Ashley Madison Founder Darren Morgenstern is now an Investor
Ashley Madison is becoming the talk of town on the internet streets again. This time, the online dating service is being revived for the cyber attack that happened almost nine years ago. On July 15, 2015, Ashley Madison was hacked by a group of hackers who identified themselves as The Impact Team.
The hackers stole personal information of people using the website including their emails and credit card information. They had warned the Ashley Madison owners to shut down the website or else they would expose all the personal information that they had in 30 days.
They never shut down the website but instead tried to do damage control by finding out who was behind the attack. Eventually, the hackers released the information of over 30 million users who used the website. The CEO of Ashley Madison at the time Noel Biderman who was also the face of the company went down with the company as his confidential emails were released days after.
To this day the hackers were never found. Noel Biderman who initially did numerous interviews and PR for the website took a hard fall. He resigned days later and has been keeping a low profile. But who was the original creator of Ashley Madison?
Who is Darren Morgenstern
Darren Morgenstern is a Canadian entrepreneur who was the founder of Ashley Madison. He founded the company in 2002 and named it Ashley Madison which were the two most popular female names in North America at the time. He came up with the idea of creating a dating site for married people after he saw statistics claiming 30% of people on dating sites were married.
The platform provided married people a place to have an affair freely without consequences. They had thousands of married people using their website years later, proving his statistics.
As the website grew, he realized that he found joy in creating new ventures rather than dealing with the job of operating them. He later sold the company to Avid Life Media in 2007.
What is he Doing Now?
According to Mississauga News, Darren is a venture capitalist, investor, and mentor. He was investing in startups in the health and wellness sector at the time (2016). He was a director of a fitness company called Weight Loss Grants together with his wife.
Wife and Children
Darren Morgenstern has been married to his wife Marissa Mayles Morgenstern for over 22 years. They have three children.
Ashley Madison Netflix Documentary
The three part documentary titled Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal was released on May 15, 2024. The documentary details the rise and fall of the adulterous website from its famous days to the aftermath of the hack.
The documentary also shares the stories of past website users, including a Christian vlogger who shared their experience using the website and the aftermath of the hack. Past employees of the website also gave their stories of how things were operating behind the scenes.