Can Grindr’s New CEO Sell the Gay Sex App to Wall Street?

George Arison begins conversations about Grindr with euphemisms. While gay men largely use the app to find potential nearby sexual partners, Arison—who was announced as Grindr’s new CEO Tuesday—prefers to say that people use the app for “casual dating” and “casual encounters.” In fact, Arison says the business’ potential is more like a “social network than a dating app.”

Arison needs Wall Street to find Grindr palatable. The West Hollywood, Calif.–based firm is preparing to go public in a deal that would value it at $2 billion, more than three times what it was worth when an investment firm controlled by investor Raymond Zage acquired it two years ago. By some measures that valuation is also well above where comparable companies like Bumble and Match currently trade. And Grindr is hoping to go public at a time when few companies are doing so, given the recent stock market sell-off. Even fewer are merging with a special purpose acquisition company, as Grindr is.

The high stakes may be why he is dancing around the obvious source of the app’s allure—and healthy profits—over its 13-year history. “Will there be some investors who have discomfort with parts of what Grindr is? I’m sure there are,” he says. “There’ll be work to do, but I’m not worried about that.”