Principal Software Development Engineer - Backend

Tinder's new CEO asked employees a simple question about success. Their answers exposed a bigger problem. 19th Oct 2026 | 01:30pm When Spencer Rascoff became CEO of Match Group in February 2025, and CEO of Tinder in July of that year, he inherited a dating empire whose flagship app had spent more than a decade relying on the same formula that made it famous. Tinder's swipe-left, swipe-right experience had revolutionized online dating, but the company had struggled to keep pace with changing consumer expectations. In 2024, Tinder's paying user base declined 7% while revenue grew just 1%. "In a lot of ways Tinder had lost product market fit with its users because it hadn't innovated," Rascoff told me recently. The company, he acknowledged, had "rested on its laurels for a long time." Rascoff, who previously led Zillow, set out to revive Tinder's culture of innovation. One of his first moves was to ask employees a deceptively simple question about what success looked like. He recalls receiving blank stares. Those who offered answers frequently pointed to quarterly profitability targets promised to Wall Street. Even designers, product managers, and software engineers were measuring success against financial goals that offered little direction for improving the dating experience. The disconnect exposed a fundamental management problem. Tinder's mission is to help people form connections, yet the employees building its product lacked a shared measure of whether they were delivering on that promise. Rascoff introduced a companywide metric called "sparks," which tracks conversations between matched users that reach at least six back-and-forth exchanges. Tinder's analysis of millions of messages suggested that conversations reaching that threshold were more likely to develop into flirting and plans to meet in person. By focusing employees on sparks, Rascoff gave teams a measurable customer outcome to work toward, from improving matchmaking recommendations to helping users start better conversations. He also pushed employees to consider the different needs of Tinder's users through two personas, Abby the anxious romantic and Jasmine the joyful butterfly. That customer focus has helped inform a broader reinvention of the app, including double dates that make meeting strangers less intimidating, real-world events where users can discover activities and connect with fellow attendees, and AI-powered recommendations that learn more quickly from users' preferences. AI is also accelerating how quickly Tinder can introduce those features. Rascoff says the company is shipping 70% more code than a year earlier. An events product conceived in January launched in Los Angeles just eight weeks later, a process he estimates would previously have taken six to 12 months. Rascoff says the changes are producing results, with matches up 14% year-over-year and more users reaching the spark threshold. Yet Tinder has struggled to translate that momentum into sustained business growth. In the second quarter, revenue declined 1% to roughly $457 million, its paying user base fell 5% to 8.5 million, and daily active users dropped 4%. For Rascoff, the current challenge is turning a highly profitable but stagnant business into one that can grow again. Watch the full video on how dating apps are betting on AI to attract new users, improve matchmaking, and ultimately drive revenue growth. This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Booker, Warren call for FTC investigation into online real estate companies. They asked the agency to investigate how real estate websites connect buyers with agents and mortgage lenders, and how brokerages handle private home listings. October 18, 2026 (Tom Joyce, The Center Square) U.S. Sens. Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren want the Federal Trade Commission to look at whether online real estate companies use deceptive practices that raise homebuying costs. Booker, D-N.J., and Warren, D-Mass., sent a letter to FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson this week. They asked the agency to investigate how real estate websites connect buyers with agents and mortgage lenders, and how brokerages handle private home listings. "We urge you to now investigate anticompetitive and deceptive practices in the home-buying market, using every enforcement tool available to restore competition to the entire online real estate marketplace," the senators wrote. It comes as U.S. Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va., had similar concerns. In June, he asked Ferguson to investigate online agent referrals and mortgage lending practices, HousingWire reported. The senators found three practices they want the FTC to investigate. First, they said buyers who click a website's "contact agent" button may reach an agent who pays the website part of the sales commission rather than the agent selling the home. The senators say that can raise costs without the buyer even knowing. "Platforms and agents do not disclose these commission-sharing arrangements, leaving buyers unaware that they are agreeing to pay inflated prices to cover the platform's revenue cut," they wrote. Second, the senators said agents often must refer buyers to lenders tied to the websites. Those lenders often aren't upfront about their financial incentives and charge higher rates and offer worse loan terms. Also, they criticized brokerages that have private home listings, showing homes to a select few buyers before making listings public. The senators said doing this hurts prospective homebuyers and sellers. The sellers can get fewer offers when fewer people know their home is for sale. Zillow has denied that these services hurt buyers. Responding to the lawsuit, Zillow said buyers can choose their own agents and lenders. Zillow added that every home listing lets buyers directly contact the listing agent. "Buyers are never required to work with that agent and remain free to choose anyone they prefer," Zillow wrote. The senators also cited the FTC's rental advertising case against Zillow and Redfin. The FTC accused Zillow of paying Redfin $100 million to stop competing in rental advertising. An August settlement forced Redfin to restart that business and invest millions in it. Booker and Warren want similar FTC action in the home sales market. They said high housing costs are another reason the FTC should investigate. They noted recent National Association of Realtors figures showing the median existing-home price is now about $440,600 and the median first-time homebuyer age is 40. The senators said higher fees and mortgage rates make buying a home harder. They said those costs are even worse when buyers add them to their mortgages and pay interest on them. "Younger and first-time homebuyers are most harmed by these practices," they wrote. "They are making the largest financial transaction of their lives without knowing the full picture."

Homa raises $5 million to redefine homebuying with AI. 5:05 am, PT, October 15, 2026 Seed funding powers California expansion and in-platform mortgage lending AUSTIN, Texas-(BUSINESS WIRE)-October 15, 2026- Homa, the AI platform reinventing how Americans buy homes while returning up to 2% of the purchase price to buyers at closing, has raised $5 million in seed funding led by Quiet Capital, with participation from Restive Ventures and Cambrian Ventures. The round funds expansion across California and the launch of mortgage lending inside the platform. Homa is now available statewide in California (alongside Florida and Texas), covering roughly 95 million Americans. Buyers can search, tour, negotiate, close, and secure a mortgage in one place. The company, which went viral earlier this year with the first AI closings in the U.S., recorded its strongest month in September. Quiet Capital, an early investor in OpenAI and Reddit, led the round alongside fintech-focused Restive Ventures and Cambrian Ventures. Co-founder and CEO Arman Javaherian, a former senior director at Zillow, said the traditional process has barely changed in 40 years. "You tour on someone else's schedule, you take advice from someone paid more when you spend more, and you hand over tens of thousands of dollars at the closing table for work you largely did yourself," he said. "We built Homa so buyers get better information, better representation, and serious money back that can dramatically reduce the lifetime cost of a mortgage and boost their purchasing power." Homa is a licensed brokerage whose AI is trained on state-specific law, property data, and real-estate coursework. It provides pricing insight, disclosures, comps, risk analysis, and bargaining-power scoring before an offer. Local specialists handle tours on the buyer's schedule for a flat fee. Offers are written and negotiated by in-house brokers - one per state - each with more than a decade of experience and hundreds of closed transactions. On deals where the seller offers a buyer-broker commission of up to 3%, Homa keeps 1% and credits the remainder (typically about 2%) back to the buyer. Credits have averaged more than $10,000 and exceed $40,000 on higher-priced homes. Buyers can apply the credit to a rate buydown, closing costs, or the purchase price. The new mortgage feature lets buyers shop for a loan inside Homa instead of being handed off to an outside lender. When the credit and loan sit in the same file, the credit can fund a rate buydown that lowers the mortgage rate by as much as 0.75%, compounding savings over the life of the loan. Integrating brokerage and lending also reduces delays from financing issues and poor coordination. "Buying a home is the biggest financial decision most people will ever make, and the two parties who decide whether it goes smoothly - the brokerage and the lender - are almost always separate businesses with no incentive to coordinate well," said Michael Bloch, Partner at Quiet Capital. "Homa is the only consumer company we have seen that runs both sides and hands the customer real money back. The expansion to California coupled with the new mortgage feature is an inflection point on Homa's path to changing the economics of homebuying in America." Homa timed the California launch for surging demand in the state's largest metros. It has been live in Florida since 2025, expanded to Texas in June 2026, and soft-launched California on September 1. Capital will also support a mobile app later this year. "California buyers do their own research, and they are not looking for someone to unlock a door and mark it up by 3%," Javaherian added. "What they actually need is real MLS access, a licensed broker who negotiates for a living, financing that is part of the offer strategy rather than an afterthought, and a credit large enough to increase their purchasing power." Homa was co-founded by Javaherian and Federico Campeotto, a computer scientist with a Ph.D. specializing in artificial intelligence. It is the only end-to-end platform of its kind and has already returned millions of dollars to buyers in Texas and Florida. About Homa Homa is the first AI-powered homebuying platform and licensed brokerage to take buyers through search, analysis, touring, offer, financing, and closing in one place, then credit most of the buyer-side commission back to them. Available in California, Florida, and Texas. Learn more at www.tryhoma.com.