Whitney Wolfe, founder and CEO of Bumble, who became the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire, is one of the most important personalities in the world of Tech. Business Cool makes you discover the journey of a woman who has been humiliated and harassed on numerous occasions and who, despite these challenges, has always managed to get back up. Whitney Wolfe took her revenge by creating a dating app to give power back to women.
Whitney Wolfe’s childhood
Whitney Wolfe was born on July 5, 1989 in Salt Lake City, Utah, to a real estate developer father and a housewife mother. Raised in a classic American family, Whitney is passionate about the magical world of Walt Disney. Like a fairy tale, it was in 2000, at the age of 11, that his family decided to settle for a year in France, in Paris. This experience which Whitney would later describe as “the best thing our parents did for us” will allow the young woman to discover the pleasures of Parisian life, but above all to open up to the world.
As a student in an international school, taking classes with students from all over the world strengthens her open-mindedness. Raised in a family where religious values are important, Whitney will be marked by the way in which women are viewed so differently in France. This experience will mark his life forever “She gave me an open-mindedness about different types of people and cultures. It was from this time that my interest in international affairs, my specialty at university, dates back. she will tell.
Whitney Wolfe victim of violence for the first time
When the trip is over, Whitney and her family return to the United States. A few years later, she will experience a first complicated ordeal in her life as a young woman. Now a student at Judge Memorial Catholic High School, Whitney has a boyfriend… If so far everything seems normal for the life of a young high school girl, it turns out that this young man is what we could call a pervert -narcissistic.
Whitney Wolfe suffered a great deal of psychological and sometimes even physical violence. One day the young man even went so far as to threaten her with a gun. Whitney Wolfe, described a few years later as having been the victim of serious psychological violence during her formative years.
A new start for the young entrepreneur
In order to escape this destructive relationship, Whitney Wolfe decided to leave Utah and joined Southern Methodist University (SMU) located in the city of Dallas, where she graduated with a degree in international studies. It was during her studies, aged 20 at the time, that she launched her first business. Marked by the explosion of an oil platform that same year, Whitney Wolfe decided to launch a brand of bamboo tote bags.
A talented and generous entrepreneur, the young woman then made the decision to donate all profits to the victims of this ecological disaster. Victim of its success, the brand is talked about in all American fashion magazines. Whitney Wolfe even managed to have celebrities carry her bags during the Emmy Awards ceremony.
Graduating in 2010, and following various experiences as a volunteer abroad, the young entrepreneur returned to Los Angeles and began working in a startup incubator, Hatch Labs. More attracted by the world of Tech than that of fashion, Whitney Wolfe decided to devote her career to it.
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Tinder, Whitney Wolfe’s first big success in the world of entrepreneurship
Whitney Wolf is undertaking a first startup experience via Cardify, an application that digitalizes loyalty cards. unfortunately the project was quickly abandoned. So she and three former employees, including her boyfriend at the time Justin Matten, created a new dating application called “Tinder”. They then apply a method learned during their last experience “swiping”, the possibility of swiping left or right in order to accept or on the contrary refuse a contact. Whitney Wolfe, vice president of marketing, came up with the company name and logo based on pieces of wood her father used to light their fireplace.
Launched in 2012, the application is a hit! Originally intended for American students, it quickly extended to all young people across the planet. Only two years after the start of the project, Whitney Wolfe’s application already has 12 million users. The new “swipe” technique is the innovative and main asset of the application. The startup was even rewarded as the “Best Startup” in 2013. This is the first great entrepreneurial success in Whitney Wolfe’s life.
Whitney Wolfe victim of harassment
Unfortunately, the young entrepreneur’s situation will quickly deteriorate… While the application develops at full speed, the relationship she has with her boyfriend, Justin Matten, slowly begins to deteriorate. Indeed, the man becomes more and more jealous. Sometimes aggressive, Whitney Wolfe has the impression of being once again under the psychological influence of a man. Marked by her unhappy high school experience, Whitney Wolfe decides to cut short her relationship with the co-founder of Tinder, Justin Matten.
This decision will have immediate consequences for the young entrepreneur. Indeed, Justin Matten does not accept seeing Whitney Wolfe slip away from him. He and several collaborators begin to harass the young woman. Insults, sexist and inappropriate remarks, one person will even go so far as to spit in her face, Whitney Wolfe’s life within Tinder becomes hell. Justin Matten will even go so far as to send obscene text messages and emails to the young woman.
Whitney Wolfe vs. Tinder
Only two years after the launch of the startup, Whitney Wolfe, determined not to let it happen anymore, decided to file a complaint against the own company she co-founded, Tinder. In her complaint for harassment and discrimination, the young woman explains that she was excluded from the position of VP marketing as well as her title of “co-founder” because of her gender. She also accuses Justin Matten of sexual harassment.
The media are quick to reveal the affair to the general public. On social networks, waves of haters attack the young woman, even going so far as to threaten her. However, Whitney Wolfe also receives thousands of messages of support. The story will never be judged in court. Although Tinder has never publicly acknowledged the accusations made against it, in September 2014, the startup still made the decision to pay the sum of 1 million dollars to its former co-founder in exchange for stopping all proceedings.
Bumble, the new app “for women” from Whitney Wolfe
Exhausted by this whole story, the young woman, now 25, never wants to work on online dating sites again and now aims to launch a site designed for women. A meeting with a certain Andrey Andreev, a 40-year-old Russian billionaire, who became rich thanks to the Badoo dating site, will accelerate this project. Whitney Wolfe, who has just reached an agreement with Tinder, receives an email from Andrey Andreev. The Russian billionaire wants to meet the young entrepreneur to talk to her about a dating site project… His project? Create a caring dating app
Whitney Wolfe agrees to join the billionaire on the condition that the women can maintain control. Andrey Andreev accepts this condition, the entrepreneur seems to him to be the ideal person given his past experience. The entrepreneur, for her part, is seduced by the project which overlaps part of what she wanted to create herself.
Three months of travel followed for the young woman between London (where Andrey Andreev lives) and Austin, Texas. From September to December 2014, the two new partners write their business plan. Andrey Andreev invests $10 million and owns 80% of the company’s shares, Whitney Wolfe owns 20%.
The entrepreneur takes the codes of her previous successes and launches “Bumble”. The application aims to give total control of interactions to women, in order to fight against cyberharassment. A way for her to take revenge on her ex-associates, by launching an application where women have the power. Its slogan “ Take the first step », aimed directly at the fairer sex, aims to move away from the cliché which says that it is always up to men to take this first step.
The Bumble application was launched in December 2014 and Whitney Wolfe directly recruited around ten women to support her on this project. Using the “swipe” technique, the application was an immediate success, with more than 6 million users in the first year. The entrepreneur throws herself body and soul into her new project. She broadened her concept and launched Bumble Bizz (app to help people meet professional people), Bumble BFF (an app dedicated to friendships). Subsequently, the application was launched in more than 7 countries, including France.
A misogynistic shareholder
As since the beginning of his life, after a success, the storm arrives. This time, the turmoil comes from the media Forbes, which published a survey in July 2019 called: “ Sex, drugs, misogyny and debauchery in Bumble’s owner’s headquarters. The accusations do not directly target Bumble, but Badoo. Over more than 3 pages of investigation, former employees describe a company that seems toxic, especially for women. Andrey Andreev appears as an eccentric and manipulative man. Whitney Wolfe, for her part, claims to have never witnessed this behavior and supports the Russian billionaire. But the scandal is resounding and the accusations made against the owner of Bumble are the exact opposite of the values conveyed by Whitney Wolfe and her application.
Andrey Andreev then sold his shares in November 2019 to an investment fund, and Whitney Wolfe was promoted to the rank of CEO of the group (including Bumble, Badoo and other sites).
Bumble’s IPO
On February 11, 2021, Whitney Wolfe officially launched Bumble’s IPO.
Bumble has half of Badoo’s monthly active users. However, its users are more inclined to pay. As of September 2020, for 12.3 million monthly active users, Bumble had almost 9% paying users. Badoo, which had 28.4 million users, meanwhile had 4.6% paying users. The company reported revenue of $417 million for the first nine months of 2020.
With this IPO, Whitney Wolfe took revenge on her past and those who were able, during her life, to humiliate and harass her. Now real role modelshe wishes to demonstrate to the women of the world that they too have a role to play in our society and that women too can create and undertake.
Whitney Wolfe’s fortune
The founder of the company Bumble becomes, following the IPO of her company, the youngest self-made billionaire in the world. Aged 31, Whitney Wolfe owns 21.54 million shares, or nearly 12% of the company’s shares. The Utah-born entrepreneur’s fortune is intrinsically linked to Bumble’s valuation. So how much is it? According to Forbesin 2021, Whitney Wolfe’s net worth is $1.6 billion. A great professional success for this entrepreneur with a journey strewn with pitfalls.
