Whitney Wolfe Herd (born July 1, 1989)[1] is an American entrepreneur.She is the founder, executive chair, and formerCEO of publicly tradedBumble, an online dating platform, launched in 2014. She is a co-founder ofTinder and was previously its Vice President of Marketing.[2][3]
Herd was named as one of 2017's and 2018'sForbes30 Under 30, and, in 2018, she was named in theTime100 List.[4][5][6] In February 2021, Herd became the world's youngest female billionaire when she took Bumble public.[7] She is the youngest woman to have taken a companypublic in the United States, at age 31.[8]
Wolfe Herd was born as Whitney Wolfe inSalt Lake City,Utah, to Kelly Wolfe, who was Catholic, and Michael Wolfe, a wealthy property developer, who was Jewish.[9][10] Wolfe Herd attendedJudge Memorial Catholic High School. When she was in sixth grade, the family went on a sabbatical inParis,France.
Wolfe Herd attendedSouthern Methodist University, where she majored ininternational studies and was a member of theKappa Kappa Gamma sorority.[11][12] While in college and at the age of 20, she started a business selling bamboo tote bags to benefit areas affected by theBP oil spill. Wolfe Herd partnered with celebrity stylist Patrick Aufdenkamp to launch the non-profit organization called the "Help Us Project". The bags received national press after celebrities such asRachel Zoe andNicole Richie were photographed with them.[13][14] Soon after, she introduced a second business with Aufdenkamp called "Tender Heart", a clothing line dedicated to raising awareness around human trafficking and fair trade.[13] After graduating, Wolfe Herd traveled to Southeast Asia where she worked with orphanages.[15][16]
In 2012, at age 22, Wolfe Herd joined the startup Cardify, a project led bySean Rad through Hatch LabsIAC incubator. The project was later abandoned, but Wolfe Herd joined the development team for the dating app Tinder (previously known as MatchBox) with Rad andChris Gulczynski.[17][18][19]
Wolfe Herd became vice president of marketing for Tinder.[12][16] She was reportedly behind the name of the app, taking inspiration from the flame logo and the idea oftinder, which is easily combustible material used to start a fire.[20] She has also been credited with fueling its popularity on college campuses and growing its user base.[21][better source needed]
Wolfe Herd resigned from Tinder in April 2014 due to growing tensions with other company executives. On June 30, she filed a lawsuit against Tinder for sexual harassment.[22][23] She reportedly received more thanUS$1 million as well as stock as part of a settlement in September 2014.[12][24]
Having received online hate, Wolfe Herd started sketching out a female-only social network centered around compliments which was to be called Merci.[25] Even though she didn't want to go back to the dating industry initially, in the following months she cooperated withBadoo founderAndrey Andreev on assembling a team and developing a new female-friendly dating app. She planned to name the app Moxie, but this name was already taken.[26]
In December 2014, Wolfe Herd moved toAustin, Texas, and founded Bumble, a female-focused dating app.[23][16][27] By December 2015, the app had reached over 15 million conversations and 80 million matches.[23] After Wolfe Herd left Tinder,Andrey Andreev, founder ofBadoo, contacted her about creating a dating platform and partnered with her,[28][11][12] and the company remains majority owned by Badoo.[4]
Herd in 2016
As of November 2017, Bumble had over 22 million registered users.[29] In January 2018,CNBC reported that Badoo was seeking a sale that could value the company at about $1.5 billion.[30]
Wolfe Herd was named one ofBusiness Insider's 30 Most Important Women Under 30 In Tech in 2014.[31] In 2016, she was named as one ofElle's Women in Tech.[32] She was named toForbes 30 under 30 in 2017 and 2018.[33][5]
In December 2017, she was listed in aTechCrunch feature on 42 women succeeding in tech that year.[34]
As of September 2019, Tinder and Bumble were the first and second most popular dating apps in the U.S., with monthly user bases of 7.9 million and 5 million, respectively.[35]
In March 2019, Wolfe Herd testified before the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence committee about the prevalence of unsolicited explicit photos sent to female users on dating applications.[36]
In April 2019, Wolfe released the first print issue ofBumble Mag in partnership with Hearst.[37]
In November 2019, Bumble's parent companyMagicLab was sold to the private equity firmThe Blackstone Group, with co-founder Andreev relinquishing his entire stake in both Bumble and its sister company, Badoo. Wolfe Herd became CEO of the newly acquired MagicLab, valued at $3 billion with an estimated 75 million users, and received an ownership stake of approximately 19% of the company.[38]
In 2020, Bumble replaced MagicLab as the parent company of both Bumble and Badoo. As of 2020, Bumble has over 100 million users worldwide.[39]
In February 2021, Bumble topped $13 billion in valuation after listing shares on theNasdaq exchange.[40] Her 18-month-old son was on her hip as she rang the Nasdaq bell.[41]
In 2021, Wolfe Herd became the world's youngest female billionaire after taking Bumble public.[42]
As of May 2023, Forbes estimates her net worth at approximately $510 million.[43]
In November 2023, Wolfe Herd announced she would enter the role of executive chair in January 2024, withLidiane Jones stepping into the position of CEO of Bumble.[43][44][45]
In May 2024, Wolfe Herd suggested at the Bloomberg Tech Summit that single people might useAI dating concierges as stand-ins for themselves when contacting potential partners online.[46]
In January 2025, Bumble announced that Wolfe Herd would return as CEO in mid-March, replacing Jones, who was stepping down for personal reasons.[47]
In 2017,UK-based gay dating app Chappy was co-founded by Jack Rogers, Max Cheremkin andOllie Locke and funded primarily by Bumble and Wolfe Herd.[48] The app closed down in February 2020.[49]
In December 2013, she met oil and gas heir Michael Herd on anAspen skiing trip.[50] They married in 2017 atPositano, Italy[50][51] and have two sons, Bobby and Henry, born in 2019 and 2022, respectively.[52][53] The family lives inAustin, Texas.[51]
In June 2018, Wolfe Herd toldThe Times that she suffers fromanxiety. At that time, she traveled with a bodyguard and employed a security team after aneo-Nazi cyberattack against Bumble took place in 2017.[51]
In 2022, Forbes listed Wolfe Herd at number 33 of the top 100 "America's richest self-made women," up from number 39 in 2020.[54][55]
.jpg)
.jpg)
