Learn how self-made female billionaire Whitney Wolfe Herd left Tinder to co-found female-led dating service Bumble and why was Bumble successful. Self-made female billionaire Whitney Wolfe Herd created the dating app Bumble, which revolutionized the dating market. Bumble is a significant player in the online dating sector thanks to its innovative business strategy and cutting-edge technologies. Wolfe Herd’s journey from selling tote bags to building Bumble, the most popular dating app for women, is a testament to her unique business concept and strong ethical principles. This guide explores Whitney Wolfe Herd’s journey and startup success.
Move over, Tinder. There’s another dating app on the market, and it gives priority to women. Bumble is a social media dating app that requires women to make the first move. It’s like the Sadie Hawkins dance, except with an app.
Although Bumble appears to be a unique dating platform, it does have one element in common with Tinder. Whitney Wolfe Herd. Before generating publicity for Bumble, Whitney helped “swipe right” on Tinder. That is until sexual harassment claims surfaced.
Keep reading to learn why Whitney Wolfe left Tinder and how she became a self-made female billionaire who helped build Bumble from the ground up.
What is Bumble
Bumble’s CEO, Whitney Wold Hurd, is a pioneer in the dating app field, emphasizing the value of female empowerment with the option to start or end conversations. Bumble, the second-largest dating app on the market, is notable for how differently it addresses harassment and issues related to women.
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The Buzz Behind Bumble
Bumble Company History
Wolfe Herd’s Early Life and Education
Judge Memorial Catholic High School was Wolfe Herd’s high school. When she was in the sixth grade, the family took a vacation to Paris, France. Wolfe Herd was a member of the sorority Kappa Kappa Gamma and graduated in foreign studies at Southern Methodist University.
Wolf Herd was born on July 1, 1989, in Salt Lake City, Utah. She received a degree in international studies from Southern Methodist University.
Bumble Inc. co-founder Whitney Wolfe Herd is the president of both dating apps Badoo and Bumble. In 2014, She and Russian billionaire Andrey Andreev started Bumble. Andreev sold his stake in both apps to Blackstone in 2019. After Bumble went public in February 2021, Wolfe Herd – who owns a 17% stake in the company – became the youngest woman to become a billionaire through self-made means. As of December 2022, Bumble and Badoo had 3.4 million paying customers in 150 countries.
Tinder
Wolf Herd joined Hatch Labs after her graduation. Hatch Labs is a startup incubator based in Los Angeles. She was just 22 years old when she and her partners started creating Tinder. In 2012, the dating app was released.
She began leading Tinder as co-founder and vice president of marketing. Tinder quickly became famous and successful in the tech industry. The dating app contacted almost one million people in the first few months after its inception.
Sexual Harassment
While Wolfe Heard worked at Tinder, she had an affair with her supervisor Justin Mateen. The partnership was difficult. She said Mateen verbally and physically abused her. It also appears that she usurped Wolf Herd’s co-founding position.
It was impossible to work on Tinder because of Wolfe Herd and Mateen. She left the company in 2014.
Tinder denied the claims. However, the business settled on a stock award and $1 million.
“It wasn’t about the money,” Wolfe Herd informed Business Insider. It has to do with my hard work. I was no longer mentioned in the company records. I’m not here to claim complete ownership of Tinder. It’s all about the team, and I believe I was a major contributor to the team. I was present from the very beginning of this now widely recognized app.”
Bumble
Following her resignation, Andrey Andreev, one of the co-founders of the dating app Badoo, contacted Wolf Herd. When they gathered, they talked about Wolf Herd’s future ambitions.
Wolf Herd discusses her concepts for a social media platform that could compete with Instagram. It will aim to target the same youth population as Tinder. But Andreev sent her back to the world of dating apps.
Wolf Herd took notice. Other users who left Tinder were listed by both. Chris Gulzinski, Sarah Mick’s vice president of design, and the other co-founders were among them.
Wolf Herd set out to create an app that was unlike any other dating service. Women in other dating settings were often the targets of harassment and unwanted photographs. With this in mind, the four founded Bumble in 2014.
According to Bloomberg, “With Andreev’s support, Wolfe Herd created Bumble as a service ‘by women, for women,’ promoting it as a place where women were empowered, and on harassment. Strict surveillance was maintained.”
How Bumble works
It looks and feels just like other dating apps, even Bumble. Before there is a mutual like, users take swipes at each other. Now they have a match and can communicate with each other through chat. Although it may look similar to other dating apps, it is different in that only women can initiate contact.
On Bumble, women hold the power. If they don’t want to connect with their match, it will expire in 24 hours.
Its objective is to eliminate gender discrimination and sexual misconduct from dating apps. Bumble aims to break down dating stereotypes and empower women.
What made Bumble unique
Among the plethora of dating apps, Bumble stands out because of its emphasis on letting women interact with potential partners. The notion that a woman can find a partner and contact them whenever she wants replaces the annoying messages and endless communications from strangers.
However, Wolfe Herd had high aspirations for Bumble. She envisioned it as a “leading global women’s brand” in addition to a dating app where users can meet new individuals “no matter what you’re looking for, no matter what life stage or relationship you’re in.”
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Ladies Take the Lead
Bumble gives women control over the dating process. Wolf Herd wants women to go on dates with confidence and without worrying about their safety.
As a result, the woman is in control. In the case of heterosexual matches, the woman initiates contact 24 hours earlier. The link expires when the person has 24 hours to respond.
“Every day, we just wake up in the morning and focus on creating an experience for women, around women,” Wolfe Herd told CNBC. “When women are safe and happy, everyone else follows, and it creates better relationships for everyone.”
Diversity Matters
From dating apps to the boardroom, Wolfe Herd aims to empower women. For this reason, its board of directors is primarily made up of women. Notable members are Michelle Kennedy, founder of the social media platform Peanuts for Mothers, and Ann Mather, former CFO of Pixar Studios.
From Dating Apps to Social Media and Magazines
Beyond just a dating app, Bumble has evolved since its 2014 release. Other Bumble sections focused on making friends and making business connections have been introduced.
Lauren Chan was in the first issue of Bumble Mag. She is a businesswoman and model who represents the plus-size Henning women’s workwear line.
Match Group Offers to Acquire Bumbled
If you thought Wolfe Herd’s legal dispute with Tinder had been settled, you would be wrong.
There was a $450 million takeover attempt for Bumble in 2017 by Match Group. The core business of many dating sites, such as Match.com, PlentyofFish, Tinder, HowAboutV, and OkCupid, is Match Group.
Heard declined the invitation.
This is to be expected, as $450 million appears to be a modest offer. This seems especially true considering TechCrunch valued Bumble at $1 billion at the time.
According to TechCrunch, “the company is still growing like a weed, with over 23M registered users and over 850 million total matches within three years.”
Match Group Plays Copycat
Even though rejection hurts, you just keep moving forward. Correct?
That means not for the match group. After Bumble rejected the offer, Match Group took the risk. In 2018 a new Tinder update was released which included a “Ladies First” option. Women can activate this, allowing them to start a discussion.
Does that sound familiar?
“We applaud any company that makes business decisions that empower women,” Wolfe Herd said in response to a question regarding the latest Tinder upgrade.
Wolfe Herd undoubtedly held high office and continued to make women’s liberation a priority.
But there is still more.
Bumble Swipes Left on Match Group
According to Match Group, Bumble is just Tinder cloned in a different marketplace. Match Group was the first to complain that Bumble had copied Tinder’s “world-changing, card-swipe-based, mutual opt-in premise.”
(it feels great.)
Bumble posted a scathing rebuttal on its website in response to the case.
“We work hard every day to protect our more than 30 million users and create a more responsible environment. You can deal with inappropriate behavior on our platform instead of having to juggle back and forth between attempts to duplicate, buy, and sue.” Why don’t we spend our time in?”
Since Wolfe Herd was already involved in a lawsuit with Tinder, she probably had no patience left. Her sentiments are summed up in the statement’s conclusion:
“We wish you well, but consider yourself blocked.”
Bumble BFF and Bumble Bizz
The dating website Bumble has added Bumble BFF and Bumble Bizz. While Bumble Bizz helps women network for independent ventures, Bumble BFF, a community-driven dating service, focuses on helping people form friendships. The same pattern of encouraging women to initiate contact and take the initiative is applied by both sites. Launched in 2017, Bumble Bizz aims to connect professionals and grow professional networks. According to online dating data, people who use Bumble generally feel more secure than those who meet through friends, coworkers, or bars.
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Bumble Today
Despite the recent lawsuit, the business has grown tremendously.
Bumble reported revenue of $363 million in 2019. Then, according to Forbes, the amount increased to $417 million in 2020.
As of 2021, Bumble has 42 million monthly active users. With Wolfe Herd serving as CEO, Bumble’s parent business Magic Lab changed its name to Bumble.
What’s more exciting is that on February 11, 2021, Bumble made its debut on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Bumble is traded using the ticker “BMBL”. Bumble’s stock was valued by Forbes at $76 per share, well above its target price of $43.
Wolfe Herd is one of three female company founders among the 559 people who went public last year by founding Bumble. She is one of the youngest publicly traded female CEOs in the technology industry.
Wolf Herd held a $1.6 billion or 19% stake in the business. Additionally, she became a self-made female billionaire and formally joined the group.
How does Bumble make money?
Dating app Bumble has a freemium business model, allowing users to upgrade to access premium features like Superswipes and unlimited swipes.
- Similar to Tinder’s Boost feature, Spotlight allows users to pay two Bumble coins to move to the top of the match line and increase their visibility.
- Boost is a special function that enables users to swipe unlimitedly, match previous connections, and more.
With 2.8 million paying users globally, Bumble makes money from two add-ons: Boost, a premium feature that lets users match with previous connections, get unlimited search filters, and swipe without restrictions. and Spotlight, which works similarly to Tinder’s Boost feature. And users have to pay two Bumble coins to increase visibility in the match queue. Although it accounted for just 3% of Bumble’s total revenue in 2019, this specific business strategy continues to generate substantial money.
Net worth
31-year-old Wolf Herd’s net worth increased to $1.3 billion after Bumble’s IPO. This resulted in her becoming the youngest woman to publicly identify herself and the youngest self-made female billionaire. Quite remarkable for someone who started out selling tote bags to benefit charity.
Wolf Herd’s efforts to oversee such growth at such a young age have paid off, as Business Insider listed her as one of the 30 Most Important Women Under 30 in Tech in 2014. Additionally, she was listed as one of Elle magazine’s Women of the Year 2016. Tech and featured on Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list in 2017 and 2018.
The Bottom Line
The Wolf Herd benefited from an underutilized market. It has taken a long time for the dating industry to prioritize women, given that there are 50% more women than men in the world. Wolf Herd became a billionaire as a result of helping create a multibillion-dollar firm.
According to Wolfe Herd in an interview with CNN Business, “You don’t have to be one type of person to be successful in the business world or the tech industry.” “I’ve always tried to create what I want, what I want to help better the lives of the women I care about and the people I love, and I think That it shouldn’t always follow the same path.”
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With an emphasis on female empowerment, Whitney Wolf Herd – the youngest woman to take a company public and the youngest self-made billionaire – has turned Bumble into a major force in the online dating industry. She leveraged her experiences from her time at Tinder to establish a platform where users feel safe interacting with strangers. Wolf Herd is a shining example of a successful company because of its unique value proposition, empowering women and disrupting a sector while advocating for social change.