Christian Rudder

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Christian Rudder
Born (1975-09-01) September 1, 1975
OccupationsEntrepreneur, writer, musician

Christian Rudder (born September 1, 1975)[1] is an American technology entrepreneur and writer known for co-founding the online dating service OkCupid and publishing the site's popular blog posts, which offered insights on dating based on data of user behavior. Following OkCupid's sale to the owner of Match.com in 2011, Rudder remained at the company for four years, and in 2014 published the book Dataclysm with further analysis of online dating statistics. He left OkCupid in 2015.

Education

Rudder graduated from Little Rock Central High School in 1993. He attended Harvard University, graduating with a degree in mathematics in 1998.[2]

Career

Rudder joined SparkNotes in October 1999, a few months after its founding. Rudder was the creative voice of TheSpark.com,[3] which was the viral content arm of SparkNotes during the site's early rise to popularity. He became TheSpark's creative director in March 2001. Soon after the site's sale to Barnes & Noble, Rudder began building OkCupid with SparkNotes founders Chris Coyne, Sam Yagan, and Max Krohn.

OkCupid and writing

The online dating site OkCupid launched on January 19, 2004, with Rudder and his three business partners as co-founders. Rudder focused on the front-end product and developed the site's editorial voice.[4] From 2009 to 2011, OkCupid published statistical observations and analysis of members' preferences and connections; the blog posts were written by Rudder and gained widespread media attention.[5] In February 2011, OkCupid was sold to IAC Inc., the owner of Match.com and other dating properties, for $90 million.[6] Following the sale, Rudder served as president of OkCupid until he left in 2015.[7]

Dataclysm book

Rudder expanded his writings for OkCupid into the non-fiction book Dataclysm, which became a New York Times Best Seller in September 2014 and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize that year in the Science & Technology category.[8][9][10]

Music

Rudder played guitar in the hardcore punk band Pissed Officers and indie rock group Bishop Allen, both with Justin Rice on bass and Rudder and Rice sharing songwriting and vocal duties.[11][12] On Bishop Allen's first three albums, Rudder played most of the instruments except drums and piano.[13] Through Bishop Allen, Rudder has contributed to the soundtracks of the movies Saved!, Sleepwalk with Me, No Strings Attached, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, Bully, and several other smaller films and commercials.[14]

Film work

He appeared in Andrew Bujalski's film Funny Ha Ha, as Alex, and appeared as himself in Peter Sollett's film Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist.

Personal life

Christian met his wife, Reshma Patel, at a concert in Boston. Patel ran a public relations firm. They married in 2006.[15]

They lived in the Williamsburg neighborhood of New York City for some time, but moved to Costa Rica in 2020.[16]

Bibliography

Rudder, Christian (2014). Dataclysm : Who We Are When We Think No One's Looking. Crown Publishers.[17]

References

  1. Franco, Cheree (February 15, 2015). "Christian Tillinghouse Rudder: OkCupid's founder is a Central High geek turned low-fi Renaissance man ..." Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  2. "Christian Rudder | Penguin Random House". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved July 28, 2021.
  3. Silverman, Rachel (November 15, 2000). "How fat can you get?". Salon.com. Retrieved October 22, 2014.
  4. "Christian Rudder on OkCupid, user data, and the impending AI takeover". Mixpanel. August 16, 2016. Retrieved August 29, 2017.
  5. Stampler, Laura (July 28, 2014). "OkCupid Brings Back Blog Chronicling Online Daters' Fascinating Habits". Time. Retrieved August 29, 2017.
  6. "Sam Yagan of OkCupid: How a Crazed Call Sparked a $90M Business | OPEN Forum". www.americanexpress.com. Retrieved August 29, 2017.
  7. "Christian Rudder on OkCupid, user data, and the impending AI takeover". Mixpanel. August 16, 2016. Retrieved August 29, 2017.
  8. Osberg, Molly (September 11, 2014). "The OKCupid data blog is back, in book form". The Verge. Retrieved August 29, 2017.
  9. "Dataclysm". dataclysm.org. Retrieved August 29, 2017.
  10. "35th Annual Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalists Announced". www.lapl.org. Retrieved August 29, 2017.
  11. "Bishop Allen | Biography, Albums, Streaming Links | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved August 29, 2017.
  12. "ASCAP database". Archived from the original on August 26, 2009.
  13. [All three album's liner notes]
  14. "Christian Rudder". IMDb. Retrieved August 29, 2017.
  15. Liz, Robbins (February 13, 2015). "How Christian Rudder, a Founder of OKCupid, Spends His Sunday". The New York Times. Retrieved February 10, 2019.
  16. Rus, Mayer (April 16, 2024). "Venture Inside This Eco-Conscious Costa Rica Home". Architectural Digest. Retrieved March 30, 2025.
  17. Reviewed in: Swain, Frank (October 11, 2014). "Algorithms are eating us up". New Scientist. 224 (2990): 50. Bibcode:2014NewSc.224...50S. doi:10.1016/S0262-4079(14)61964-3.