“Defined by no man, you are your own story,
blazing through the world, turning history into herstory.
And when they dare to tell you about
all the things you cannot be,
you smile and tell them,
“I am both war and woman and you cannot stop me”
Women entrepreneurs do not merely contribute to the global economy, but they make the world a better place with their extraordinary growth mindset, larger-than-life creativity and compassion. Fighting against all odds is indeed in the DNA of every woman but unfortunately, not every woman does realize the same. Those who end up realizing the same, nothing in this world that can stop them from wearing the crown they deserve and Whitney Wolfe Herd is certainly one of those women entrepreneurs.
Whitney Wolfe Herd (Founder of Bumble) simply aimed to disrupt the dating dynamics and since then there has been no looking back. Bumble is one such dating app that empowers women to make the first dating initiative. With staggering 22 million users and counting, Bumble is undisputedly giving the tough competition to its biggest competitor Tinder which was interestingly co-founded by none and other than Whitney Wolfe Herd herself.
When she encountered utmost disgusting sexual harassment experiences at hands of her ex-boyfriend Justin Mateen who was also her ex-boss in Tinder, she did not think twice before suing him. She alleged that he labelled her as “gold digger” and “whore” along with threatening her with derogatory text messages. It is perhaps her poise amidst all the ugly noises that helped her further cement her reputation as an entrepreneur. When casual abuses turned into serious threats of murder and rape, she deactivated her account on Twitter and succumbed to panic attacks and Paranoia followed shortly.
The bad blood between them finally resulted in the suspension followed by the resignation of Justin Mateen. The suit was settled in no time with a sum of around $1 million. Reckoned as the youngest billionaire self-made woman entrepreneurs, she decided to start afresh rather than lamenting on her fate. She commented once “I just don’t harbor resentment toward anything or anywhere or anyone — I’m too busy,”.
The gutsy entrepreneur did not hesitate in turning down a whopping $450 million buyout offer that came from Match Group. There are no qualms that her experience and expertise as a vice president of marketing and co-founder at Tinder proved to be her biggest strengths while laying the foundation of Bumble.
While she was on her emotional patchwork journey, she brainstormed over a woman-only social network named “Merci” focused on Positivity devoid of compliments related to physicality. However, Andrey Andreev (Founder of Badoo) whom she had met during the dinner in the year 2013, encouraged her to leverage her forte revolving around dating. After much brainstorming, the Bumble went live in 2014 with 1,00,000 downloads during its first month itself. Aiming to make the entire dating experience as pleasant as it can be, Bumble continues to remain engaged in enhancing the quality of dating by empowering women. With intriguing Honeycomb branding, Bumble does not believe in resting on its laurels and its counterparts are undisputedly tracking the strategies closely.
Her demure personality and clarity of her goals by avoiding drama worked perfectly in her favour by further strengthening her corporate image. At the age of 31, when she decided to take her company public, she became the youngest self-made billionaire across the globe.
Her inspiring story proves that there is no best revenge than massive success. She persuades entrepreneurs to not take themselves “Too seriously” as she values striking a perfect work/life balance. From being a victim of sexual harassment to become a role model for women entrepreneurs, Whitney Wolfe Herd is one such rare women entrepreneur who has truly come a long way.
“The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me?”
