The success of the world’s largest online dating company Bumble was full of trauma and indomitable spirit.
In 2014, the online dating app Bumble disrupted the industry with its women-first approach, ripping apart it’s biggest competitor, Tinder. Six years down the line, Bumble is all set to go public, making it’s female founder Whitney Wolfe Herd, the youngest woman to list her company on an IPO.
On 8th January, Bumble listed itself for the initial public offering with the ticker name ‘BMBL’. With a recorded profit of $337 million between January 29 and September 30, 2020, the online dating company will appear on NASDAQ. During the lockdown when the singles largely inclined towards virtual love-hunting, Bumble experienced a profound growth surpassing it’s projected revenue.
The underwriters for Bumble’s initial public offering are Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.
The company revealed remarkable stats in its S-1 registration documents filed with Securities and Exchange Commission-
- 42 million monthly users worldwide during third quarter of 2020
- 2.4 million paid subscriptions as of September 2020
- Global presence in 150 countries.
As much the prospects appear sunny and successful for the founder and CEO of Bumble Whitney Wolfe Herd, her career and life took an unexpected turn four years ago while working with the rival company, Tinder. It won’t be unfair to say that the planted the seeds of Bumble’s origin and Herd’s flourishing career.
Whitney Wolfe Herd- The Story Of A Victorious Fight Back
Whitney began her journey in the dating world as the co-founder and Vice President of Marketing for Tinder.
During the same time began the love affair of Herd and Justin Mateen, Founder and then CMO of Tinder. The relationship hit a rough patch and ended on bitter note. Weeks later, Whitney Wolfe Herd sued Tinder with sexual harassment lawsuit accusing Mateen of called her “gold-digger” and “whore” and threatening her on text messages, the proves of which were enclosed with the lawsuit.
Quite predictably, Whitney left Tinder and Mateen was removed from the company. The lawsuit was settled for around $1 million in September 2014.
Despite the dramatic downfall of her the professional graph, Herd chose to come back stronger and fight Tinder on the battleground. As a result, Bumble was founded the same year, in 2014.
According to Whitney, the idea of a women-centric online dating app was to provide a safe space for females against sexual harassment. “I was being told the ugliest things by complete strangers, and they were having full debates about me. I wasn’t running for office. I wasn’t trying to be on a reality show. I was just a girl who left somewhere.”
The hardships after the lawsuit didn’t end here. Whitney even received death and rape threats from random strangers leading to her decision of deleting twitter account.
“I was broken,” says Whitney.
Herd not only succeeded in creating a safe space for women in virtual dating world, she also created a company that consists 70 percent women. 85 per cent of employees at Bumble are women.
