Whitney Wolfe Herd, the founder of Bumble Inc, has become the youngest woman to take her company public at age 31 with the overwhelming response to her company’s Initial Public Offering(IPO) debut. Since its debut, the Bumble dating app has been in the news for the right reasons. A unique women-centric app has brought a lot of new features to empower women.
Bumble Share Soars on the Debut Day
Bumble share saw a 67% jump to $72 on the very first day on Wall Street. This share surge increased the wealth of Wolfe Herd, CEO, and founder of Bumble, to $1.5 billion. Now, Bumble is worth $13 billion.
When asked about her business journey and billionaire status in an interview with Bloomberg television, she said that she expects it will not be a rare headline In the future. She further added:
” Hopefully, it will be a norm in the future. It is the right thing to do. It is the priority for us and it should be a priority to all”
Bumble IPO success brought Wolfe Herd in a special league of women who are getting identified due to their efforts in the business area.
As per a Bloomberg report, less than 5% of women come under the category of self-made women in the World’s 500 biggest fortunes. In these rare women as well, American ladies’ share is very limited. Most of those 5% data belong to Asia. Self-made men occupy two-third of the wealth index. Wolfe is inspiring other women in the business area with her unique ideas.
Wolfe Herd started working on Bumble after observing a lot of incidents related to sexual harassment. Bumble app is a unique dating app where women initiate the process of contact.
A man has to wait until a response comes from the woman. It makes women’s beliefs strong. They feel like they are in the driving seat. Since women are the one who starts the dating process so No one can abuse/harass them.
Wolfe Journey to Men Controlled World
In the last 12 months, 559 businesses have started their IPO. Surprisingly, only two including Bumble are founded by women. It clearly shows how women are left behind in wealth creation. As per another Bloomberg report, 500 people from the whole world added $1.8 trillion to their wealth last year. Surprisingly, 91% of this wealth creation is owned by men.
Whitney has really broken so many stereotypes in her business journey. She brought an identity for women through her dating app. She helped the investors to earn a great profit. It is like she has discovered a gold mine.
Women’s harassment is one of the most common happenings in the business world. As per the survey of ‘Women who Tech”, 44% of women founders report harassment at the workplace. On third of these harassment cases come under the category of sexual harassment.
These incidents triggered Wolfe to start the Bumble dating app. It is an Austin, Texas-based company founded in 2014. She started this project after leaving Tinder, another dating app. She was the core team member in Tinder.
She faced sexual harassment in Tinder and that is why she left Tinder. Wolfe also filed a case against Tinder. Other than sexual harassment, she was given different derogatory names by other executives. She was also removed from the cofounder position due to her gender. The suit was later settled.
