What Bumble’s IPO Means For Women in Tech
It’s not just a dating app.
We live in a male-dominated corporate society, and the technology sector is no exception. In tech, women face biases, discrimination, and prejudices that make it difficult for us to feel heard, respected, or even acknowledged at all.
Last week, tech enthusiasts all over the world watched as Bumble (BMBL) went public. The IPO made history and Whitney Wolfe Herd became the youngest female self-made billionaire.
Background
Bumble Inc is a dating platform turned general social media application. It was released in 2014 and has grown to over 100 million users. Their bright yellow interface and welcoming user platform have changed the online dating scene for the better. According to their website, Bumble’s mission is to “create empowering connections in love, life, and work” while promoting “accountability, equality, and kindness in an effort to end misogyny and rewrite archaic gender roles.”
At the end of the day, Bumble sets itself apart by focusing on respect, kindness, and safety — three points that are often overlooked in other dating platforms. On the platform, women make the first move to change the dynamics of online dating. For the first time, a massive dating platform was fighting age-old gender norms head-on.
Bumble and Whitney Wolfe Herd
I first started following Whitney Wolfe Herd a few years ago when I listened to her episode on NPR’s How I Built This podcast. I had heard about Bumble as a dating app here and there but did not know too much about it since I wasn’t looking to date. Bumble already had tens of millions of users at that point and was well on its way to changing the dating scene to be safer and more welcoming, especially for women.
When I first learned about Bumble, I really admired their mission and social good initiatives. I was even more impressed by Whitney Wolfe Herd, the founder, and CEO of Bumble. Herd was also a co-founder and the vice president of marketing at the dating giant Tinder. Tinder is a dating app that launched in 2012 that became hugely popular and commonly known as the app that singlehandedly took online dating apps mainstream. There, Herd helped to build the idea of convenient online dating from the ground up.
However, in 2014, Herd found herself under a public microscope as she sued Tinder over sexual harassment.
Over the next months, Herd was met with harsh words from a sexist industry as well as her own self-doubt and confusion. Having been through this public scandal and hearing about all that Tinder does in perpetuating the toxicities of the dating scene, she desperately wanted to make something good for the world to make up for everything toxic she built. At this time, she felt like that meant moving as far away from the online dating scene as possible.
Therefore, Herd’s journey to founding Bumble was unintentional. One day, a friend of hers suggested that she make a completely different dating app to directly combat the wrongs of Tinder. While she initially never wanted to enter the dating app scene again, she warmed up to the idea of fighting in what she believed in directly.
Thus, Bumble was born as an antithesis of Tinder and the antiquated toxic norms of dating.
Since its conception, Herd and the rest of the Bumble team have continued to expand the brand and build an empire devoted to inclusivity and leveling the playing field in the dating scene. But beyond Bumble’s impact on the culture of online dating, Bumble has also expanded to other forms of building inclusive communities online. For example, Bumble also offers Bumble Bizz and Bumble BFF, where users can network and find friends, respectively. They’ve also consistently kept up their commitment to building strong communities and helping people to support those around them.
In the crazy year that was 2020, Bumble was outwardly vocal about their commitment to the Black Lives Matter Protest and helped to support small businesses through Bumble Small Business Grants. They are aware of the world we live in and try to always do what they can to help make the world a nicer place.
Bumble’s IPO
Bumble went public with a $2.15 billion IPO on February 10, 2021, when the company was valued at $8.3 billion. Whitney Wolfe Herd is now the youngest self-made billionaire at only age 31. She is a powerful female CEO who is the face of Bumble and this IPO. She built this company from the ground up despite all of the people who told her “no.” This IPO came during a #MeToo era and a time where corporate America and the technology industry continue to be under fire for sexism.
Frankly, the lack of female representation in high-power positions and the blatant discrimination that women face when they do finally have a seat at the table is all too familiar. In fact, according to the Pew Research Center, 6% of companies in the S&P 500 have a female CEO. In big tech, Whitney Wolfe Herd is a breath of fresh air.
Herd’s journey to get to where she is today wasn’t easy. Simply put, it is difficult to change traditional social norms around sensitive topics such as gender and inclusivity when things have been the way that they are for decades. Additionally, in today’s male-dominated corporate world, women often not taken as seriously as men, even by other women.
A week ago, I came across a new LinkedIn post by Caroline Fairchild, an Editor at Large at LinkedIn News, congratulating Herd on Bumble’s IPO. Fairchild was honest in reflecting on her implicit bias in 2014 when Herd had reached out about a dating app she was building called Bumble. She felt the dating app scene was saturated and did not run anything on Herd, only to realize a year later that she was wrong in underestimating Herd. In her post, Fairchild states that she wishes she would have written about Herd back in 2014 when she got that phone call.
Why it matters
Bumble’s IPO broke records. But even more than Bumble’s impact on the world, Whitney Wolfe Herd’s story, perseverance, and fight against longstanding social norms pave a path for future women in tech everywhere. She showed us that you can overcome society’s longest-standing toxic norms and come out on top.
I have been in a committed relationship for years and have no interest in online dating. But Bumble is about so much more than online dating. On a personal level, Whitney’s story and Bumble’s success came at a pivotal time in my professional journey.
As a woman who’s only gotten recently realized my interest in tech, I quickly became very overwhelmed with all of the challenges I would face on the path that I selected. Though I had never experienced blatant discrimination, I noticed every time I was the only female in my group and was well aware that women were often underestimated in the technology sector. During the recruiting season last year, I reached a point where I had done 20 technical interviews, none of which had been with a female interviewer. When my 21st interviewer was a woman, I was beyond excited while also being appalled that this was representative of the very industry I was working so hard to make a name for myself in. As a teaching assistant in a computer science course, we are taught to encourage underrepresented groups in tech.
And as I encourage my students and those who come after me, strong female leaders like Whitney Wolfe Herd are the people who encourage me every day as I build my own path in tech.
In our times, Bumble’s IPO means much more than success and wealth for the company. It represents a safer online dating scene, fosters a world where women have a voice, and serves as the perfect case study for a tech company that balances corporate priorities and social good. And as for Whitney Wolfe Herd, she represents grace, intelligence, and leadership. Herd is a true role model for aspiring female professionals in technology.
