Whitney Wolfe Herd, CEO and founder of Bumble dating app, made global headlines earlier this week for becoming the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire after taking the company public. Forbes reports that when the word his newsstands, shares for the dating app began soaring.
By the end of Thursday, the businesswoman’s almost 12% share in the company was estimated to be worth a cool $1.5 billion. At the time, the Bumble stock closed at $70.55. Now, not only is Wolfe Herd the youngest self-made female billionaire in the world, but she’s also the youngest female CEO to go public with a company, at least in the U.S.
Wolfe Herd was originally an executive at Tinder, a similar-style dating app, though she eventually left in order to take her former employer and boyfriend, Justin Mateen, to court for sexual harassment. At the time, Wolfe Herd claimed Mateen had sent her a variety of threatening and disparaging messages. She added that Mateen relinquished her co-founder title when things went sour. Though Mateen denied the allegations, the lawsuit was eventually discreetly settled out of the public eye.
However, the experienced prompted Wolfe Herd to start Bumble in 2014, which allows women to make the first move in-app. She worked alongside Russian billionaire Andrey Andreev, who had experience developing similar dating apps in Europe and Latin America. However, Andreev later left the company after a report was released in November 2019 alleging he was responsible for a sexist workplace environment, amongst other things. The scandal was considered especially controversial given Bumble’s female-empowering motto.
After Bumble became a publicly traded company on NASDAQ, Wolfe Herd took to Twitter to celebrate the accomplishment. She took it as a moment to thank the app’s female users, writing, “This is only possible thanks to the more than 1.7 billion first moves many by brave women on our app.” Wolfe Herd also acknowledged fellow businesswomen who paved the way for her success. “To everyone who made today possible,” she continued, “Thank you.”
Wolfe Herd also shared a series of clips to her Instagram feed showing how she celebrated the moment with her company. However, according to PEOPLE Magazine, the moment included one very special guest – her 1-year old son Bobby Lee “Bo” Herd II. In one video, the businesswoman pushed a button and signed her name while yellow confetti and balloons rained down on her. Her infant was held closely on her hip. The video has been liked over 32,000 times. “This is what leadership looks like,” Bumble later wrote on their official Twitter page while sharing a GIF from the special moment.
Wolfe Herd has been married to oil heir Michael Herd since 2017. The couple originally met in 2013 during an Aspen ski trip. Their son was born in 2019, the same year in which Wolfe Herd announced a variety of parental benefits for Bumble employees, such as paid leave, flexible hours, and bonuses.
Source: Forbes, PEOPLE Magazine,