Meet Sharmistha Dubey, Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s IIT classmate who reinvented an industry, led Rs 3,00,000 crore firm

Just like her IIT classmate, Sharmistha Dubey is a reputed business executive from India who made it big in the US. Also known as Shar Dubey, she served as the CEO of online dating giant Match Group that owns apps like Tinder, Hinge and OkCupid. She is credited with steering the conglomerate through the Covid-19 pandemic and reinventing the industry with her ideas. 

Dubey hails from Jamshedpur. After studying at Loyola School, she graduated from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur. Google CEO Sundar Pichai was her classmate. She was the only woman in the entire class. 

Sharmistha then worked for a steel company in hometown Jamshedpur. She saved money for further education and then went to the US to earn an MS degree. She started her career in 1998 as an engineer with Texas Instruments. She joined Match.com in 2006. 

At the Match Group, she reinvented the online dating game. She came up with the 'Likes You' feature for Tinder in 2017. She got it added to the app's paid membership features. It helped Tinder's popularity skyrocket. 

The idea is credited directly making Tinder a billion-dollar firm and most profitable in the industry. The move made Tinder the world’s top-earning non-gaming mobile app and changed the online dating industry forever.

She was named COO of Tinder in 2017. She was appointed CEO in March 2020 and helmed the $40 billion (over Rs 3 lakh crore) group during the pandemic era before stepping down in May 2022. She remains on the board of directors of the group.