Whitney Wolfe Herd is stepping down as chief executive at the end of the year after nearly a decade.
Out of adversity comes opportunity, so the saying goes.
For Whitney Wolfe Herd, that meant taking a difficult exit from online dating app firm Tinder – which she sued for sexual harassment – and setting up Bumble, her own rival company with a focus very much on women.
Nearly a decade and a billion dollar fortune later, Ms Wolfe Herd announced this week that she is stepping down as Bumble’s boss.
But it is a bittersweet moment. In an interview with the BBC before she made her announcement, Ms Wolfe Herd lamented that, as a group of young women who came up in tech in the 2010s, not many are left.
« It is disappointing to see just how little women have advanced, » she said. « I’ve watched the fall of what people call ‘the girl boss era’. That’s tragic. »
However, Bumble will still be led by a woman – Lidiane Jones, the former boss of Slack, will take over as chief executive while Ms Wolfe Herd will stay on as executive chair.’Outdated dynamics’
When she launched Bumble in 2014, unlike other apps at the time, it was focused on female empowerment in the dating scene – where women who date men would have to make the de facto « first move » to message a new match.
« The gender dynamics of dating and romance still seemed so outdated. I thought, what if I could flip that on its head? » Ms Wolfe Herd wrote in a 2020 blog post of the app’s conception.
Less than seven years later, Ms Wolfe Herd would become the world’s youngest female self-made billionaire.
A 2017 Bumble ad campaign encouraged women to « be the CEO your parents always wanted you to marry (then find someone you actually like) ».
Ms Wolfe Herd chaired panel talks, created networking events and promoted women in business.
Her Instagram shows her taking her young sons into Bumble HQ, appearing on magazine covers and hanging out with the likes of Hollywood A-lister Reese Witherspoon.
« I don’t really look at my life as a division of work and personal. I blend it, » she recently told the BBC.
« And maybe that works for me. And maybe it doesn’t work for someone else. But I will tell you, it is hard. »Before Bumble
Ms Wolfe Herd has said that in the past her life has « been pretty dark ».
