Key Takeaways

What do you know about Grindr? We know it is traditionally a hookup app for gay, bi, and trans men looking for fun flings. And as dating industry professionals, we know that Grindr reported impressive revenue growth in Q1 (26%, to be exact) and has numerous AI-enhanced products in the works.

Now, Grindr’s Senior Vice President of Brand Marketing and Communications, Tristan Pineiro, is telling us what we don’t know.

“There’s a fair amount of stigma around the fact that we’re seen as a gay hookup app,” Pineiro said. “We’re on a path to de-stigmatize Grindr and to ensure that we’re in culture and in conversation as the real connector of the community, which is what we’ve actually become.”

The app wants to foster a well-rounded public perception of what it has to offer. To that end, Grindr has invested in its own future. It has had to make itself a more intuitive, inclusive, and innovative place for gay, bi, and trans men to mingle. 

In the process, Grindr has developed a new marketing strategy that emphasizes its global gayborhood — AKA, its unique ability to foster serious relationships within the global LGBTQ+ community.

Grindr Introduces New Tools for a Broader Audience 

“No one was really running down the street shouting, ‘I’m on Grindr, and it’s great,’ Pineiro explained. “It was just something that people weren’t really proud of … there’s a lot of stigma around sex and gay sex.” 

To increase — and improve — the public’s perception of Grindr, the app has started to prioritize positive storytelling via its marketing campaigns and YouTube channel. 

The second season of Grindr’s “Daddy Lessons” series, for example, attempts to educate and provide insights into queer culture and history that one (probably) can’t get from a single hookup. It includes learning why Alan Turing matters and the cultural significance of bodybuilding, for instance. 

Grindr’s blog, meanwhile, covers similarly niche topics that combine expanded marketing efforts with legitimate education, such as with its Ultimate Gay Travel Guide. 

Look no further than Grindr’s upcoming Telehealth service, Woodwork, for proof of the app’s attempts to expand to non-hookup spaces. Woodwork is the app’s attempt to create a new brand within Grindr, one that emphasizes the fun and freedom Grindr is known for while fostering safe and healthy long-term relationships. 

In its 2025 Q1 report, Grindr held Woodwork up as its “first gayborhood expansion”:  

“Woodwork is about learning: how to best leverage Grindr as a distribution engine? how to build a brand that stands alone yet integrates seamlessly with Grindr? and how to earn user trust in health and wellness?” according to the Q1 report.

Gone are the days when people hid the Grindr app in an obscure part of their phone. According to Pineiro, celebrities are approaching Grindr to be featured in its content. “That alone to me is an indicator that we’re de-stigmatizing the brand to a certain extent,” Pineiro said. 

It never hurts to have LGBTQ+ icon Troye Sivan do a few commercials for your brand. 

Changing Grindr’s Public Perception Starts with “Just”

Grindr’s new marketing focus is connected to the uncertain political climate that has put queer identities at risk. There’s no doubt that part of Grindr’s public perception issues are rooted in systemic discomfort around queer identities. 

“Our strategy with marketing is very much to entertain our audiences with content and to dispel the view that Grindr is just a hookup app,” Pineiro explained. “And the problem with that sentence isn’t the ‘hookups,’ it’s the word ‘just’.”

Grindr is setting out to prove it’s not “just” about hookups, but about the diversity and complexity of all LGTBQ+ relationships. Beyond ubiquity, it wants to be known as a positive force — to facilitate pride in and out of the LGBTQ+ community. This goal is a political statement as much as it is a marketing move. 

Grindr’s Pride is a Bold Mix of Marketing and Advocacy 

Some parts of the U.S. are much less colorful this Pride month than in Pride months’ past. By emphasizing Grindr’s dominant place in queer culture, as well as its current evolution, it is increasing brand awareness inside and outside the Grindr community. 

Grindr’s new marketing strategy hinges on its ability to provide support and genuine care to its users — to remind them that Grindr isn’t just a dating app. “We’re a way to connect the community, for them to find each other, to find friendship, to find relationships, whether they be permanent or temporary,” Pineiro said. 

“By us being proud about who we are, putting positive stories out there, celebrating our community, creating content that has our community front and center as the hero there, is going a long way to challenge [stigmatized] perceptions,” he added. 

From a marketing perspective, Grindr’s newest innovations reflect a more inclusive path forward for the app. Not only in terms of its crucial LGBTQ+ demographic, but the types of relationships it is attempting to facilitate. Its marketing sends a clear message: Everyone in the community has a seat at this table.