TGIF Feature: Venmo John chagrined in 'Bachelor in Paradise'

ABC

John Graham and Olivia Goethals decided to work on their relationship offscreen, but it didn't work out.

JOHN GRAHAM'S grand adventure is over. John, aka Venmo John, was looking for love, but instead, he ended up with a lonely heart and he has no one to blame but himself.

For a while, it looked like Graham was the most likable and potentially the best catch among all the single guys in Paradise. John has become THE most eligible bachelor in Paradise, going on dates with almost all of the women. Chelsea and Angela gave him roses, he kissed Kendall, and he has gone on dates with Caroline, Jubilee, Olivia, and Christen. 

He loved corny Dad jokes, had his own cooking show on Youtube, and he was a nice guy, not so into himself and respectful of the women on the show as human beings, not as trophies. Beside, he was rich, since he was one of the original employees of Venmo who reportedly hit the jackpot when that popular app was bought by Apple.

Graham was the only bachelor who managed to leave Bachelor In Paradise before the Fantasy Suite dates and not leave his girl, Olivia Goethals, in tears. They left Paradise holding hands in agreement to work on their relationship in real life.

We learned during the reunion show that after filming had ended, the long-distance dating didn't work well, since the couple lived on opposite coasts.

"Ummm. After Paradise, we FaceTimed a lot," she said on the reunion show last Monday. "We spent the weekend together and it was going really, really good. Then a few weeks ago, you told me that you just want to be friends and I totally understand. Long distance sucks, but I felt like if you wanted to make it work, you would have made that effort."

"I've never been in a long distance relationship before and for me, it felt like our different lifestyles couldn't make that work right now," John said in defense.

"Then when I saw you like publicizing that you were developing other relationships and that was with Chelsea [Roy]" continued Olivia "... that you were like FaceTiming her."

Ahhh, the pitfalls of social media. 

John had no retort and Chelsea remained silent, albeit slightly red-faced. But their silence spoke volumes.

And just like that, John went from Mr. Nice Guy to two-timing Lothario.

The San Francisco bachelor went further than any other Asian American man in the TV world of bachelors and bachelorettes, only to find his nice-guy image tarnished in the finale of Bachelors in Paradise. Until Graham, no Asian American man has lasted beyond the first episode of The Rachelor; and no Asian American man has appeared in its spinoff, Bachelor in Paradise.

Why would John agree to go on the show? Based on his social media, he has loads of friends, seems to socially concious... and, did I mention? He's rich. 

It looks like it was a lark although he was hoping to actually find love. But, he was able to tell producers of the Bachelor franchise:

"I feel like the show has been doing a much better job recently of representing folks that haven't been historically represented. I come from an Asian background and it's really cool to see me up there, because I don't think there's been many like this before. It's really exciting. I was just texting some of the producers before [the taping] saying that this is amazing. I've gotten so much support from people I don't know that just congratulate me and say, 'John, I'm really inspired by your story because I am also Asian,' or 'I am also a computer science major. You made me really excited seeing you up there and confident.' That's really awesome if you can step away from this and, leaving the Bachelor part aside, you can feel good about your background, personality and culture just because you've seen someone on TV.

Perhaps for Bachelor/Bachlorette contestants, the possibility of finding love is enough motivation to possibly risk embarrassing oneself in front of the whole world.

"I am in love - and, my God, it is the greatest thing that can happen to a man. I tell you, find a woman you can fall in love with. Do it. Let yourself fall in love. If you have not done so already, you are wasting your life." — D. H. Lawrence 

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Don't cry for jilted John Graham, he's going to Paradise

ABC

Tech guy John Graham has gone deeper into the show than any other Asian American bachelor.

JOHN GRAHAM seemed genuinely hurt that he was sent home by Becca Kufrin, the Bachlorette. In the final shot of John he was wiping away a tear; or, was that something in his eye?

He won't have a whole lot of time to mourn. He's coming back on spin-off, Bachelor in Paradise, which is set to premiere on Aug. 7.

Eliminated on the fifth show of this iteration of Bachelorette, Graham has lasted longer than other Asian American contestants. Fans began to question Becca's decision-making when she let John go home since she allowed to remain some contestants of questionable character.

John, a San Francisco resident, was on the ground floor at money transfer ap Venmo, is probably one of the richest contestants that has appeared on the series. He currently works for an artificial intelligence company called Fin Exploration. Renaissance man John also has a Facebook series called Kitchen Talk. He seems to be a nice guy but didn't get a whole lot of screen time with Becca (a telling sign).
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John Graham gets a rose from 'The Bachelorette'

Becca Kufrin pins a rose on John Graham, an Asian American vying for her affections in 'The Bachelorette.'

I WAS WRONG. I'm happy I was wrong. Unlike other Asian American contestants on previous seasons of The Bachelorette, John survived the first elimination round.

He didn't have much screen time in the show's first episode last night (May 28), so we can't be sure exactly why the bachlorette Becca Kufrin gave John a coveted rose, an invitation to stick around. 

We were only allowed to see the initial introduction between John and Kufrin. He said, "I'm a software engineer, I made the app for Venmo." Her response? "Oh, wow."

Thanks to Busieness Insider, Rifinery29 and Popsugar, we now know a little more about the Silicon Valley dude introduced to the audience simply as John -- like his last name. He is John Graham.

He didn't exactly "create" Venmo, the money-sending app, but he was the fifth hire of the venture back in 2011. So as Silicon Valley lore, goes, he got in on the ground floor.

The show's host, Chris Harrison, alluded to Graham's Silicon Valley street cred. "Arguably the most successful guy we've ever had on the show,"

"This guy's legit," he added.

"To give you an idea of John's net worth, Braintree bought Venmo in 2012 for $26.2 million. Then, the following year, PayPal bought Braintree for $800 million," reports Popsugar. "So yeah, we can only assume that John is doing well for himself. But that hasn't stopped him from working! He's also the creator of the drawing app Teleportante, and now he is a product engineer at The Fin Exploration Company."

We know that Kufrin is familiar with Venmo. After Arie Luyendyk, Jr. broke up with Kufrin on this season's The Bachelor, sympathetic viewers started Venmoing Kufrin for to ease her broken heart. About $6000 was collected through Venmo, which Kufrin - with a matching sum from ABC - to charity.

John Graham on 'Kitchen Talk.'

Thanks to the aforementioned sources, we also learned that Graham has his own cooking series on Youtube called Kitchen Talk.

He doesn't spend much time on his Facebook page. He has two recent posts from last week but before that, his previous post was in 2015.

On his Instagram page, we see lots of pictures of the San Francisco Bay Area and Graham running, hiking and playing sports with his friends and more than a few shirtless photos revealing his abs.

To round out the apparent Renaissance man, his bio says he plays guitar and bakes a mean banana bread.

I'm rooting for John as an Asian/American bro he's - in a way - representing us. Other Asian/American men have not fare well in this "reality" competition often eliminated in the first round. 

John's recent post on Facebook is a tantalizing hint of what's to come, "I took some time off to stop and smell the roses."

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