Whitney Wolfe: 10 Things You Didn’t Know About the CEO of Bumble
Whitney Wolfe is a pretty amazing young woman. If you have ever used a dating app, you may have heard her name before. She is the co-creator of the most popular dating app, Tinder. She is also the founder of Bumble, which is the fourth most popular dating app. For Whitney, it was a long, sometimes painful road to get where she is today. She shows the world that even if you are down and out for a moment, you can fight and come back better than ever. If you want to know more about Whitney, what she does and what she did, read on.
Whitney’s Early Life
Whitney was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, and it is there that she grew up. Her father was a property developer and her mother was a housewife. According to Whitney, her childhood was a happy, relatively normal one. She says that having a stay at home Mom made growing up great because she always had someone there. After graduating from high school, Whitney went on to attend Southern Methodist University where she was an International Studies major.
Whitney’s First Business
Whitney started her first business when she was just 19 years old. After the BP oil spill, she started making bamboo tote bags to help those affected by the spill. She teamed up with celebrity stylist Patrick Aufdenkamp and the pair launched the non-profit organization, Help Us Project. In the beginning, her project was successful, locally. It wasn’t until celebrities Nicole Richie and Rachel Zoe were photographed with one of her bags that the organization received national press and a great deal of attention. Whitney did all of this while she was still in college.
Whitney is a Humanitarian
After Whitney found success with the Help Us Project, she wanted to continue helping people. After she graduated from college, she packed up and traveled to Southeast Asia. There, she got involved with a few local orphanages and she spent her time there working to make them better places for the children.
Teaming Up with Sean Rad
When Whitney was 22 years old, she joined a company called Hatch Labs. While working there, she became involved with a startup company called Cardify, which was lead by Sean Rad. When the project was eventually abandoned, Whitney and Sean teamed up to create the dating app, Tinder.
Whitney’s Time at Tinder
When Whitney and Sean teamed up to create Tinder, neither expected it to become the sensation that it did. They had seen dating apps come and go, succeed and fail, therefore, they didn’t expect much. According to Whitney, she is the one who came up with the name, Tinder. She says she took it from the work that she and Sean previously did with Cardify. The other people in on the Tinder project were Justin Mateen and Chris Gulzcynski. When the company got started, Whitney became the Vice President of Marketing. She is the one who gets the credit for making the dating app so popular first on college campuses and then in the mainstream.
Whitney’s Departure From Tinder
In 2014, Whitney left Tinder. She says that the reason was due to escalating tensions between herself and a few of the other company executives. After leaving the company, Whitney accused Tinder of sexual harassment. The case went to court and Whitney was awarded a $1 million settlement as well as stock in the company.
Whitney’s Comeback
After things with Tinder went south, Whitney didn’t let that keep her down. After receiving a call from Andrey Andreev, the founder of Badoo, which is a dating-focused social networking site that is very popular in foreign countries, she moved to Austin, Texas. It was there that the two created Bumble. They wanted to create a dating app that gives women more control than traditional apps. They were hoping that empowered women would like the app given that the platform is geared more towards women than most of the competing dating sites. By December 2014, the site was live. By December 2015, there were over 80 million matches made and over 15 million unique conversations on the site. No longer do women need to wait for men to ask them out. The ball is in a woman’s court thanks to Bumble.
Whitney Once Dated One of the Men Named in Her Sexual Harassment Suit
When Whitney was still at Tender, Justin Mateen, her direct superior, began pursuing her romantically. The couple dated for a short while before they began having problems. When the relationship ended, Justin started calling Whitney awful names, often right in front of CEO, Sean Rad. Mateen even went as far as to send Whitney a memo stating that she wold need to stay away from other men for at least 6 months. When all of this information was disclosed in Whitney’s lawsuit, Mateen was suspended from the company, pending further investigation.
Sexual Harassment is a Problem in the Tech Industry
Many women who work in the tech industry are thankful to Whitney for standing up for herself in the sexual harassment suit. According to recent studies, sexual harassment is a serious issue in the tech world. When Whitney took a stand, many women felt that she was taking a stand for all women who are not treated fairly in the workplace.
Whitney Wolfe’s Net Worth
The reports regarding Whitney’s net worth vary. Many reports suggest that her net worth is currently $250 million. Not too bad for a woman who once had to walk away from a $5 billion company that she helped build.
