Former Tinder CEO Sean Rad has spoken to CNBC about his ongoing litigation against Match Group / IAC over the value of early employee stock options.
Along with several other plaintiffs, he claims that the tech umbrellas lied about Tinder’s potential in order to avoid high payouts to its founding team.
Match / IAC’s motion to dismiss was rejected in an appeals court earlier this week, meaning the case will now move to court.
Rad said: “We definitely see it as a potential win. (…) We spent years building the company into what it is today, and we had very clear contracts in place that outlined how we would get paid.
“When it came to honoring those contracts, Match Group blatantly lied and cheated, all to avoid paying us billions of dollars in compensation.
“And now, they’ve done everything they can to dismiss this case.”
He advised other young businesses to be careful about who they partner with, and to make sure values are aligned in any collaborations. He felt the customer-first approach Tinder took at its inception had not been carried forward by IAC.
Rad also discussed his latest investment in the interview. The entrepreneur recently joined the board of charity startup ‘Good Today’, an app which allows consumers to donate small amounts of money to charity every morning.
In August, he invested in men’s health company MOSH. Tinder Co-Founder Justin Mateen also joined the project, which offers professional advice and treatment for a number of male-specific issues.
Read more here.