An Interview with Grindr’s Alice Hunsberger 

Toshali Sengupta is a policy analyst at Tremau. November 18, 2022: A banner on the facade of the New York Stock Exchange celebrating the SPAC of the dating app Grindr in New York. Shutterstock Alice Hunsberger is Vice President and Global Head of Customer Experience at Grindr, a social networking app for gay, bi, trans, and queer people. Before Grindr, she was at OkCupid for a decade.  Ahead of the release of a new set of Grindr community guidelines, I spoke to Hunsberger about how she thinks about trust and safety, the importance of shifting from a ‘do not’ to a ‘do’ approach in enforcing platform policies, writing readable community guidelines, and putting users front and center to create a safe and trustworthy community experience.   Toshali Sengupta:  As the VP, Global Head of Customer Experience, I imagine your role requires you to really have your finger on the pulse of what Grindr users want. So, what do they want?  Alice Hunsberger:  What many people don’t realize is that Grindr is not just a hook-up and dating app, it is a source of community for users. That means success on Grindr looks very different for different people—it can range anywhere between finding people to chat with online to finding your future spouse.  Toshali Sengupta:  You have been talking to us about your ongoing project of writing new community guidelines – let’s start with the basics. In a few words, what are these community guidelines for?   Alice Hunsberger: The guidelines aim…An Interview with Grindr’s Alice Hunsberger