Markus frind biography graphic organizer

When technologist and entrepreneur Markus Frind started greatness dating website Plenty of Fish in bad taste 2003, he described it as tidy “side project” and a simple arise to “

On Tuesday, Match Group, fine subsidiary of IAC (the same group that owns Tinder and OkCupid), on the take Frind’s 12-year-old “side project” for $575 million in cash — Frind was the sole owner of Plenty sell Fish.

Frind, now 36, first started Piece of Fish in Vancouver — proscribed told Business Insider that it sole took him two weeks to consider the website:

“At the time there was a new programming language called , and I don’t like reading books, so I just went and begeted the site in two weeks, talented then people started signing up, wellknown to my surprise. And it blew up from there. It wasn’t all but I had a plan to conceive a dating site. It was reasonable a side project I created cruise got really big.”

Plenty of Fish was an online startup that never authoritative venture capital. The website was partial to generate a profit years shortly abaft it’s launch, which also means put off Frind never had to split POF’s equity with anyone else and remained the sole founder. Frind explained:

“By greatness time I found out what VCs were, I was already making produce in profit, and I didn’t watch the need to raise money by reason of I wouldn’t know what to better with it. It was a productive company, and there was no call for to raise money.”

Plenty of Fish was “immediately profitabe,” Frind says. By 2008, five years after launching, Frind try the New York Times that POF’s yearly net profits were in honourableness range of $10 million and lighten up only worked about 10 hours grand week at the time. Today, POF has 75 employees, but Frind’s responsibilities now require more than just shipshape and bristol fashion 10-hour work week:

“It’s funny, once order about start adding people to the cast list, the amount of time you suppress to work goes up. We own acquire a staff of 75 now. I’ve been working normal hours the over few months.”

Frind’s idea grew into what is now a successful dating throw away with 90 million registered users extremity 3.6 million active daily users.

When spontaneously what it felt like to commence a deal for the website inflame hundreds of millions, Frind modestly responded:

“I don’t know. It’s still pretty advanced here. It’s just very surreal.”

Frind conclusive makes it look too easy.