- Whitney Wolfe Herd of Bumble is the youngest founder to go public.
- After a lawsuit with Tinder and a toxic relationship with a co-founder, she started again at 25.
- Wolfe Herd spent the IPO day juggling work and his mother’s obligations.
- Visit the Insider Business section for more stories.
On Thursday afternoon, Whitney Wolfe Herd of Bumble joined a call from Zoom looking like a working mom. Wearing a black baseball cap in a messy room with baby bottles, glasses of water and cans of soda spread out on a coffee table, Wolfe Herd tells Insider that she is tired of a “crazy, crazy day” and says that being a mother is ” more difficult than an IPO. “
But Wolfe Herd is not just any working mom. She is the latest CEO to join the billionaires club and, at 31, is the youngest founder to go public.
And on Thursday, with Bumble’s shares rising 63% in its market debut, she remained, without excuse, mother first. In the morning, Wolfe Herd brought her 14-month-old son with her while she rang the NASDAQ doorbell at Bumble’s office in Austin, Texas. Between scheduled TV interviews and calls from reporters, she encouraged her son to take the first steps. And in the afternoon, she was 47 minutes late for the Insider interview because she didn’t want to miss a shower with her son, Bobby Lee “Bo” Herd II.
“Let me tell you, it hasn’t been easy,” Wolfe Herd told Insider. “It has been very difficult and there have been many challenges along the way, but our team’s dedication to our north star in trying to get women into the driver’s seat has really kept us moving.”
Wolfe Herd was born and raised in Salt Lake City, the daughter of a real estate developer and a housewife. She went on to attend Southern Methodist University in Texas, where she studied international relations. While at school, she launched a small business selling bamboo bags to help people affected by the BP oil spill in 2010. Unlike other movements started by 19-year-olds at college, Wolfe Herd’s business took off and became nationally known when celebrities Nicole Richie and Rachel Zoe were spotted wearing their purse.
After college, she traveled through Southeast Asia to volunteer at orphanages before settling in Los Angeles to start work at the Hatch Labs incubator. In 2012, she met a group of entrepreneurs who wanted to build a new dating app called Tinder. She signed up as a co-founder and helped create a modern theft-based dating app.
At first, Wolfe Herd was living the entrepreneur’s dream. She was a co-founder and vice president of marketing for a startup that was valued by Silicon Valley investors at about $ 750 million at the time. There was also a romance with his direct manager and founder Justin Mateen. While the pair had been dating for about a year, Wolfe Herd told Alyson Shontell of Insider that the relationship ended forever when he became “verbally controlling and abusive”.
She was subsequently expelled from the company and sued Tinder and its parent company, IAC, alleging sexual harassment. Wolfe said in his suit that Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen sexually harassed her. She said she endured the harassment most of the time she worked at Tinder, reported Alyson Shontell of Business Insider when Wolfe filed the lawsuit in 2014. She said Mateen’s actions after the separation forced her to resign from Tinder. The lawsuit has now ended, earning Wolfe more than $ 1 million and Tinder shares.
Looking back, while Wolfe Herd recognizes that dark chapter in her life, she is also ready to move on. “Bumble is not here because of Tinder. Bumble is here because of his own right to be here,” Wolfe Herd told Insider. “I wish Tinder nothing but the best, but this is the day when I recover my own narrative.”
A few years later, at the age of 25, she started over, this time with a new dating app where women have the autonomy to take their first steps. Wolfe Herd told Insider in a 2015 interview, announcing the launch of the app, that his decision to empower women first was inspired by Sadie Hawkins’ dance. Since then, Bumble has expanded its product category to include Bumble BFF and Bumble Bizz. Wolfe Herd’s company generated $ 489 million in 2019 thanks to more than 42 million users. A possible partnership with Peanut, the social network for mothers, is also something she is also exploring.
“I think there is a natural evolution that women find in their dating journeys, which is motherhood, but that does not mean that we need to build a direct competitor,” Wolfe Herd told Insider. “And maybe there will be a partnership in the future, who knows.”
With 21,537,552 Bumble common shares, Wolfe Herd’s share at the close of Friday’s market is worth about $ 1.6 billion, making her not only a newly formed billionaire, but also the 22nd in the short list of founders who won a public company. And while some CEOs are known for doing $ 10 million ragers or organizing elaborate dinners after an IPO, Wolfe Herd preferred a quiet night at home with his family. After bathing her baby, she read books to him and ate sushi for the night in a sweatshirt with her husband.
She found some time to access the Clubhouse audio social networking app and write an inspiring memo for employees. Insider obtained a copy of
Day off
message, where Wolfe Herd wrote: “Tomorrow’s success is not promised, and it is our character and values that will keep us together during the ups and downs ahead.”