In 2025, Grindr launched a medication side hustle. The company’s internal product strategy roadmap shows its ambition to launch other DTC offerings and scale them into meaningful moneymakers.
Grindr plans to create multiple new direct-to-consumer businesses, according to a product strategy plan obtained by Business Insider. Its goal is to scale up four successful DTC businesses each earning between $15 and $30 million in revenue in 2028.
“Our users have significant disposable income and are spending it on DTC products and services elsewhere — e.g., medications; wellness and fitness products; luxury experiences; travel; networking,” the document reads.
“We are creating new business lines to capture some of this spending, knowing some of it will fail,” it continues.
Henry Chandonnet/Business Insider
The strategy document also includes an expansion of its AI bet, going beyond existing products like A-List and Discover, which are referred to as “just the first examples.”
“We’re going to deploy this through the entire app,” the document says.
A representative for Grindr declined to comment.
Grindr launched Woodwork, its erectile dysfunction medication business, in 2025. At the time, CEO George Arison previewed possible expansion opportunities.
“I don’t think ED meds will be the only thing,” he told Fast Company in May. “It’d be logical to extend into haircare, skincare, and other things of that nature.”
In its second quarter earnings presentation, Grindr teased its “gayborhood expansion” plans, describing a “digital neighborhood where they can find products and services they need.”
It’s an unusual strategy in the dating app market. Tinder isn’t selling hair-care products, and Bumble isn’t selling bath bombs. Most of these businesses focus on juicing their paying subscriber base, rather than opening entirely new lines of revenue.
If a dating app does dip its toes into a side hustle, it’s typically merch. In 2020, Hinge opened a limited-time merchandise shop featuring baseball caps and a s’mores kit. Sniffies, likely Grindr’s most direct competitor, has a popular apparel line.
How will Grindr build these businesses? It’s likely they’ll start small.
Arison told Business Insider in September that he kept Woodwork compact and low-profile to give it the best chance of success.
“It’s a very small nimble team,” Arison said. “We could easily give them two more people and wouldn’t really make a difference to the Grindr parent company, but you don’t want to overstaff something like that.”
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