On taking risks: In love and…acne treatments?

Josh Metz
3 min readFeb 21, 2019

From the Tinder playbook — how to turn something awkward into something cool

I was supposed to be an architect.

It was 2013 and I had just completed a masters degree in Architecture from a university in Sydney, Australia. I was going to work in a glass office where I’d spend my afternoons impressing my colleagues and clients with beautiful structures I had dreamt up. My career path was mapped out — all I had to do was stay on course.

But instead I chose dating. Online dating to be exact. I joined Tinder as one of the first 10 employees, when it was a buzzy startup just getting off the ground. My job was to make sure we didn’t become known as another “online dating” app, because those weren’t exactly cool at the time, and the term was far too narrow compared to the vision.

So we called ourselves a “social discovery platform” (whatever that means)… and the response was both instant and overwhelming. In what felt like overnight, Tinder became the hottest thing on the planet. If you weren’t using it, you were curious about it, and regardless of your opinion, Tinder had undeniably revolutionized the way people met each other — forever.

To be on that rocketship and part of that change is an experience I will never forget. I learned a lot from my time at Tinder but one thing rises above the rest: we made online dating socially acceptable. Better yet, we made it cool. When I left, I knew I wanted another opportunity to apply that same powerful sentiment.

“How about acne?”

That’s what my friends, now business partners, Danny and Robbie, asked me when I told them I was on the hunt for a new challenge. The two had spent the last couple years developing an innovative new acne patch with a brand new delivery mechanism and sophisticated ingredient lineup.

That initial conversation led to something extraordinary. Today, I’m thrilled to unveil ZitSticka, a new tech-meets-skincare company aimed at changing the way we talk about and treat zits.

ZitSticka blends efficacy and technology to provide the most innovative beauty products on the market. Like Tinder, our mission is to encourage transparent conversation around another taboo topic — zits — something nearly everyone has experienced but no one wants to talk about. Through building social acceptance around zits and normalizing their treatment, ZitSticka aims to beautify zit treatments; so much so that people feel calm and prepared when they get a zit. Excited, even. (Okay, maybe that’s pushing it).

More parallels between Tinder and ZitSticka? Thought you’d never ask. At Tinder, we introduced the “Swipe” to the world, a no-fuss feature that simplified the dating journey. At ZitSticka, innovation comes in the form of self-dissolving microdarts, tiny, needle-like nodes that help deliver acne fighting ingredients below the skin’s surface to the source of the zit. Not as straightforward as the Swipe, I know, but similarly, a way to simplify something that is traditionally awkward: popping a zit.

Coming from marketing, I also have to say this product is hyper-handsome (yes, I made that up). Where most acne treatments lean too clinical or flatout ugly, ZitSticka is gorgeous, a cube you’d be proud to display anywhere and totally Instagrammable…hint hint.

It is bittersweet to say goodbye to Tinder but I’m excited for this next chapter. Whether it’s connecting people with each other, or with themselves, helping people feel confident and comfortable in their own skin makes life a little easier and the world less lonely. I’d like to think we all deserve that, don’t we?

Join me and the conversation on Insta @zitsticka and hit me up if you want to try out our new acne patch — I’d love to hear what you think!

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Josh Metz

Former Director of Marketing @ Tinder — Current CMO @ ZitSticka — banisher of all things awkward…including this bio. @j_metz