Bill Alena
Founder & CEO, High Intent Media
Twenty-five years in online dating, on both sides of the table. Operator, investor, and now publisher.
The record.
Bill Alena is the founder and CEO of High Intent Media. He has spent twenty-five years building and investing in dating companies, on both sides of the table.
He built myYearbook's revenue from $0 to $100M+ as Chief Revenue Officer. He ran all monetization at The Meet Group (NASDAQ: MEET) and helped grow it through four acquisitions. As Chief Investment & Growth Officer at Social Discovery Group, he grew revenue from $200M to $350M and led the company's M&A practice and a dating-only venture fund.
He founded High Intent to give operators in the dating industry the honest news, the platform, the services, and the capital they have never had access to from one place. He writes The Editorial weekly, on the business of dating, from an operator's chair.
Editorials by Bill Alena
All editorials →- October 29, 2026The Subscription Rules Are Right. They Are Still Going to Hurt.
The UK's new subscription regime starts January 1. Europe and the FTC are moving the same way. The rules target a real problem in dating. A lot of honest operators are going to pay for it anyway.
- October 21, 2026The Scammer Is Your Most Engaged User
Every scammer an app fails to remove is a tax on everyone else.
- October 14, 2026Bumble's New Owner Ran Revenue at Meta. Read the Résumé, Not the Price.
A $1.3 billion take-private is the headline. The more useful signal is who wrote the check, and what that background says about where dating's next revenue line comes from.
- October 5, 2026Match Is Rebuilding. Facebook Is Free. You Are in the Middle.
The incumbent is consolidating and the largest free competitor does not need dating to make money. Independent operators are getting squeezed from both ends at once, and most have not priced it in.
- September 16, 2026The M&A Window Is Real. Most of You Are Not Ready
Price discovery is happening in dating. Capital is moving. The founders who will actually get paid are the ones who cleaned up the business before anyone started calling.
- September 8, 2026AI Matchmaking Will Fail the Same Way the Swipe Did
A new wave of products is replacing the swipe with AI. Most of them are solving the wrong problem. Here is why I believe they will hit the same wall.
- September 1, 2026"Intentional" Is Becoming the New "Disrupt"
Every dating product now claims to be intentional. Most have only changed the language. Here is what I believe actually separates the real ones from the rest.
- August 24, 2026Don't Just Copy the Events
Tinder and Bumble are scaling IRL events because the swipe is losing power. They are not rebuilding the product around context. They are using events as a retention tool. Founders who miss that distinction will copy the wrong thing.
- August 8, 2026Tinder Just Admitted Swiping Is Broken
Tinder is paying to get its own users off the app, and on its Q2 call Bumble teased a swipe-free future. That is not a product update. It is a confession, and it tells every founder where the next opening is.
- July 30, 2026What Bumble's Fire Sale Tells You About This Market
Reuters reported that Bumble has hired Morgan Stanley to explore a sale. The read for operators is not that the category is dying. It is that a price discovery event is about to open the M&A window for everyone else.
- July 21, 2026The Funding Conversation No One in Dating Will Have With You
Every few weeks, someone asks me to help them raise money for their dating app. After twenty-five years on both sides of the table, here is the honest version of that conversation, and why it is more hopeful than the headlines.
Reporting by Bill Alena
All newsroom →- October 28, 2026PolicyThe Romance Scam Prevention Act Is Now Law. Dating Apps Have Until October 2027.
Every U.S. dating service, of any size, will have to warn users within 24 hours when someone they messaged is banned for fraud. The FTC and state attorneys general will enforce it.
- October 28, 2026PlatformsMatch and Grindr Report Next Week. Here Is What to Watch.
Match guided to a revenue decline with wider margins. Grindr raised its outlook and is buying its way into HIV prevention. The two reports land four days apart.
- October 21, 2026PlatformsTinder Now Grades Itself on "Sparks," Not Swipes
Match Group CEO Spencer Rascoff has given Tinder a single companywide metric: conversations with at least six back-and-forth exchanges. Match reports third-quarter results on November 2.
- October 21, 2026FundingTolan Raises $30 Million as Character.AI Sells Itself in Bankruptcy
The same week an AI companion app aimed at everyday adults doubled its funding, one of the category's biggest names lined up Disney as a $20 million stalking-horse buyer. The split says a lot about where companionship money is going.
- October 14, 2026M&ABumble Agrees to Go Private at $6.05 a Share, More Than Double Its Pre-Deal Price
Ithaca Holdings will pay $1.3 billion in cash for a company whose revenue and paying users are still falling. Bumble leaves the public market before its third-quarter call.
- October 14, 2026M&ABumble's Public Shareholders Will Not Vote on the Sale. Two Holders Already Did.
Blackstone and Whitney Wolfe Herd approved the Ithaca deal by written consent right after signing. Wolfe Herd rolls over, and Blackstone sold stock at less than half the deal price two weeks earlier.
- October 7, 2026M&AGrindr Pays $250 Million to Become a Healthcare Company
Grindr is buying PurposeMed, the profitable PrEP telehealth provider behind Freddie, betting its audience is worth more as patients than as subscribers.
- October 7, 2026The DataFeeld Grew 32% Last Year While the Big Apps Shrank
Companies House accounts show the independent app's revenue reached £64 million in 2025, with nearly 90% earned outside the UK.
- October 2, 2026M&ABlackstone Keeps Selling Bumble, Now at Its Lowest Price Yet
SEC filings show Bumble's largest outside shareholder selling on a quarterly schedule while the company explores a sale. The latest sale was its cheapest yet.
- October 2, 2026PlatformsMatch Is Selling Intent Now. Its Numbers Say It Has To.
The Upward relaunch looks like a niche brand refresh. Read next to Match's own targets, it is a bet on the one thing still growing in its portfolio.
- October 2, 2026PolicyAustralia Is Turning Dating Safety Into a Legal Duty. Here Is What It Costs.
The voluntary code has had 18 months. What comes next is a risk-assessment regime with penalties up to about A$109 million, and it will not stay in Australia.