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| Grindr CEO George Arison said he wants the company's telemedicine business to operate like a "founding team." Ben Chrisman/Ben Chrisman |
Grindr may be one of the biggest names in social networking, but its latest side venture is taking a very different approach. CEO George Arison is intentionally keeping Grindr’s new telemedicine project, Woodwork, small — both in team size and user reach — to give it the strongest possible chance of long-term success.
Why Grindr Launched Woodwork
In May, Grindr announced Woodwork, a telemedicine service that provides erectile dysfunction medication. Instead of immediately scaling nationwide, the service launched quietly in just two states — Pennsylvania and Illinois.
For Arison, this was by design. He wants Woodwork to feel like a true startup inside Grindr, not an overfunded corporate project weighed down by too many resources.
“It’s a very small, nimble team,” he explained. “We could easily give them two more people and it wouldn’t really make a difference to the Grindr parent company, but you don’t want to overstaff something like that.”
Currently, Woodwork operates with only three full-time employees, emphasizing agility over size.
Limiting Growth to Learn Better
Arison said one of the biggest temptations for corporate ventures is to grow too quickly — especially when the parent company has access to millions of potential users. Grindr could easily flood its app with ads for Woodwork, but Arison said that would hurt the new business in the long run.
“I don’t want them to have unlimited access to people on the product,” he said. “I actually want to limit them to users so they can ensure they can learn from every single user they’re engaging with.”
The rollout in two states, he added, provides just enough customers to learn every day without creating the illusion of growth before the product is truly ready.
Following the Startup Energy Trend
Arison’s approach mirrors a growing trend among tech leaders who are rediscovering the power of small, talent-dense teams.
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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently spoke about building his superintelligence AI unit with a “startup-like ethos,” where small groups can move faster than sprawling corporate structures.
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Snap CEO Evan Spiegel has reorganized employees into “squads” of 10–15 people, designed to function like mini-startups to boost focus and accountability.
But while those companies lean on large budgets and broad visibility, Arison insists Grindr is taking a “very different approach.”
“A lot of the startups that are incubated inside of a company usually fail for that very reason, because they do try to do too much and then it doesn’t work out,” he said.
Keeping Woodwork Under the Radar
Another unusual tactic: Arison is deliberately downplaying Woodwork during Grindr’s earnings calls. He wants to shield the small team from the pressures of being part of a publicly traded company.
“I told the street, ‘Hey, I’m not going to talk about Woodwork very much for the next few quarters until there’s anything useful to say because we want that team to have the ability to function on its own and have the luxury of time to execute.’”
Some investors misinterpreted the silence as deprioritization, but Arison pushed back. “I’m not deprioritizing anything,” he said. “I’m doing exactly what I said.”
With Woodwork, Grindr is betting that small is better. By keeping the team lean, limiting user growth, and shielding the venture from Wall Street’s scrutiny, George Arison is trying to give the project the same advantages a scrappy startup would have — while avoiding the pitfalls that have sunk other corporate spin-offs.
If the strategy works, Woodwork could become a case study in how big companies can nurture small ideas into thriving businesses without crushing them under the weight of scale.
