Startup using Big Budget Parties as a Recruiting Tool

London-based startup Badoo, a dating-app very similar to Tinder, include extravagant parties as one of the job perks. These parties are being utilized as a recruiting tool for potential employees; the parties are meant to appeal to recently graduated college students. The parties usually involve pole dancers, half-naked models as sushi platters, body paints, costumes, etc.

I hope these big budget parties are worth it for the company because...

...the annual Christmas celebration can total $385,000, and an event at a conference in Paris ran close to $2 million, the typical Badoo party costs the company $25,000 to $45,000, the company says.

These parties also have plenty of concerns associated with it; some are worried about the risks involved with such a party-heavy culture.

“It’s certainly misguided and inappropriate,” Jo Keddie, an employment lawyer at Winckworth Sherwood, says of Badoo’s party culture. It’s also risky, given the high-profile claims of sexual harassment and discrimination roiling companies including Uber Technologies Inc.

Thoughts on the never-before-seen innovation in office culture? Other comments?