﻿Rise of Bumble Dating App and Whitney Wolfe Herd $BMBL
As someone who’s still single to this day (Ladies,
please take note), I’ve used a number of dating apps over the years. Some work, some don't but
none catches the eye and has more buzz these days than the Bumble dating app. The entire dating and
relationship market in the United States is dominated by industry giant, InterActiveCorp,
sometimes known as IAC. Though you might not have heard of InterActiveCorp before,
you’re probably familiar with the brands they own. They own Tinder, Match, OkCupid, Plenty Of Fish,
and many others as well. This may seem like a monopoly on the dating industry, but this video
isn’t about tech companies owning all the data in our lives (we’ll save that for another time).
Rather, this is the story about Bumble and Whitney Wolfe Herd - an underdog female entrepreneur who
cofounded Tinder, was ousted from the company and then left to build what is today the world’s
largest #1 dating app. But before we begin, if you guys enjoy videos like this, please click the LIKE
button, subscribe button and that notification bell to know when new Company Insight videos
come out each week. Thanks for doing that and now let us continue on with the Rise of Bumble video.
The Bumble Dating App – How it all Started
Bumble is a female-focused dating app that was founded in 2014 by Whitney Wolfe Herd, the former
VP of Marketing and Co-founder of Tinder and Andrey Andreev, a successful Russian billionaire
entrepreneur who was also the founder of another dating app, Badoo. Bumble was started by the
duo in December 2014, after Wolfe was forced to resign from her role as co-founder of Tinder. Her
resignation was followed by a series of lawsuits in which she sued Tinder for sexual harassment
and the case was settled with $1 million and stock in the company, but without a noncompete clause.
According to a 2015 interview with Business Insider, Wolfe was not interested in building
another dating app after Tinder but she was convinced by Andreev, whom she knew from her time
at Tinder and the rest as they say is history. What happened was one of the most extraordinary
actions of corporate revenge of all time. With no non-compete in place, Whitney essentially copied
what she had learned at Tinder, and with Andrey’s financial backing, technology and Badoo’s network,
together, they launched the strongest competitor that Tinder ever faced.
Things were going well at Bumble as they expanded their product offering from not just dating to
other product extensions in 2016 and 2017 that I’ll talk about later. During that time, they even
received an offer from Match.com to buyout the Company for $450 million that they turned down.
Wow, that must’ve been difficult as Whitney owned close to 20% of the company,
but it was the right decision looking back as you’ll find out very soon…
Business was booming – yearly sales had increased by over 35% to almost $500 million by 2019.
However, crisis hit in July 2019 where there were serious investigations into Andreev on
discrimination and misogyny, which resulted in his selling his stake in the business to investment
firm, Blackstone for US$3 billion in cash. On a side note, Forbes published a fascinating
exclusive cover on the investigation in July 2019. I recommend googling and reading that piece
if you’re interested. I’ll include a link below. The overall crisis left Whitney in charge as CEO
of the parent group companies of both Bumble and Badoo, which they rebranded as the parent company
as Bumble. User & revenue growth continued and in December 2019, the company turned profitable,
which is important for investors these days who are wary of companies without
a path to profitability like WeWork. By mid-2020, Bumble announced it had reached
the milestone of 100 million users and the Company announced an IPO for February 2021
to continue it’s expansion and growth. So What Exact is Bumble Dating App?
So now you know how Bumble came about, what exactly is it and how is it different from
other dating apps like Tinder? Bumble is a dating app where people dating can create personalized
profiles with pictures and can swipe through potential suitors. Similar to other dating app
platforms, users swipe right to “like” a profile and left to reject. And as soon as two people have
both “liked” each other's profile, it's a match. Now, what makes Bumble revolutionary and different
is that it allows only women to make the first move and send the first message.
Therefore, if the woman chooses not to send the first message within 24 hours after pairing,
then the match is lost. And the Bumble dating app only saves matches for 24 hours.
This unique twist of an idea actually came about over drinks. As described in a Forbes
2017 interview, One night, over cocktails, Whitney stumbled upon Bumble's special sauce.
"I always wanted to have a scenario where the guy didn't have my number but I had his," she recalls
telling Andreev. "What if women make the first move, send the first message? And if they don't,
the match disappears after 24 hours, like in Cinderella, the pumpkin and the carriage?
It'd be symbolic of a Sadie Hawkins dance - going after it, girls ask first. What if we could
hardwire that into a product?" It was the kind of brilliant tweak that comes from someone who
understands the target demographic because they're in it. And this became their first magic sauce.
The online dating market is ultra-competitive, and new entrants are often crushed quickly by monopoly
companies. In addition, the dating app market, especially in the US, is pretty mature so Bumble
definitely did not have a first mover advantage being a new startup. So How did bumble survive
and thrive against all odds to become one of the biggest players in the industry?
There are several reasons why they are this successful and I would love to give you more
insight into a couple of these gems. Success Factor #1 - Culture and Drive
First and most importantly, Bumble is different because it was specifically Made For Women. Their
focus on women is one of the biggest reasons why Bumble is a success. To illustrate this, the stats
that have been published online clearly show that Bumble has more females than say Tinder. According
to Bumble, the app has around 30% more women users for every male user on its system compared to the
gender balance of other competitors. According to a survey by independent researcher Ogury,
one of the biggest problems in dating apps is the massive gender imbalance amongst dating app users.
For example, the men and women gender ratio on Tinder is almost nine to one. This compares to
Bumble which has a more favorable men to women ratio of seven to three. This is one
of the most difficult things to maintain as a dating app grows. By maintaining a balance,
both men and women receive an overall better experience looking for a potential partner.
Just to give an example of their focus: In March 2019, a bill was passed in Texas to make sending
inappropriate images illegally, after several pleas from Whitney Wolfe Herd. This then allowed
Bumble to introduce their technology which removes lewd images before users can view them and blocks
any user who infringes on the right of another. On Bumble, a blocking message reads "Dear user,
It has been brought to our attention that you lost your cool on one of our female users.
Consider yourself blocked from Bumble". This is quite a unique feature that they created to solve
problems faced by the female customers they care about. By doing this, Bumble really showed that
the online dating platform has a strong commitment to empowering women of all races and colors.
Success Factor #2 0 Higher Mission & Purpose After all that she went through with Tinder,
Whitney was determined to create a better and improved dating platform
to solve two main societal issues: 1. Antiquated gender norms
2. Lack of kindness and accountability on the internet
This purpose and mission extended beyond just dating where you do not use the Bumble dating app
for only finding dates now. The app also has features for finding friends and professional
networking. Once, the app is switched to BFF or “Best Friends Forever” mode,
the user can connect with individuals of the same sex as suggested by Bumble. Also, professionals
can network with each other on the Bumble Bizz feature, which can help with career-building.
Although these are not significant revenue drivers at the moment, Bumble believes that
these new extension products will allow them to extend into other areas of their users lives
and thus be able to extend its brand and understanding of what users really want.
Thus, the versatility of Bumble with a higher mission and purpose is also a major reason for
its sustained growth and increase in users. Success Factor # 3 – Leadership
In all honesty, Whitney Wolfe Herd is simply a super incredible entrepreneur.
Nominated as #39 last year on Forbe’s list of America’s self-made women,
Whitney is clearly a role model to young females who are aspiring to own and run their businesses.
With a net worth of a cool $575 million, Whitney has single-handedly contributed more to modern
millennial dating than any other female. Now, Whitney has also become the youngest
woman at the age of 31 to take a company public on the Nasdaq stock exchange with Bumble's IPO.
Raising $1 billion, the Company is valued at approximately $6 billion. That is amazing.
Last year in 2020, only 4 of the 442 companies that went public in 2020 were run by women, which
shows the huge gender imbalance even to this day. With her achievements, Whitney has proven that she
is more than capable of building and sustaining a mega-company to the point of going public.
In a Tech Crunch interview, Cleo Capital’s Sarah Kunst, a former senior adviser to Bumble said,
“As the youngest woman to ever take a company public, Whitney has proven that dating, a category
long shunned by venture investors, is a highly lucrative and fast growing sector,” Kunst said.
“She also is at the vanguard of several dawning realizations in tech: companies founded outside
of Silicon Valley, companies founded by women, and gender parity on boards.”
Whitney has guided Bumble's rise to the top of the Industry ladder with her leadership.
There is no holding this amazing woman back! Success Factor #4 – Culture of Ownership
Finally, The in-house culture of ownership at Bumble has been instrumental to its growth.
To establish a structure of consistent growth at Bumble, Whitney started grooming her first
10 employees, so they could pass on these values to the next 100. She ensured that they all
talked about topics other than work and came over to her house on Saturdays to hang out.
This made them realize the importance of being united under a common cause. She even
mentioned how the name Bumble was coined by one of the staff in at least 3 different podcasts,
which gives insight into her amazing personality. Whitney is a great leader with enough confidence
to shine a light on her followers. She believes every staff at Bumble should be a mini-CEO.
Each person must be able to function as an independent unit,
all united to achieve a common goal. This strategy was very successful and integral
to Bumble's rise because everyone under her is a leader in their own right. If you own a startup,
it is best to emulate this culture, as embracing collective efforts over individual brilliance is
a great step to climb to the top. Conclusion
And that brings us to today. With the successful IPO, the Bumble dating app is clearly only in
the beginning inning of the next stage of the Company’s growth. As a Company’s success is
the success of its customers, Bumble has produced over 850 million matches, and 5,000 weddings and
engagements. Personally I’m a huge fan of Whitney Wolfe Herd and wish her the best success. What do
you think of Bumble? Is there anything you would have done differently in the company’s growth?
So with that said, thank you so much for watching my video. There was a significant
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it would really help out a lot. Be sure to check out some of my other videos,
like the Rise and Fall of New York and the Rise and Fall of Playboy. Thank you again
for watching and stay tuned for another episode of Company Insight next week.