Whitney Wolfe Herd

Whitney Wolfe Herd
Born	Whitney Wolfe 1 7, 1989
Birthplace	Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Entrepreneur, technology executive
Known for	Founding Bumble, co-founding Tinder
Education	Southern Methodist University (BA)
Children	2
Awards	Time 100 Most Influential People (2018)

Whitney Wolfe Herd (born July 1, 1989) is an American entrepreneur and technology executive who founded the dating and social networking platform Bumble, where she has served as chief executive officer and executive chair. Before creating Bumble, Wolfe Herd was a co-founder and vice president of marketing at Tinder, the dating application that helped popularize the "swipe" mechanic in mobile dating. Her departure from Tinder in 2014 amid a sexual harassment lawsuit drew national attention and set the stage for her founding of Bumble, a platform built on the premise that women should initiate conversations in heterosexual matches. Bumble went public in February 2021, and Wolfe Herd became one of the youngest women to take a company public in the United States. Named to Time magazine's list of the 100 Most Influential People in 2018, Wolfe Herd has become a prominent figure in the technology industry and a central voice in debates about women's safety and empowerment in online spaces.

Early Life

Whitney Wolfe was born on July 1, 1989, in Salt Lake City, Utah. She grew up in Salt Lake City before eventually relocating to Texas for her higher education. Details about her parents and family background during her childhood years are limited in publicly available sources, though her later entrepreneurial career suggests an early interest in business and social dynamics.

While still a student at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Wolfe demonstrated an entrepreneurial inclination. She launched a clothing line called Tender Heart, which was featured in the SMU student newspaper, The Daily Campus. The venture reflected her early interest in combining entrepreneurship with causes she cared about. Wolfe later moved to Los Angeles, where she became involved in the technology startup scene that would define her career.

Education

Wolfe Herd attended Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. During her time at SMU, she was active in entrepreneurial ventures, including her Tender Heart clothing line. Her college years in Dallas positioned her within Texas's growing technology and business ecosystem, a connection she would maintain when she later headquartered Bumble in Austin.

Career

Tinder

After graduating from Southern Methodist University, Wolfe became involved with Tinder in its early stages. She is credited as a co-founder of the dating application, which launched in 2012 and rapidly transformed the landscape of online dating by introducing the now-ubiquitous swipe-based matching system. At Tinder, Wolfe served as vice president of marketing and is credited with playing a significant role in growing the app's early user base, particularly through outreach to college campuses and young demographics.

In June 2014, Wolfe departed from Tinder and subsequently filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against the company and several of its executives, including co-founder Justin Mateen. The lawsuit alleged that Wolfe had been subjected to sexist remarks and harassing text messages and that her co-founder title had been stripped because, according to the suit, the company's leadership believed that having a young female co-founder "makes the company look like a joke." The case drew widespread media attention and became part of a larger national conversation about sexism and harassment in the technology industry. In November 2014, the lawsuit was settled for a reported amount of just over one million dollars, and Wolfe did not receive an admission of wrongdoing from Tinder or its parent company. The settlement included terms that prevented Wolfe from discussing certain details of the case publicly.

Founding of Bumble

Following her departure from Tinder, Wolfe initially considered stepping away from the dating app space entirely. However, she was approached by Andrey Andreev, the Russian-British entrepreneur who founded the social networking platform Badoo, about creating a new dating product. With Andreev's financial backing and technical infrastructure through Badoo's parent company, Wolfe founded Bumble in 2014 and launched the app in December of that year.

The defining feature of Bumble was its requirement that, in heterosexual matches, women must send the first message within 24 hours of matching or the connection expires. Wolfe Herd described this feature as a mechanism to shift the power dynamics of online dating and reduce the volume of unwanted or harassing messages that women frequently received on other platforms. Speaking at SXSW in 2018, Wolfe Herd stated, "What I originally wanted to do with Bumble is rewrite the Internet," attributing the company's success to its fundamental belief that women should be able to make the "first move" in romantic connections.

Bumble grew rapidly following its launch. Forbes profiled the app in 2017, describing it as "America's Fastest-Growing Dating App" and noting that Wolfe Herd had built a significant business in a relatively short period of time. The app expanded beyond dating to include modes for friendship (Bumble BFF) and professional networking (Bumble Bizz), reflecting Wolfe Herd's broader ambitions for the platform as a social networking tool rather than simply a dating application.

Wolfe Herd headquartered Bumble in Austin, Texas, and built its brand identity around themes of women's empowerment and online safety. The company's marketing positioned it as a feminist alternative in the dating app market, a framing that The New York Times explored in a 2017 profile. Vanity Fair also profiled Wolfe and the app in 2015, noting its distinctive approach to online dating.

Under Wolfe Herd's leadership, Bumble also engaged in legislative advocacy. In Texas, the company supported efforts to outlaw the sending of unsolicited sexual images, a practice commonly referred to as "cyberflashing." The state of Texas subsequently passed legislation addressing this issue, a move that Bumble publicly supported and that Wolfe Herd championed as part of the company's mission to create safer online spaces.

Bumble IPO and Public Company Leadership

On February 11, 2021, Bumble Inc. went public on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker symbol BMBL. The initial public offering was a landmark event, and Wolfe Herd, then 31 years old, became one of the youngest women to take a company public in the United States. Management Today reported that, following the IPO, Wolfe Herd became the world's youngest female self-made billionaire based on her ownership stake in the company. She held approximately 23 million shares of Bumble Inc.

Wolfe Herd served as CEO of Bumble following the IPO, guiding the company through its transition to a publicly traded entity. She later stepped away from the day-to-day CEO role before returning to the position. In May 2025, The New York Times reported on her return to running the company, noting that she had "returned to run the struggling company she founded" and said she had "a plan for getting Gen Z back." This return came amid broader challenges facing the dating app industry, including declining engagement among younger users and growing skepticism about the role of dating apps in modern life.

AI and the Future of Bumble

Following her return to the CEO role, Wolfe Herd signaled a strategic pivot toward artificial intelligence as a core component of Bumble's future. In August 2025, The Wall Street Journal reported that Wolfe Herd had "a new idea for Bumble—and all our relationships," centered on the integration of AI into the platform's matching and relationship-building features. In the same interview, Wolfe Herd made the candid admission that she "would never have swiped right on her husband," using this personal anecdote to argue that algorithmic and AI-driven matching could potentially produce better relationship outcomes than traditional swipe-based systems.

Wolfe Herd has also spoken publicly about wanting technology to address broader societal issues. Time magazine featured her in a conversation about using technology to combat loneliness, a topic she has increasingly centered in her public remarks about Bumble's mission and the future of social platforms.

Personal Life

Whitney Wolfe married Michael Herd, adopting the surname Wolfe Herd. The couple have two children. Wolfe Herd has been based in Austin, Texas, where Bumble is headquartered.

Much of Wolfe Herd's personal narrative has been shaped by her public experience with the Tinder lawsuit and its aftermath. The Washington Post noted in 2015 that she "has had quite the year" but "just can't discuss parts of it," referencing the confidentiality terms of her legal settlement with Tinder. Despite these constraints, Wolfe Herd has spoken openly about how the experience influenced both her personal outlook and her approach to building Bumble as a platform with a focus on women's safety and empowerment.

Recognition

Wolfe Herd has received significant recognition for her work in the technology industry. In 2018, Time magazine named her to its annual list of the 100 Most Influential People, placing her among a select group of business leaders, politicians, and cultural figures recognized for their global impact.

In 2014, Business Insider included Wolfe on its list of the 30 Most Important Women Under 30 in Tech, a recognition that came even as she was in the midst of her departure from Tinder and the founding of Bumble.

NPR featured Wolfe Herd in an interview discussing her career trajectory and the founding of Bumble, bringing her story to a national radio audience.

Wolfe Herd's story has also entered popular culture. In September 2025, a dramatized account of her time at Tinder and the founding of Bumble was released as the film Swiped on Hulu. Time magazine published a detailed account of "The True Story Behind Swiped, Whitney Wolfe Herd, and the Birth of Bumble," and Fortune noted that the film focused primarily on her Tinder years rather than the building of Bumble itself. Biography similarly profiled her in connection with the film, noting that she "helped launch the dating app revolution with Tinder" in 2012 before launching "a competitor: Bumble" two years later.

She has been profiled by numerous publications including The Washington Post, The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Forbes, Paper, and Grazia, among others.

Legacy

Whitney Wolfe Herd's career spans two of the most consequential developments in modern dating technology: the founding of Tinder, which mainstreamed the concept of mobile dating through swipe-based interaction, and the founding of Bumble, which introduced a model in which women initiate contact. Her trajectory from co-founding one of the most downloaded applications in the world, through a public sexual harassment lawsuit, to the creation of a competing platform that went public at a multi-billion dollar valuation has made her a frequently cited figure in discussions about women in technology, startup culture, and the intersection of feminism and business.

Bumble's "women make the first move" mechanic has been credited with shifting expectations around gender dynamics in online dating. The New York Times described Bumble in 2017 as a "feminist dating app," and the platform's approach has influenced the broader design philosophy of social applications aimed at creating safer environments for women.

Wolfe Herd's advocacy for legislation banning unsolicited sexual images in Texas represented an early example of a technology company working directly with state legislatures on issues of digital harassment, a model that has since been adopted by other companies and jurisdictions.

As of 2025, with her return to the CEO role and her focus on integrating artificial intelligence into Bumble, Wolfe Herd continues to shape the direction of the online dating industry. Her public statements about technology's potential to address loneliness and improve human connection suggest a vision for the platform that extends beyond its origins as a dating application.

References

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