Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd, 34, quits as CEO of female-friendly dating app after share price slumped 80% in two years (and now she’s enjoying private jet trips with Harry and Meghan)
Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd has stepped down from her position as CEO of the female-friendly dating app after share price slumped 80 percent in two years.
Wolfe Herd, 34, founded Bumble nearly a decade ago at the age of 24 and turned it into a billion-dollar enterprise – and she will now remain at the company as an executive chair.
The mom-of-two handed the role to seasoned tech and business executive Lidiane Jones, sending its shares down more than 8 percent in early trading on Monday.
Jones is the CEO of Salesforce-owned Slack and has held senior business roles at Microsoft where she spent more than 12 years. She will take over on January 2.
Over the years, Wolfe Herd has found herself surrounding by powerful women in her circle – including Meghan Markle, who she was seen with at a Katy Perry concert on the weekend, business behemoth Kris Jenner, and Lauren Sanchez.
Wolfe Herd, 34, founded Bumble nearly a decade ago at the age of 24 and turned it into a billion-dollar enterprise – and she will now remain at the company as an executive chair
Whitney Wolfe Herd is pictured on Saturday getting on to a private jet with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, to attend Katy Perry’s concert in Las Vegas
Bumble has over 50 million active users, according to 2023 data
‘Lidiane’s expertise and track record in product and technology is exceptional,’ said Wolfe Herd as the company looks to adopt artificial intelligence across its products.
Wolfe Herd, 34, launched the company in 2014 after an acrimonious departure from Match Group-owned rival app Tinder, which she had co-founded.
Bumble’s eponymous app stood out in the industry by allowing women to make the first move.
In the recent years, Bumble, which counts Friends, Badoo, Fruitz (for Gen Z) and Official in its portfolio of dating services, has faced pressure to grow due to unrest in some markets like the Eastern Europe and competition from larger rival Match.
Whitney is married to Michael Herd, an oil and gas heir from Texas. They met on a skiing trip in Aspen and share two children together
Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe, pictured with her husband Michael Herd, hosted her lavish 30th birthday party in Capri, Italy
The billionaire Bumble founder is pictured with Meghan Markle after watching the Katy Perry concert on Saturday
Bumble raised more than $2 billion in its initial public offering in February 2021, building on the momentum for internet-based dating services amid pandemic-led movement curbs.
At the time she rang the Nasdaq bell, Bumble topped $13 billion in valuation.
The stock value has, however, slipped four-fifth since then as those tailwinds waned.
Its stock trading was at more than $70 per share on opening day – and has fallen to below $14 since.
This is the second big executive departure this year at Bumble following the exit of President Tariq Shaukat, who stepped down after three years in the role.
‘We are incrementally negative on the news, pending greater details… we view Whitney’s departure as a near-to-midterm headwind for business operations and a negative for overall company morale,’ Evercore analysts said in a note.
Bumble is scheduled to report its third-quarter earnings on Tuesday.
Whitney is pictured with Serena Williams in 2019
She married her husband, a restaurateur who is also an heir to a Texan oil company, in an opulent fashion in Italy’s Positano back in 2017
Michael Herd and Whitney Wolfe Herd attend the 2018 Time 100 Gala
The Bumble founder (pictured top row, center) with friends, including Kris Jenner (bottom left) and Lauren Sanchez (bottom center) who is Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ fiancée
The news of her departure came just days after she was enjoying private jet trips with Harry and Meghan to watch Katy Perry’s residency performance in Las Vegas.
Whitney Wolfe Herd and her husband Michael Herd joined the Sussexes, as well as Cameron Diaz and her rocker husband Benji Madden, Zoe Saldana and Marco Perego, David Katzenberg and Stellina Bickers.
They all took the same private jet from Santa Barbara to Las Vegas on Saturday.
Whitney is married to Michael Herd, an oil and gas heir from Texas. They met on a skiing trip in Aspen and share two children together.
In 2020, he put his family’s three-home compound in Austin, Texas, on the market for $28.5 million.
Wolfe Herd has recived accolade after accolade for her work within the tech and dating app space. She was named one of Business Insider’s 30 Most Important Women Under 30 In Tech in 2014.
And in 2016, she was named as one of Elle’s Women in Tech, before receiving the recognition as Forbes 30 under 30 in 2017 and 2018.
In 2021, Wolfe Herd became the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire after taking Bumble public.
Forbes estimated her net worth at approximately $1.5 billion.
