An Interview with Bumble’s Whitney Wolfe Herd
Whitney Wolfe Herd is on a mission to end misogyny all around the world.
In the past year, Wolfe Herd has testified in front of the Texas state senate to criminalize online harassment, added Serena Williams as a global advisor to Bumble and Bumble Fund co-investor, launched Bumble India with Priyanka Chopra, and more —and she’s not stopping anytime soon. By creating a space where people can ask for what they want (in love, in friendship, in business), Bumble has revolutionized what it means to be a woman in the 21st century.
Female Founders Fund spoke with Whitney about her inspiration in starting Bumble, her perspective on taking strong stances as a brand, how core values fuel the company’s mission, and her vision for the future.
You’ve had a really interesting career to date in building apps that connect people. What was your inspiration for Bumble? What inspired the idea behind having women initiate contact? Has your vision changed over time?
Very early on in my career, I saw that a lot of things were broken in the way that people treated each other online, especially as it pertained to the antiquated gender dynamics of dating. Men have always been told to chase and women have been told to wait, and that’s just wrong on so many levels. This experience inspired me and my founding partner and Bumble majority owner, Andrey Andreev, to re-engineer how people connected from the very first “hello.” By empowering women to make the first move, they have the chance to set the tone of the conversation, which leads to a more balanced and mutually respectful relationship dynamic from the start. This is important because we find that when women are empowered, everyone is empowered! When you create a space where people can ask for what they want (in love, in friendship, in business), it opens up the conversation for transparency and direct communication; everybody gets to ask for what they want, and everybody wins. We work towards a world free of misogyny where all relationships are equal. Everything we do at Bumble is driven by that mission and our values.
My vision hasn’t changed; rather, it’s evolved just as Bumble has evolved over time. Soon after Bumble launched as a dating app, I realized that women should be empowered to make the first move in every aspect of their lives, not just in dating. Today, Bumble has transitioned into an all-encompassing social network that helps people connect beyond dating through Bumble BFF (friend-finding) and Bumble Bizz (professional networking).
What were your early success tactics? How did you build awareness/spread the word? How were you able to attract your first 10,000 users?
In the beginning, we honed in on word-of-mouth and community building to launch Bumble. Our small but mighty team of four would do anything and everything to spread the word when we first launched in 2014: whether it was wearing Bumble merchandise to bars or handing out stickers at college football tailgates, we were there. We continue to utilize this field marketing tactic through our college ambassador program, which is now replicated at universities across the world. Samantha Fulgham, our Chief Creative Marketing Officer, spearheads a national and international team of thousands who are on the ground and help us spread our mission through guerilla marketing, mentorship and events. Through these field marketing tactics, we were able to convince one person to download the app, which lead to another, and then another. Today, we have more than 55 million users across the world.
What was the initial reaction to women having control of making the first move?
There was a lot of skepticism — people said no woman would ever make the first move. Over four years later, women have made over a billion first moves on Bumble. That tells us it’s working!
As a female-founded company, what are your core values, and how has that come through and changed as the company has grown?
Bumble’s core values are kindness, accountability, equality, respect and growth. These values are a part of our DNA and will continue to guide us along with our north star and mission to end misogyny and to create a kinder internet in all corners of the world. By keeping these values at the helm of everything we do, Bumble has been able to change the way people connect online. On Bumble, everyone is held accountable for their actions. We’ve banned shirtless bathroom mirror selfies, gun photos, hate speech, and we have a zero tolerance policy for any form of harassment or abuse. We’ve built Bumble with kindness, accountability, equality and respect in mind and we expect all of our users to adhere to these values when connecting with other users on our platform.
What are the ways in which you have thought about re-creating the workplace to reflect a workforce that is predominantly female? What are ways in which you think larger companies can think about this differently?
With Bumble having an 85% female workforce with a women majority C-suite, we see this as an incredible opportunity to rebuild corporate culture. One huge part of that is compensation and growth opportunities. I’ve often noticed that in many offices that are majority male or majority female, the men are quick to advocate for themselves for a higher salary or more pay bumps over time. When women fight for a higher salary, they can often feel guilty. When men fight for more pay, they feel empowered. I’ve always wanted to encourage women to go after the compensation they deserve, which is why we have a semi-annual review at Bumble that includes a mandatory open discussion about salary. This gives every employee and opportunity to advocate for themselves, and we give them the negotiating tools and the forum to do so.
We want to create a work environment where every employee is empowered to bring their authentic and creative self to work every day, and I think this can be done by prioritizing transparency and flexibility. An example of that is our special focus on flexible work from home policy, especially for working parents. We also have a private lactation suite that can be reserved and is stocked with lactation-boosting snacks and drinks in our office. I truly believe that cultivating a culture where employees are encouraged to be the best version of themselves, personally and professionally, has helped our business grow as well.
How did you think about expanding to include BumbleBizz, BumbleBFF and more recently Bumble India with Priyanka Chopra?
Expanding into friendship and professional networking was always part of the vision. Just like dating, misogyny is in issue across all kinds of relationships and we wanted to recalibrate those connections as well. Additionally, we are always listening to our users and we quickly learned that there was a demand for a features that allowed users to find connections beyond just dating. That made it a very natural transition for us to evolve into an all-encompassing social networking platform.
Last year, I sat next to Priyanka during the BumbleBizz launch dinner in NYC, and that was when we got to connect on the idea of introducing Bumble to India. As we embarked on our journey into India, Prinayka has been an incredible advisor and partner in helping us understand how the experience of being on Bumble can be translated in a culturally thoughtful way for India and also how women in India and beyond want to be empowered and safe while connecting with people online.
What does a typical day in the life look like for you?
Every day is so different! In the office, I work closely with the leadership team to make sure that we are always unified and aligned while we are all working hard to propel our mission to end misogyny all around the world. When I’m not at the office, I’m often traveling for business meetings or speaking at events and conferences on behalf of Bumble. As a fun example of a not-so-average day at work, I recently testified in front of the Texas state senate for a bill we’re supporting that makes the sending of unsolicited lewd photos a punishable crime.
More recently, as a brand, you’ve taken stances that could be considered political in choosing not to show images of guns on the app, publicly donating to Planned Parenthood, and lobbying against nude photos and harassment online. It’s clear you view Bumble as bigger than a company, as a real agent for change. What is your POV on companies taking political stances on topics? What can you share with other founders looking to do the same?
As a mission-driven company, we’ve definitely taken strong stances on issues that may not necessarily resonate with everyone. Our decision to ban images of guns is a great example of that. Bumble strives to create and maintain a safe and secure platform that both women and men feel comfortable using, and weapons don’t send that message. That’s not a political issue, it’s a safety issue.
When I came across a statistic that stated 1 in 3 women receive an unsolicited lewd photo online, I knew that something had to be done to correct this. In response to this problem, we worked to file a Texas bill that outlaws sending unsolicited lewd images online and recently introduced “Private Detective,” a new feature that automatically detects and blurs inappropriate images on Bumble. There is absolutely no reason the digital space shouldn’t hold people accountable the way the physical world does. All of our decisions, both big and small, are made with our mission and values in mind. Even after we announced these decisions, which some have said to be polarizing, we’ve seen incredible growth in business with over 55 million users in 150 countries and demand from users in new markets (Bumble recently launched in Philippines and Bali). I want this to be an inspiration for other founders out there that they can build something mission-driven and still be successful. They can take the right approach and still win and thrive.
What is exciting to you about the potential to use Bumble as a platform to drive social change?
I’m a firm believer that just as hate can spread hate, kindness spreads love. By creating a platform like Bumble that’s rooted in kindness and respect, it’s been so exciting to see this ripple effect of change in the way that people are connecting online.
This momentum of change and growth at Bumble has allowed us to collaborate with amazing partners and organizations that align with our mission of empowerment. For example, last year we donated donating nearly $1 million to like-minded nonprofit organizations, including Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN), March for Our Lives, American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), Running Start and more. As Bumble’s digital and physical footprint grows, we will continue to prioritize social consciousness.
Most recently, we announced our Moves Making Impact initiative. Now, everytime a woman makes the first move on Bumble, we’ll donate funding to a woman creating a positive change in their community. We’ve already had a billion first moves so now we want to make those first moves worth even more.
How are you thinking about the future of the company? Where do you see the brand going?
In the short-term we will continue to offer new product features based on user feedback, and we are continuously looking for ways to innovate in the social networking space. We will focus on evolving the user profile, enhancing customization tools and continuing our investment in safety. As our digital and physical footprint grows, we have a vested interest of introducing Bumble to new communities globally in a culturally respectful way. In the long term, we look forward to continuing our mission in holding people accountable for their actions online. As we move forward, we will continue to ask our users and society to rethink the gender dynamics in relationships, to challenge them, and to embrace equality while encouraging meaningful connections. Bumble will continue to grow and evolve into new spaces for the brand.
Why did you start the Bumble Fund? Why invest in female founders?
The stats on venture funding for women is staggeringly low — female entrepreneurs only get 2% of venture funding. For black, Latinx, and other women from underrepresented groups, the number drops even lower. Bumble is a tech company founded with equality in mind with an 85% female workforce. Naturally, we wanted to be a part of the solution to help those women largely ignored by the existing venture capital establishments. Most recently, we welcomed Serena Williams as not only a global advisor to Bumble but also a co-investor for Bumble Fund, and we are so thrilled to have her join our efforts to help build a bigger table for women in business. Our aim is to be another voice calling out for more investment in women-owned businesses and encourage others to take part in bringing amazing women entrepreneurs into the heavily-skewed venture capital ecosystem.
No one knows this better than the team at Female Founders Fund: women in business have come a long way, but we still have a long way to go. It’s more important now than ever for women to build each other up, and that’s why we’re continuing our efforts to grow Bumble Fund as well as introducing new product features such as “Women in Bizz.” Through this new feature, available now in Bumble Bizz, women have the option to limit their professional networking exclusively to other women. The want women on Bumble Bizz to use this feature to help foster each others’ development and build a bigger table
Who are the leaders/CEOs that inspire you?
Well, there’s no denying that Anu Duggal has been an inspiration to all of us at Bumble so have to start there for sure!
My founding partner and Bumble majority owner, Andrey Andreev continues to be an inspiration. He has an incredible mind for building tech platforms and he was one of the few that believed in me when no one else did.
Serena Williams is an undeniable inspiration too. Partnering with her has been a dream of mine since we launched Bumble in 2014. She is one of the most inspiring women in history and a shining example of someone making the first move in all facets of her life. She is a role model, a mom, an entrepreneur and a fierce athlete. She is the epitome of strength, integrity, kindness, empowerment and everything Bumble stands for.
Tyler Haney (Founder and CEO of Outdoor Voices), Sallie Krawcheck (CEO and co-founder Ellevest, and Emily Weiss (Founder of Glossier) are also among many women leaders that inspire me.
