With the initial public offering of her Bumble dating app, Whitney Wolfe Herd just became the youngest self-made female billionaire in the world, and she did so after ending some uncomfortable relationships.
After leaving Tinder, where she had sued her fellow co-founders for sexual harassment and sexism, the 31-year-old chief executive founded Bumble as a female-focused app in 2014. Wolfe Herd alleged that co-founder Justin Mateen repeatedly called her a “whore” after a relationship gone sour.
“According to Wolfe’s explosive complaint, Ex-Tinder CEO Sean Rad likewise subjected Wolfe Herd to “a torrent of horribly sexist, racist, and generally offensive tweets, emails and text messages.
Those included Rad’s allegedly texting Wolfe Herd a drawing of the initials “BD” of his billionaire boss Barry Diller to shape a “d-k pic,” sources at the time told The Post. The suit was reportedly settled for more than $1 million, even though Mateen and Rad left shortly after, with Tinder denying any wrongdoing.
Wolfe also said that she was stripped of her Tinder co-founder title after Mateen said that she had a female co-founder “makes the business seem like a joke” and “devalues” the comp.
The irony of the last alleged statement is rich: Bumble’s valuation swelled to $8.7 billion on Friday after the stock of the company jumped 63 percent to $70.31 in its market debut on Thursday. The 21.5 million Bumble shares of Wolfe Herd, equivalent to a 12 percent stake, are now worth over $1.5 billion, making Wolfe Herd, according to Forbes, the youngest self-made woman billionaire in the world.
