Former Tinder Executive Files Sexual Harassment Suit
Comments (1)
Flames are a-blazing at Tinder, but not the kind the app intended.
The complaint alleges that Tinder’s Chief Marketing Officer Justin Mateen repeatedly called Wolfe a “whore,” including in front of the company’s CEO Sean Rad and told her that he was taking away her “co-founder” title because having a young female with that title would “make the company seem like a joke” and “devalue” it.
According to the narrative described, Wolfe and Mateen began a romantic relationship after Mateen joined Tinder as her boss and after their relationship soured, Mateen became jealous, vindictive, and made a habit of regularly spewing derogatory, sexist comments at her in public - all while Rad allegedly sat by and did nothing.
The suit also contains a record of abusive text messages that Mateen allegedly sent to Wolfe.
Wolfe claims that she found herself cut out of the company leadership explicitly because she was a woman: she was first kept out of the media, then demoted officially - all to make the company appear more “legitimate,” which couldn’t happen if a 24-year old “girl” with little experience was a named co-founder.
Tinder’s parent company states that it has suspended Mateen pending an internal investigation, but that they believed Wolfe’s claims about Tinder’s management to be “unfounded.”
