Sam Yagan Talks IPO, Fundraising & Why You Should Focus Less On Product

Following The Match Group’s successful IPO, Match.com CEO Sam Yagan sat down with Micah Rosenbloom, the host of Collective Wisdom, a podcast that interviews founders to get “sexy insights” into the world of startups.

Fresh from debuting on the Nasdaq, Yagan speaks about the “surreal” experience of going public, which almost felt like a “graduation”.

And despite the fact that there was “a lot to learn”, whether it be about employee moral, investor relations or the PR impact, he said it interestingly felt a lot like raising Series B funding – you have a celebration, but then it’s “back to the grind” of enacting what you promised your investors.

In the hour long podcast, Yagan also talks about how to handle negative PR better than a bad breakup, how to learn to love online dating churn, and why founding a dating startup is harder than dating itself.

Listen to a clip from the podcast below, in which Yagan gives his advice on online dating fundraising and “positioning yourself for that $50m exit”, and his belief that dating companies shouldn’t get “overly focused” on user experience or the product.

Listen to the full podcast here: