BUMBLE'S BIG BOSS

How a former Tinder exec became a billionaire with her own revolutionary social networking and dating app...

- KEITH GORDON

On February 11, from the Bumble offices in Austin, Texas, Whitney Wolfe Herd virtually rang the bell to open the Nasdaq exchange in New York. Wearing a brilliant yellow power suit and holding her son in her arms, the young mother celebrated as yellow confetti and balloons showered down around her and her team. The entrepreneur’s company, Bumble, had just begun publicly trading, instantly making the 31-year old the youngest woman to ever bring a company public as well as the youngest self-made female billionaire on the planet.

The image of a strong, confident, female billionaire at such a significant moment was a striking sight for a financial world that has always been male-dominated. But it also served as a metaphor for Wolfe Herd’s professional and personal journey. She has upended corporate norms and stereotypes, pushed back when the status quo impeded her path, and turned one of society’s most enduring, and uneven, power dynamics into an opportunity to build a social empire that stretches from dating and friendship to professional networking.

She was the right woman, at the right time, to not simply point out problems she saw, but turn them into opportunities to both impact the world and build a thriving, extremely valuable business simultaneously.