempt to "course correct" away from the negative aspects of already-existing gay dating apps. The company is based in New York City. According to its website, the app shut down in September 2024.