George Arison
![George Arison is an influencer]()
CEO of Grindr, dad to twiblings.
San Francisco Bay Area
12K followers
500+ connections
About
George is a lifelong entrepreneur and company builder, currently serving as CEO and Board Member of Grindr (NYSE: GRND).
George is passionate about building companies and technology products because they allow him to prove out his strongly held view that impossible things are actually possible. In 2014 George founded Shift (NASDAQ: SFT), which he took public in 2020. In 2007, George co-founded Taxi Magic (now known as Curb), which invented the use of mobile devices for on-demand services, and in 2019, Pulsar AI, auto industry’s most advanced conversational AI platform, which was acquired by Impe. He is an investor and mentor to numerous startups and founders, including Shipper, Carrot, Eden, Fathom, AutoLeap. He has twice been named to Goldman Sachs’ 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs.
Born in Georgia, a republic in the Soviet Union, at the height of Communism, George came to the United States on his own in 1992, fortunate to receive a scholarship to attend a prep school in Maine. Afterwards, he studied political philosophy at Middlebury College. In addition to entrepreneurship, George has a deep interest in politics and policy-making. He has ran a political campaign in his native Georgia and authored a book about Georgia’s democratic transition. George lives in Palo Alto with his husband and their children.
Articles by George
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Life, Liberty, and the Importance of Children’s Books
Life, Liberty, and the Importance of Children’s Books
Today, the Supreme Court heard a case that touches deeply on our fundamental rights as Americans—our freedom as parents…
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Bringing the Global Gayborhood to Your Pocket, Starting with Travel
Bringing the Global Gayborhood to Your Pocket, Starting with Travel
When Grindr initially launched 15 years ago, it focused on enabling casual encounters. Over time, our community has…
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Do Say Gay on Father’s Day
Do Say Gay on Father’s Day
Father's Day honors fathers and father figures, and holds special significance for families across America. For gay men…
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A case study for immigration reform: My 27-year journey to becoming a U.S. citizen
A case study for immigration reform: My 27-year journey to becoming a U.S. citizen
Last week, more than 27 years after coming to the United States to attend 9th grade, I was sworn in as a citizen. My…
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Taking a stand for more diverse boards
Taking a stand for more diverse boards
When California passed a legally fraught law requiring companies to have female representation on the board by 2020, my…
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Gen Z buyers like used cars...
Gen Z buyers like used cars...
The fact that young people are not getting their license is just a symptom of the larger condition: The way new…
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We could all agree on some simple changes to H1b visas
We could all agree on some simple changes to H1b visas
It took me 12 years after graduating college to get my green card — in part because the government refused my…
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The road to becoming co-CEO
The road to becoming co-CEO
With the news out this week about the appointment of Toby Russell and myself as Shift’s Co-CEOs, I wanted to add some…
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Shift's Design Doc Process
Shift's Design Doc Process
One of our engineers - Mikey Lintz - wrote a terrific piece about our new "design doc" process. Make sure to check it…
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8 Reasons Shift is the Simplest, Fairest Way to Buy a Used Car
8 Reasons Shift is the Simplest, Fairest Way to Buy a Used Car
From the beginning, we’ve believed that car buying should be simple and fair. In April, we wrote about our recent…
1 Comment
Activity
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Only took me 16 years to give it some Greek flavor! Happy Thanksgiving!
Only took me 16 years to give it some Greek flavor! Happy Thanksgiving!
Liked by George Arison
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Every year my kids bring doughnuts to fire fighters for Thanksgiving. With appreciation for everything hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!
Every year my kids bring doughnuts to fire fighters for Thanksgiving. With appreciation for everything hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!
Shared by George Arison
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We had an outstanding Q3 - delivering $614.3 million in free cash flow, with 50.0% free cash flow margin. A heartfelt thank you to every Zoom…
We had an outstanding Q3 - delivering $614.3 million in free cash flow, with 50.0% free cash flow margin. A heartfelt thank you to every Zoom…
Liked by George Arison
Skills
Languages
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Russian
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Georgian
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Spanish
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More activity by George
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Had an incredible meeting with Nina Achadjian from Index Ventures, one of the sharpest and most respected investors in the industry. Grateful for…
Had an incredible meeting with Nina Achadjian from Index Ventures, one of the sharpest and most respected investors in the industry. Grateful for…
Liked by George Arison
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Very proud to be a part of this wonderful firm, and warm congratulations to my friend and co-managing partner Randy Mehrberg, and our accomplished…
Very proud to be a part of this wonderful firm, and warm congratulations to my friend and co-managing partner Randy Mehrberg, and our accomplished…
Liked by George Arison
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Last week, we brought together our SF team, investors, and research community to share a preview of Symbolica's newest product, launching soon. Stay…
Last week, we brought together our SF team, investors, and research community to share a preview of Symbolica's newest product, launching soon. Stay…
Liked by George Arison
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We've raised $40M Series B led by Greylock at a $225M valuation to bet on ONE statistic. Google gets 9B searches/day. ChatGPT already gets 2.5B…
We've raised $40M Series B led by Greylock at a $225M valuation to bet on ONE statistic. Google gets 9B searches/day. ChatGPT already gets 2.5B…
Liked by George Arison
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My first fashion show was pretty epic - thanks to Grindr's awesome collaboration with #RainbowWool and Designer Michael Schmidt. A farmer saves the…
My first fashion show was pretty epic - thanks to Grindr's awesome collaboration with #RainbowWool and Designer Michael Schmidt. A farmer saves the…
Shared by George Arison
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Sean Smith
I spoke with Christien Louviere of BDE Capital about his journey from a $330mm exit to becoming an independent sponsor. Christien shared excellent insights for folks looking to partner with business owners, rather than buy sellers out completely. Below are a few of the topics we covered: - Why he moved from “zero-to-one” startups to a buy-then-build strategy - How Christien's background shaped a focus on growth vs. cost-cutting - Why 20–40% rolled equity is central to his deal structures—and how it builds trust with sellers - Using scenario analysis with AI tools to evaluate management teams and uncover hidden key-person risks - How to identify when a $3–5M EBITDA company truly has a middle management layer—or is still founder-reliant For anyone investing in or buying small businesses, Christien’s approach provides a fresh lens on growth, alignment, and deal structuring. 🎥 Watch the full interview here → https://lnkd.in/ekfkaiej 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://lnkd.in/e86Agx6V
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Massimiliano Magrini
Reimagining Venture Capital Beyond Silicon Valley Could the rest of the world build a venture ecosystem that avoids the "blitzscaling" trap that's consuming American innovation? What if non-US markets embraced their unique advantages rather than mimicking Silicon Valley's monoculture? What if emerging venture ecosystems viewed their cultural and economic differences not as disadvantages but as strategic opportunities to build more sustainable models? Rather than chasing unicorns that return entire funds, might international investors create portfolio theories that celebrate consistent performers creating real value for real customers? And if regulatory environments outside the US were designed with these alternative approaches in mind, could they create the conditions for a more distributed, equitable form of innovation finance? Perhaps the question isn't whether alternatives to Silicon Valley's venture model can work, but whether the rest of the world is ready to stop importing a culturally alien system and start building something different. https://lnkd.in/d5rV2gPq
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John Ruffolo
I thought this was an interesting financing for both its scale and technique. General Catalyst launched their Customer Value Fund in which they “lend” growth capital to businesses that have found product-market fit, but their primary use of capital is to fund the burn caused by S&M spend (Sales & Marketing) or CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost). In Canada, ClearCo have been doing this for years with Ecommerce companies. According to GC’s website “With this strategy, GC pre-funds a company’s S&M budget. In return, GC is entitled only to the customer value created by that spend, and GC’s entitlement is capped at a fixed amount. After GC reaches that fixed amount, the remaining lifetime value of the customers is the company’s to keep forever. On the flipside, if the S&M spend does not pan out as expected, GC owns the downside – GC only gets paid if and when the company gets paid. The company never comes out of pocket to pay GC back.” The main advantage of this type of financing is to avoid the dilutive impact of financing. In this particular case, it might also appear to be an effective way to deal with the impairment in the value of the investment held by existing VC’s. The question is how is “customer value” calculated and what happens when there is no “customer value”. Is customer value simply the gross revenues generated from the S&M spend or is it the gross margin? What is the implicit cost of financing? What is the security in a downside scenario? https://lnkd.in/gC45QkPR
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