Whitney Wolfe Herd (born July 1, 1989) is an American entrepreneur. She is the founder, executive chair, and former

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of publicly traded

Bumble Bumble is an online dating and networking application launched in 2014. Profiles of potential matches are displayed to users, who can "swipe left" to reject a candidate or "swipe right" to indicate interest. The app is a product of Bumble Inc., ...

, an online dating platform, launched in 2014. She is a co-founder of

Tinder Tinder is easily Combustibility and flammability, combustible material used to Firemaking, start a fire. Tinder is a finely divided, open material which will begin to glow under a shower of sparks. Air is gently wafted over the glowing tinder unt ...

and was previously its Vice President of Marketing. Herd was named as one of 2017's and 2018's ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

30 Under 30 ''Forbes'' 30 Under 30 is a set of lists published annually by ''Forbes'' magazine since 2011 consisting of 30 notable people under 30 years old in various industries. The American list consists of 600 people, with 30 selected in each of 20 sect ...

, and, in 2018, she was named in the ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

100 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standard SI prefix for a hundred is " hecto-". 100 is the b ...

List. In February 2021, Herd became the world's youngest female billionaire when she took Bumble public. She is the youngest woman to have taken a company

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

in the United States, at age 31.

Early life and education

Wolfe Herd was born as Whitney Wolfe in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

, to Kelly Wolfe, who was Catholic, and Michael Wolfe, a wealthy property developer, who was Jewish. Wolfe Herd attended

Judge Memorial Catholic High School Judge Memorial Catholic High School is a private Catholic high school located in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It is one of three high schools in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City serving students in grades nine through 12. Fou ...

. When she was in sixth grade, the family went on a sabbatical in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. Wolfe Herd attended

Southern Methodist University Southern Methodist University (SMU) is a Private university, private research university in Dallas, Texas, United States, with a satellite campus in Taos County, New Mexico. SMU was founded on April 17, 1911, by the Methodist Episcopal Church, ...

, where she majored in

international studies International relations (IR, and also referred to as international studies, international politics, or international affairs) is an academic discipline. In a broader sense, the study of IR, in addition to multilateral relations, concerns al ...

and was a member of the

Kappa Kappa Gamma Kappa Kappa Gamma (), also known simply as Kappa or KKG, is a collegiate Fraternities and sororities in North America, sorority founded at Monmouth College in Monmouth, Illinois, Monmouth, Illinois, United States. It has a membership of more than ...

sorority. While in college and at the age of 20, she started a business selling bamboo tote bags to benefit areas affected by the

BP oil spill The ''Deepwater Horizon'' oil spill was an environmental disaster off the coast of the United States in the Gulf of Mexico, on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect. It is considered the largest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum ...

. Wolfe Herd partnered with celebrity stylist Patrick Aufdenkamp to launch the non-profit organization called the "Help Us Project". The bags received national press after celebrities such as

Rachel Zoe Rachel Zoe Rosenzweig (born September 1, 1971) is an American fashion designer, businesswoman and author who rose to prominence as a celebrity wardrobe stylist. She has been credited with the creation of "the boho-meets-rock chic look that came ...

and

Nicole Richie Nicole Camille Richie (; born September 21, 1981) is an American media personality, fashion designer, and actress. She came to prominence after appearing on the reality television series ''The Simple Life'' (2003–2007), in which she starred al ...

were photographed with them. Soon after, she introduced a second business with Aufdenkamp called "Tender Heart", a clothing line dedicated to raising awareness around human trafficking and fair trade. After graduating, Wolfe Herd traveled to Southeast Asia where she worked with orphanages.

Career

Early career

In 2012, at age 22, Wolfe Herd joined the startup Cardify, a project led by

Sean Rad Sean Rad (born May 22, 1986) is an Iranian-American entrepreneur and the Founder of Tinder (app), Tinder. Rad launched Tinder in 2012 and by 2015, Tinder was the top grossing app in 99 countries, and in 2017, Tinder became the highest grossing ...

through Hatch Labs IAC incubator. The project was later abandoned, but Wolfe Herd joined the development team for the dating app Tinder (previously known as MatchBox) with Rad and Chris Gulczynski. Wolfe Herd became vice president of marketing for Tinder. She was reportedly behind the name of the app, taking inspiration from the flame logo and the idea of

tinder Tinder is easily Combustibility and flammability, combustible material used to Firemaking, start a fire. Tinder is a finely divided, open material which will begin to glow under a shower of sparks. Air is gently wafted over the glowing tinder unt ...

, which is easily combustible material used to start a fire. She has also been credited with fueling its popularity on college campuses and growing its user base. Wolfe Herd resigned from Tinder in April 2014 due to growing tensions with other company executives. On June 30, she filed a lawsuit against Tinder for sexual harassment. She reportedly received more than as well as stock as part of a settlement in September 2014. Having received online hate, Wolfe Herd started sketching out a female-only social network centered around compliments which was to be called Merci. Even though she didn't want to go back to the dating industry initially, in the following months she cooperated with

Badoo Badoo is an online dating-focused and social networking application. Founded by Andrey Andreev in 2006, Badoo originally launched as a web product. It has headquarters in London. In 2012, the app was launched in the United States and later beca ...

founder

Andrey Andreev Andrey Andreev (; born Andrey Vagnerovich Ogadzhanyants ; 3 February 1974
) is a

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

, and founded Bumble, a female-focused dating app. By December 2015, the app had reached over 15 million conversations and 80 million matches. After Wolfe Herd left Tinder,

Andrey Andreev Andrey Andreev (; born Andrey Vagnerovich Ogadzhanyants ; 3 February 1974
) is a

, contacted her about creating a dating platform and partnered with her, and the company remains majority owned by Badoo. As of November 2017, Bumble had over 22 million registered users. In January 2018,

CNBC CNBC is an American List of business news channels, business news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group, a unit of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The network broadcasts live business news and analysis programming during the morning, Day ...

reported that Badoo was seeking a sale that could value the company at about $1.5 billion. Wolfe Herd was named one of ''Business Insider's'' 30 Most Important Women Under 30 In Tech in 2014. In 2016, she was named as one of ''Elle's'' Women in Tech. She was named to ''Forbes'' 30 under 30 in 2017 and 2018. In December 2017, she was listed in a

TechCrunch TechCrunch is an American global online newspaper focusing on topics regarding high tech, high-tech and Startup company, startup companies. It was founded in June 2005 by Archimedes Ventures, led by partners Michael Arrington and Keith Teare. I ...

feature on 42 women succeeding in tech that year. As of September 2019, Tinder and Bumble were the first and second most popular dating apps in the U.S., with monthly user bases of 7.9 million and 5 million, respectively. In March 2019, Wolfe Herd testified before the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence committee about the prevalence of unsolicited explicit photos sent to female users on dating applications. In April 2019, Wolfe released the first print issue of ''Bumble Mag'' in partnership with Hearst. In November 2019, Bumble's parent company

MagicLab Andrey Andreev (; born Andrey Vagnerovich Ogadzhanyants ; 3 February 1974
) is a

The Blackstone Group Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. It was founded in 1985 as a mergers and acquisitions firm by Peter G. Peterson, Peter Peterson and Stephen A. Schwarzman, Stephen Schwarzman, who h ...

, with co-founder Andreev relinquishing his entire stake in both Bumble and its sister company, Badoo. Wolfe Herd became CEO of the newly acquired MagicLab, valued at $3 billion with an estimated 75 million users, and received an ownership stake of approximately 19% of the company. In 2020, Bumble replaced MagicLab as the parent company of both Bumble and Badoo. As of 2020, Bumble has over 100 million users worldwide. In February 2021, Bumble topped $13 billion in valuation after listing shares on the

Nasdaq The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...

exchange. Her 18-month-old son was on her hip as she rang the Nasdaq bell. In 2021, Wolfe Herd became the world's youngest female billionaire after taking Bumble public. As of May 2023, Forbes estimates her net worth at approximately $510 million. In November 2023, Wolfe Herd announced she would enter the role of executive chair in January 2024, with Lidiane Jones stepping into the position of CEO of Bumble. In May 2024, Wolfe Herd suggested at the Bloomberg Tech Summit that single people might use AI dating concierges as stand-ins for themselves when contacting potential partners online. In January 2025, Bumble announced that Wolfe Herd would return as CEO in mid-March, replacing Jones, who was stepping down for personal reasons.

Chappy

In 2017, UK-based gay dating app Chappy was co-founded by Jack Rogers, Max Cheremkin and

Ollie Locke Oliver Locke (born 20 March 1987) is an English television personality and actor from Southampton, England, known for appearing in E4's constructed reality series ''Made in Chelsea''. He has also competed in the thirteenth series of ''Celebrit ...

and funded primarily by Bumble and Wolfe Herd. The app closed down in February 2020.

Personal life

In December 2013, she met oil and gas heir Michael Herd on an

Aspen Aspen is a common name for certain tree species in the Populus sect. Populus, of the ''Populus'' (poplar) genus. Species These species are called aspens: * ''Populus adenopoda'' – Chinese aspen (China, south of ''P. tremula'') * ''Populus da ...

skiing trip. They married in 2017 at

Positano Positano ( ; in Neapolitan language, Neapolitan: () is a village and ''comune'' on the Amalfi Coast (Province of Salerno), in Campania, Italy, mainly in an enclave in the hills leading down to the coast. History The first evidence of a settle ...

, Italy and have two sons born in 2019 and 2022. The family lives in

. In June 2018, Wolfe Herd told ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' that she suffers from

anxiety Anxiety is an emotion characterised by an unpleasant state of inner wikt:turmoil, turmoil and includes feelings of dread over Anticipation, anticipated events. Anxiety is different from fear in that fear is defined as the emotional response ...

. At that time, she traveled with a bodyguard and employed a security team after a

neo-Nazi Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...

cyberattack against Bumble took place in 2017. In 2022, Forbes listed Wolfe Herd at number 33 of the top 100 "America's richest self-made women," up from number 39 in 2020.

References

External links

How I Built This: Bumble
(audio interview) {{DEFAULTSORT:Wolfe Herd, Whitney 1989 births Living people 20th-century American Jews Businesspeople from Salt Lake City American computer businesspeople Southern Methodist University alumni American technology company founders American women company founders American company founders American technology chief executives Women corporate executives American women chief executives 21st-century American Jews 20th-century American women 21st-century American women Former billionaires