Gay dating is complicated.
Apparently creating a gay dating app isn’t much easier. 😂
Less than two months after model, actor and entrepreneur Derek Chadwick became the very handsome public face of new gay dating app Goose, he says he has left the company.
And considering how this whole adventure began, the speed of that departure is rather remarkable.
Back in May, Chadwick posted about the frustrations of dating as a gay man in Los Angeles.
He had been single for around two years and posed a simple question.
“How come there are no cool dating apps in 2026?”
His answer, apparently, was to help build one.
Meet Goose
Chadwick co-founded Goose with former BeReal growth and community manager David Aliagas.
The app officially launched on June 25 and positioned itself as an alternative to the transactional experience many gay men associate with dating and hookup apps.
Goose described itself as “social-first” and “anti-algorithm.”
Instead of endlessly swiping through men, users could send one another a “wave.”
The emphasis was supposed to be on dating, friendship, community and allowing attraction to develop more organically.
“Our goal is to create an experience that reflects real-life connection,” Chadwick told Queerty shortly after launch.
For gay men exhausted by the existing app landscape, it was an appealing proposition.
Then things got considerably messier.
The Controversies Begin
Within days of Goose’s launch, questions were being raised about the way the app was being promoted.
A WIRED investigation identified more than two dozen Instagram accounts apparently connected with marketing Goose that showed signs of being AI-generated or otherwise inauthentic.
Some had been contacting real gay men and offering invitation codes to join the app.
Importantly, the allegation was about Instagram accounts promoting Goose.
It was not evidence that Goose itself was filled with AI-generated dating profiles.
Chadwick subsequently defended the platform, saying Goose was creating a space where “real people can make real friends, dates, and community.”
Further questions followed about the app’s original terms of service and how user content could be used.
Goose subsequently revised those terms.
Meanwhile, the app continued operating and Chadwick remained one of its most recognizable public faces.
Until now.
Derek Has Left The Goose
Chadwick says he actually left the company last week.
His explanation centers on a disagreement over what Goose should become.
He says his vision for the app and the direction the company was taking were no longer aligned.
What he has not said is equally important.
Chadwick has not publicly established that the controversy over Goose’s marketing caused him to leave.
The timing makes those controversies relevant to the story.
It does not tell us why he made his decision.
And perhaps the story is interesting enough without pretending that it does.
From “Gay Dating Sucks” To Goodbye In Three Months
There is something almost painfully relatable about the entire timeline.
In May, Chadwick was publicly wondering why gay dating apps weren’t better.
In June, he helped launch one designed to fix some of the things he disliked about them.
By August, he had left.
That doesn’t necessarily mean the original idea was wrong.
Gay men clearly do have complicated relationships with the apps through which so much of our dating, sex and social lives now take place.
The enthusiasm surrounding Goose suggested there was real appetite for something different.
But building that alternative apparently proved considerably more complicated than asking why nobody had done it already.
Goose continues without Chadwick.
And Derek?
Presumably he’s once again navigating gay dating without the advantage of owning the app. 😂
Good luck out there, babe.
📷 @derekchadwick / @goose
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