Exclusive: Hinge CEO Justin McLeod steps down

Justin McLeod, founder and CEO of dating app Hinge, is consciously uncoupling from his app. Hinge’s president and chief marketing officer Jackie Jantos—recently named one of Fast Company’s CMOs of the year—will succeed him in the role of CEO, effective immediately. McLeod will stay on as an adviser through March to support the transition. 

McLeod, who founded Hinge in 2011, is leaving to launch Overtone, an AI-driven venture focused on facilitating connections between people; it will be backed by Match Group. In a blog post, he calls his departure “a wildly bittersweet moment.” 

“This past year, I got higher conviction on two different things. One is that Jackie is the next right leader for Hinge. She’s an incredible strategist,” he tells Fast Company. “The other thing [is] I realized how much I miss and how much I love the early-stage part of building a company. That was where my heart was and where I wanted to focus.”

Jantos joined Hinge four years ago as CMO and took on the role of president in March. She’s behind the company’s breakout “No Ordinary Love” campaign and has steered its outreach to Gen Z users, who now account for more than half of Hinge users. She also helped bring the app to new markets, most recently Mexico and Brazil. 

“I’ve been operating the business for the past year, since I stepped into this president role, so there won’t be much change,” Jantos says.

“Hinge has been so successful because Jackie and the team understand their consumer,” says Spencer Rascoff, CEO of Hinge parent company Match Group. “They have [their] finger on the pulse of where the world is at with respect to human connection.”

“DESIGNED TO BE DELETED”

Hinge has been one of the few bright spots amid a broader downturn in dating apps. Earlier this year, Bumble’s struggles led to the return of founder Whitney Wolfe Herd, who has since laid off 30% of staff. Tinder, another Match Group property, has lost more than 1.5 million paying users since its 2022 peak.

After Rascoff took over as CEO of Match Group in February, he trimmed headcount by 13%. 

In contrast, Hinge, which has 15 million monthly active users, saw its paying users grow by 17% year over year to 1.87 million in the third quarter of 2025. The app took in $550 million in revenue last year, and more than $500 million in the first nine months of 2025. 

McLeod laid the foundation for this success with a foresighted app relaunch in 2015. While other dating apps were prioritizing user engagement and addictive swiping, Hinge focused on creating positive outcomes: app interactions that convert into real-life dates.

The company has even inserted deliberate speedbumps into the user experience to combat user behavior like ghosting. McLeod’s iconoclastic approach is embodied in the app’s tagline, “designed to be deleted.” 

Jantos says Hinge’s mission will remain unchanged. “We are very much working to help intentional daters find the relationships they’re looking for and get off the app into dates.” 

THE MATCH GROUP ECOSYSTEM

McLeod’s departure comes as Rascoff pushes to create more links between Match Group’s different apps, allowing them to share insights around user behavior and how to incorporate AI in their user experiences. 

For example, a member of Chispa, Match’s Latino-focused dating app, might receive an invitation to join Hinge, which will autofill their profile. Rascoff even envisions that the matching algorithm behind these apps could be standardized

“I’m moving the company towards more cross-brand collaboration and knowledge sharing,” Rascoff says.

He notes that Hinge has long embraced a “consumer-focused, product-led” mindset. “I’m trying to bring that attribute that has made Hinge so successful into all of our other brands, many of which have been more financially oriented, more short-term oriented, and less consumer-driven,” Rascoff says.

With more integrations on the back end, the distinctive user experience and marketing of each app could prove more important than ever.

As CMO, Jantos has attracted younger users to Hinge by showcasing real-life relationships rather than the polished versions of love usually portrayed in media. This year, the company launched the second iteration of its “No Ordinary Love” campaign, which tells the complicated love stories of real Hinge couples, as well as the second chapter of the “It’s Funny We Met On Hinge” video series.

FOUNDER MODE

McLeod remains coy about his new venture, Overtone, which a Hinge spokesperson describes as “focused on using AI and voice tools to help people connect thoughtfully and in a personal way.”

“We’re not going to talk a lot about that quite yet,” McLeod says, “except to say that there’s an opportunity to completely reimagine the dating experience and how technology can help facilitate people finding their partner—that breaks the mold of the way current dating apps are designed.”

McLeod has been bullish on audio technology in dating apps: Hinge now allows users to record a 30-second audio introduction.  

McLeod began developing Overtone at Hinge, with Match Group providing early funding. Overtone will operate independently, but Match Group plans to lead the company’s initial funding round early next year and will have a substantial ownership position. Rascoff will join its board of directors. McLeod will serve as chairman and founder. 

“I think for that zero-to-one stage of a company, where you have to move really fast, it made sense [for Overtone] to be its own independent public company,” McLeod says. “And I’m a founder and CEO at heart. There’s a piece of me that wants to be out there on my own, ultimately steering the ship again.”

View the full article