Hammerbacher looked around Silicon Valley at companies like his own, Google (GOOG), and Twitter, and saw his peers wasting their talents. "The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads," he says. "That sucks."
Despite these concerns, it is becoming accepted wisdom that any lingering shame around online dating is gone. Familiarity with the internet, a more casual dating culture and verifiable success stories have all helped. By now, most of us are not far removed from a couple who met online. “There’s a tipping point happening,” says Ginsberg. “There used to be this stigma, or it was ‘good for my friends but not for me’. People don’t realise how pervasive online dating is.
Everyone I know has privately told me that they have an online dating profile. They just don't tell anybody they know in real life.