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Mar
Who wants to be a billionaire?
It’s Whitney Wolfe Herd
– the youngest female self-made billionaire. In fact she was born to balance numerous spinning plates.
Her business child is the dating app Bumble on which women make the first step. As we know online dating couldn’t be always fun it’s more like a rollercoaster.
As comedian Helen Hong says:
“It’s right there in the name. It’s not ‘GreatCupid’ or even ‘GoodCupid.’ It’s OkCupid.
On the other side there is the new philosophy of Bumble.
“ Bumble’s aim isn’t to change the world but to “fix” the way men and women interact when dating,
to level the playing field and give women more agency in their own relationships. I’ve seen the detriment when a woman is treated as second-tier in a two-part equation and it’s devastating. In 2014 – and today and tomorrow – I wanted to change that. So you be the judge: do you think that has the power to change the world? I’ll leave that to you.”
Whitney Wolfe Herd speaks during the 2021 Forbes 30 Under 30 Summit at Detroit Opera House on October 11, 2021 in Detroit, Michigan. /Getty Images/
In her career trajectory it could be seen that Whitney Wolfe Herd was involved on the launch of Tinder.
Then her boyfriend was Justin Mateen but in 2014 their relationship was broken and she lost her job.
Wolfe Herd took Tinder to court for sexual harassment and discrimination but the case was settled out of court.
“I think the Tinder story has been told 1,000 different ways. Eight years later, it’s still coming up and I recognise it’s part of the history, but I think there’s so much that has happened since then.”
Despite her huge success she is still surprised by the sexism in the business sphere. She is sure that Bumble is growing 60 000 users per day because it’s not toxic and discriminating dating apps.
“We’re going to change the world. This is going to revolutionise X; this is going to revolutionise Y. When a woman says that, she often is called overconfident. I’ve been beaten down in the press for saying things that insinuate that we have grand visions.”
One of the Bumble’s campaign focused to make the internet a more pleasant place.
Aileen Lee, Whitney Wolfe Herd, and Tyra Banks participate in a panel discussion during the TIME 100 Summit 2019 on April 23, 2019 in New York City. /Getty Images/
Herd says that we have all rules in the world – to stop at stop sign, to follow speed limits or any other but we have to keep physically ourselves because even our phone has the chance to hurt us.
“I’ve really never said, ‘Am I this CEO or am I that CEO?’ I’ve just tried to be true to my early intention of trying to create a safer, more empowering platform to meet people. And that’s been such a strong guiding light, it answers all the questions for me.”
It’s curious that Herd grew up among the culture of Mormonism. “I had witnessed the girls wait and the boys lead. I didn’t wake up at 15 and have a notebook sketching out Bumble, but I think I was, mentally, absorbing a lot of things that I felt were”.
Nowadays her daily schedule is fantastic: Whitney wakes up at 4:30 to check the mails and solve urgent problems from the different time zones then she goes to sleep up to 6:30.
With the meditation and mindfulness app “Headspace” she would like to calm her inner world. “I knew I was ambitious, I knew I was passionate, and that I wanted to change the world in some shape or form, but I had no idea what that might look like.”
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