Would you invest in a website that encourages infidelity?

Everyone told Noel Biderman not to start his company, AshleyMadison, an internet dating site for infidelity. His parents, friends, lawyers he’d worked with— all of them said no. Then his wife finally asked if he was serious about the idea. When he said yes, she gave him the go ahead. “If you want to test the validity of your relationship, ask your significant other about getting into the infidelity space,” Biderman says. “If she stands by you.. you probably have a really solid partnership on your hands.” Nearly 15 years ago, Biderman launched AshleyMadison. Since then he has succeeded in building up a large business and reputation. BusinessWeek once described him as “possibly evil” and Biderman’s own company has (perhaps tongue-in-cheek) billed him as “the most hated man on the Internet.” In reality, Biderman, 43, is a mess of contradictions: He is a happily married man from a family of happily married couples running a website to help married people cheat because he believes some societal change is coming.