Michael Kaye Ends 7 Year Tenure At Match Group, Joins Upstart

Kaye has left Match Group after seven years, having joined the company in 2019 to lead U.S. PR for OkCupid before taking on a broader communications role across the portfolio. His exit comes as the company continues to focus on profitability, following a restructuring that included an approximately 8% workforce reduction in 2023.

In a post shared on LinkedIn, Kaye reflected on a career that evolved from leading U.S. public relations for OkCupid into a broader global communications role across the company’s portfolio. Kaye joined Match Group in 2019 for his first in-house communications position. Within his first year, he helped expand OkCupid’s international presence and oversaw media campaigns that he said generated the brand’s highest level of press coverage in its 15-year history.

Soon after joining, he described the brand as achieving its highest level of press coverage in its history. Since then, however, OkCupid has become less prominent within Match Group’s portfolio, while Tinder has remained the company’s largest revenue contributor and Hinge has strengthened its position around relationship-focused dating.

Kaye has now joined UpStart, switching from dating to finance – both fields that he sees as being heavily based on trust and communication, as well as involving both heavy communications work and a lot of precise data-handling. He is also writing for both Inc. Magazine and a newsletter on Substack.