Tinder’s chief product officer Brian Norgard wants to get back to his entrepreneurial roots, citing former PayPal executive-turned-venture capitalist Keith Rabois as inspiration.
Norgard, who joined Tinder as part of the acquisition of his Kleiner Perkins-backed ephemeral messaging startup Tappy in 2014, has confirmed to TechCrunch that he’s left the app-based dating company to focus on building products and investing in early-stage businesses. Tinder has not yet identified his successor, but Norgard says “it’s all positive vibes” between him and the company.
Norgard began as Tinder’s head of revenue before being promoted to the chief product role in late 2016. Prior to joining Tinder via Tappy, he co-founded two other successful startups: Chill, a Facebook application that garnered 30 million users, and adtech startup Newroo, which was acquired by FOX Interactive in 2006.
“It’s been a great ride but my strength has always been in the early-stage game,” Norgard told TechCrunch. “What I’m trying to do now is take all the learnings from that wonderful experience and bring them into my investing.”
Though he’s yet to sign on in any official capacity, Norgard said he is in talks with several different entities about investing roles.
Brian Norgard has invested in Coinmine, a developer of a sleek cryptocurrency mining device.
Norgard said he’s invested in one company so far, a cryptocurrency mining startup called Coinmine founded by Justin Lambert, who helped design the second iteration of the Pebble watch, and Farb Nivi, the former chief product officer at Learnist. Coinmine is selling a crypto mining device, similar in size and look to an Xbox, that’s controlled by a mobile app. The device is meant to help anyone, crypto enthusiasts and otherwise, mine crypto easily. Nivi told TechCrunch the internet-connected device uses less energy than a PlayStation.
The Los Angeles-based startup is officially launching today with Norgard signed on as an active advisor.
“There are a lot of parallels I draw from Coinmine and Tinder,” Norgard said. “Online dating was very complicated six years ago. It was an arduous process and so is mining. You have to be pretty sophisticated, but this takes it down to the studs. A normal consumer with no technical knowledge can get into the crypto game.”
Coinmine, which raised a total of $2 million, is also backed by Coinbase Ventures, Social Leverage, Arrington Capital, Wonder VC and angel investors like Coinbase’s chief technology officer Balaji Srinivasan.