Whitney Wolfe Herd, CEO and founder of Bumble dating app, made headlines last week for becoming the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire at age 32 after taking the company public. According to Forbes, Herd owns 21.54 million shares, equivalent to 11.6% of the company.
In addition to being the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire, she is also the youngest female CEO ever to take a company public in the U.S.
Herd launched Bumble in 2014 after leaving Tinder, where she was vice president of marketing. Her original goal was to create a social media platform targeted to teen girls but instead created Bumble, a dating app that let women make the first move, which at the time, defied usual dating norms. Two years later, Bumble began to monetize its app by offering options for in-app purchases and the rest as they say is history.
"Today, @Bumble becomes a public company," Wolfe Herd wrote on Twitter. "This is only possible thanks to the more than 1.7 billion first moves made by brave women on our app — and the pioneering women who paved the way for us in the business world. To everyone who made today possible: Thank you. #BumbleIPO"
Being the first ever self-made female billionaire, she has become an inspiration for women, especially those who work in the tech sector.
While celebrating the moment last Thursday, Wolfe Herd held her 1-year-old son, Bobby Lee in her arms.
"This is what leadership looks like," she wrote on her social media posts.
