Tristan Pineiro, CMO of Grindr: Building Brand, Content, and Community at Scale

In this episode of CMO Journeys, Christian Banach speaks with Tristan Pineiro, Chief Marketing Officer of Grindr, about leading brand, content, communications, and partnerships at one of the world’s most culturally significant platforms. His perspective is especially valuable because it blends storytelling, community understanding, and global brand building at a time when Grindr is expanding how it shows up for users beyond its original identity.What the Conversation Covers • Tristan’s unconventional path into marketing, from queer nightlife and communications to agency work and leadership across major brands • How early experiences in culture, language, and entertainment shaped his approach to storytelling, positioning, and emotional resonance • How Grindr is evolving its brand from a hookup app into a broader “global gayborhood” built around connection, safety, information, and community • What it takes to run a lean, content-forward marketing function that acts more like a studio, with strong internal creative direction and selective agency support • How Tristan evaluates agency partners, especially their ability to understand queer culture with depth, authenticity, and real listening rather than surface-level signalsGuest BioTristan Pineiro is Chief Marketing Officer of Grindr, where he leads brand, content, communications, and partnerships for the global LGBTQ+ social platform. He came to marketing through communications and has built a career across agencies, entertainment, and culturally driven brands, with a leadership style shaped by storytelling, audience insight, and community fluency.About the PodcastCMO Journeys is a podcast from NextBigWin hosted by Christian Banach. The series features conversations with marketing leaders about the path to the C-suite, the challenges they are tackling inside their organizations, and how they evaluate agencies and strategic partners.