Bumble's Stumble | The Queen Bee | 1

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0:20Whitney Wolfe:It's May 2024. In the hours before dawn, installation crews fan out across Los Angeles and London, hanging posters for the online dating app Bumble. Above highways in Los Angeles, workers and cherry pickers rise toward massive 14-by-48-foot billboard frames. In London, crews head underground, carrying rolled-up posters into subway stations. By rush hour, these crews have hung the ads along major commuting routes. They're part of a sweeping rebrand by Bumble, which is trying to redefine how people think about online dating. and these ads are aimed squarely at people who feel burned out by it. One ad reads, You know full well a vow of celibacy is not the answer.

1:06Whitney Wolfe:Another declares, Thou shalt not give up on dating and become a nun. When Bumble debuted in 2014, it made a bold promise. Unlike other dating apps, women would make the first move. It was framed as the feminist answer to hook-up culture. And the message resonated. In 2021, Bumble's IPO exploded onto Wall Street. The stock surged on its first day of trading, pushing the company's valuation close to$14 billion. Its founder, Whitney Wolf Heard, became the youngest self-made female billionaire at just 31. But that high didn't last. Revenue growth slowed, and the stock cratered, down more than 80 % from its peak.

1:52Whitney Wolfe:Wolford lost her billionaire status and eventually stepped down as CEO. And Bumble isn't alone with these issues either. Across the dating app world, users are exhausted. People are deleting apps, skipping swipes, and opting out altogether. Some even say celibacy sounds better than suffering through one more miserable meetup. Bumble has spent months trying to adapt, but this billboard campaign with its anti-celibacy message lands with a thud. To many of Bumble's core users, particularly women, it feels like the brand is scolding the very people it once claimed to empower. Within hours, social media is flooded with outrage, including this YouTuber's incredulous reaction.

2:40Did they think we were going to see this billboard and their advertisement and be like, Oh my God, you're right. All this peace that I've been experiencing being celibate, I should just stop it. I should just go back to hookup culture and just give men my body and continue down that toxic path that I have been on. That is so insulting.

3:00Whitney Wolfe:Plenty of other creators agree. And some say they're insulted enough to dump Bumble altogether, including one TikToker who mocks the new ads. Celibacy is not the answer. I've never wanted to cancel a company more my entire life. Celibacy is actually the answer to most things. Reduce transmitted diseases? Celibacy. Reduce unplanned pregnancies? Celibacy. Protect your peace? Celibacy. Increase your safety with meeting random strangers online? Celibacy. As the backlash spreads, Bumble's top brass pulls the campaign. The billboards and the posters come down. The company offers a written apology on Instagram saying, we made a mistake, but not everyone is buying it.

3:48Whitney Wolfe:Because this isn't just about a bad ad campaign. As part of its reinvention, Bumble has made a seismic change. For the first time in its 10-year history, men can now make the first move. This means that the radical rule that defined the app, Women Go First, is gone. And that raises a much bigger question. A question that will haunt Bumble for months to come. Once you've thrown away what made you special, can you ever get it back?

4:57We'll be right back. Learn more at adobe.com slash do that with Acrobat.

5:06Whitney Wolfe:From Audible Originals, I'm David Brown, and this is Business Wars.

5:34Whitney Wolfe:So, you looking for love? Or maybe just a situationship? Or even someone who won't ghost you after three days? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, well, chances are you've tried the apps. Tinder, Hinge, OkCupid, maybe even Bumble. And if you've ever swiped through profiles or watched someone else do it, You know the drill, right? The endless profiles, carefully chosen photos, witty bios, the flicker of hope that this match might be different, and the crushing realization that it probably won't be. For millions of women, Bumble once promised something better. In 2014, 25-year-old entrepreneur Whitney Wolf launched Bumble with a simple but radical rule.

6:24Whitney Wolfe:Women make the first move. No unsolicited messages, no digital catcalling, no waiting around. If a connection was going to happen, women decided when it started. This gave women control, safety, a sense of power, something no other dating app was offering. Women responded. By 2019, it's estimated that Bumble had more than 10 million users worldwide. In 2021, Wolf Heard became the youngest woman ever to take a U.S. company public. She also became a media sensation, gracing the cover of Forbes, speaking to audiences around the world, a high-profile advocate for women's issues. But lately, to some users, Bumble looks like it's swiping left on its own principles.

7:12The app now lets men message first. The disastrous Billboard campaign seemed to suggest users just need to try harder. And more and more people are starting to wonder if Bumble and other dating apps are actually trying to help people find relationships or just keep them swiping and paying for as long as possible. Bumble still has millions of paying

7:37Whitney Wolfe:users, but whether the company can keep them and attract new ones, that's another matter. Because the app that once stood out for its unapologetically feminist approach has lost its defining feature. Bumble was revolutionary. Now it's flirting with irrelevance. But there may be one person who might be able to save it. The person who built Bumble in the first place. Whitney Wolf Hurd. This is Episode 1, The Queen Bee.

8:20Whitney Wolfe:It's July 2014 in Los Angeles. 24-year-old Whitney Wolfe wakes up in the middle of the night. Her phone is buzzing over and over again. She reaches over to her nightstand and opens Twitter. There are dozens of messages waiting for her. She's just made headlines for suing Tinder, Match.com, and their parent company, IAC. Wolfe alleges she was the victim of, quote, atrocious sexual harassment and sex discrimination during her two-year stint at Tinder. Shortly after graduating from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Wolfe co-founded Tinder and began marketing the fledgling app to college students, pushing it through sororities and fraternities until Tinder spread across campuses nationwide.

9:07Whitney Wolfe:But while the company was taking off, her personal life was unraveling. Wolfe had been dating Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen, and the pair did not prove to be a match. When the relationship ended, things unraveled fast in the office, and Wolf left the company. Two months later, she filed her lawsuit, claiming that Mateen was verbally abusive toward her. Wolf says that at a company party, her ex even called her a whore. The lawsuit claims Tinder tolerated this behavior and describes the company's culture as misogynistic. Wolf may have sued Tinder, but in calling out the alpha male startup stereotypes, she was also taking aim at something bigger, Silicon Valley's boys club.

9:53Whitney Wolfe:And now, alone in the dark, scrolling through message after message, she's seeing what happens when you challenge that system publicly. The backlash is immediate and vicious. The messages are filled with profanity and threats, an accuser of being an opportunist. Wolf takes the insults, personally, and they hit hard. A feeling of worthlessness starts to creep in. Later that day, a journalist knocks on Wolf's door. He's hoping to get an exclusive of her side of the story. Wolf doesn't open the door. Go away, I'm not talking to you. There will be more days and nights like this to come. More nasty texts, more journalists trying to get a scoop.

10:41Whitney Wolfe:Eventually, Wolf deletes her Twitter account and prepares to leave Los Angeles. But before she packs her bags, one more message comes through. This time, it's not a threat or an insult. It's an email from a Russian tech mogul named Andrei Andreev, and he has a proposition. It just so happens that Wolf has been busy hatching a plan to turn the internet into a kinder, gentler place. To do that, she'll need money, and the wealthy Russian who just slid into her inbox has plenty of it. So, they set a meeting. And when they finally sit down together, it won't go the way either of them expects.

11:30Whitney Wolfe:It's late summer 2014. With her lawsuit against Tinder still ongoing, Wolf heads to Europe to visit her sister, who's studying at a culinary school in Paris. But first she makes a side trip to London. When she arrives, she heads to a glass and steel office tower to meet with Andrei Andrive, the Russian who emailed her out of the blue. Andreev runs Badu, a dating app company popular in Europe and Latin America. He gives Wolf a tour of his company's offices, and then makes his pitch. Whitney, I love your passion and energy. I've watched what you did at Tinder, and I think you should join Badu as our chief marketing officer.

12:11Whitney Wolfe:Wolf eyes Andreev skeptically and then crosses her arms defiantly. Look, I'm not for hire. I'm starting my own company, and there's no way it's going to be in the dating space. I'm done with dating. Andrieve doesn't give up. What kind of company are you building? It's called Merci. It's a social network that's only open to women. And it will focus on positivity. My working tagline is, compliments are contagious. You should invest. Andrieve can tell she's serious. He's disappointed he can't nab Wolf for Badu, but he likes the sound of a social brand that caters to women. So instead, he suggests they keep talking.

12:57Whitney Wolfe:Over the next few days, the two take long walks together through London's parks. Wolf pitches her vision, trying to get his financial backing, while Andrieve keeps nudging her back toward the dating world. In the end, they agree to a partnership. Andrieve pledges$10 million toward Wolf's next company. He'll take a majority stake, around 79%, while Wolf will be founder and CEO with a roughly 20 % stake. By early September, as Wolf's refining her vision for her new company, she settles her lawsuit with Tinder. Tinder doesn't admit wrongdoing, but reportedly pays her$1 million. She's no longer just a marketing wunderkind.

13:42Whitney Wolfe:She's now something else, too. A woman who publicly challenged powerful men in tech and survived. And with the encouragement and financial backing of another powerful man in tech, she's about to rejoin that world. As Wolfe and Andrieve keep talking, the idea evolves. Wolfe reverses her earlier stance and decides their new company will be a dating app. Because the more she thinks about it, the more she sees the problem clearly. Every other dating app is essentially an open inbox. Signing up as a woman opens the floodgates. Anyone can message you. And what comes through that inbox can be wildly unpleasant.

14:28The idea Andreev and Wolf have hatched flips that. Women won't just be users. They'll be the ones holding the keys. They'll decide when a conversation starts, and ideally, that means fewer of the kinds of messages and experiences Wolf herself just endured after she sued Tinder. Less than six months later, in December 2014, this female-first Tinder competitor launches. It's a stunning act of corporate revenge.

15:02Whitney Wolfe:They name it Bumble.

15:08Whitney Wolfe:Almost two years later, in fall 2016 in Austin, Texas, a camera crew from The Atlantic is following CEO Whitney Wolf's every move inside Bumble's headquarters. As Wolf walks through the office, the lens catches small details like neatly stacked books with titles like Conscious Capitalism and Feminist Fight Club. The app has become a sensation since its launch, with around 7 million users worldwide. Not all of them are there to date. Some choose Bumble BFF to find friends. And the company is catching on at a key cultural moment, too. In October 2017, actress Alyssa Milano encourages women to share their stories of sexual harassment and discrimination using the hashtag MeToo, and it becomes a global movement.

15:58And it's one Whitney Wolfe, now Whitney Wolfe Heard after marrying Michael Heard, understands firsthand. In fact, her personal story is becoming deeply intertwined with Bumble's identity. In interviews and public appearances, Wolf Heard says her story is key to Bumble's core women-first mission, a platform designed to give women more control. And that mission is about to drive some major and controversial decisions. In 2017, Match Group makes multiple offers to acquire Bumble, reportedly going as high as$1 billion. Match already owns some of the biggest brands in online dating, including Tinder and OkCupid.

16:42But Bumble isn't interested and plays hard to get. After its advances are spurned, Match sues Bumble, accusing it of copying Tinder's swipe-based matching technology. Bumble fires back. Counter-suing Match, alleging Match's interest in buying Bumble was just a pretense to obtain Bumble's confidential information. Bumble frames its lawsuit as an attempt by a larger bully of a company that set on crushing a female-led rival.

17:12Whitney Wolfe:And Wolf Hurd doubles down, signing off on a bold, full-page open letter in the New York Times. It begins, Dear Match Crew, We swipe left on you. We'll never be yours. No matter the price tag, we'll never compromise our values. Bumble remains independent, and Wolf Heard remains in control. But soon, Bumble's values will be tested. In late September 2018, Christine Blasey Ford testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee, accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault. That same day, Bumble makes a striking move. It buys full-page ads in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

18:01The ads run the next day and contain just two words in bold type. Believe women. Days later, at Fortune's Most Powerful Women Summit, Wolf Heard explains the decision. You know, this is who we are. We've been taking a risk from day one. We wouldn't build a product where women must make the first move. Everybody said that was against the grain. That was against human nature. Why would you ever build a product that won't work? This is what I heard the entire time trying to build this company. And we were building this with such a mission at the helm of it that decisions to take a full page ad and say, Believe Women, on such a serious day, that speaks beyond just that day.

18:45That wasn't an opportunity for us to just market ourselves. We actually didn't want to use our logo on that. It was really a statement to say, enough is enough. WolfHerd's risk pays off. Users stick with the platform. By the end of October 2018, Bumble has 40 million users worldwide. WolfHerd has become something more than a CEO. She's a feminist icon. But in a London office building far from Bumble's Austin headquarters, a scandal is brewing. A scandal that threatens to fracture Bumble's relationship with its biggest backer. and potentially change the company's future.

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21:43Whitney Wolfe:It's summer 2019 in Austin, Texas. Whitney Wolf Hurd takes a call from her office at Bumble's headquarters. The company is five years old now and operates out of a building that looks like it's been dipped in a giant can of sunflower yellow paint. Honeycomb wall panels line the stairwells, and on the walls there are Instagram-ready neon slogans like Be Kind, spelled B-E-E, and Brains are the new beauty. The space is aggressively cheerful. But in Hurd's office, the mood is anything but. A Forbes reporter is on the line. She spent months investigating allegations of misogyny and sexual misconduct inside Badu's headquarters, the company run by Bumble's biggest investor and owner.

22:28The reporter lays out what she's found. Multiple women have told her that Badu is a toxic workplace. One former chief marketing officer says she was told to, act pretty for investors, and was even asked to give a job candidate a massage.

22:45Whitney Wolfe:The reporter asks Wolf Heard for her response. Wolf Heard pauses. Honestly, I've never seen any of the kind of toxic behavior you're describing during my visits to Badu's London office. The headline on the Forbes story is blunt. Sex, drugs, misogyny, and sleaze at the HQ of Bumble's owner. The allegations create a painful contradiction. Bumble was built on a simple promise, that women deserve safer, more respectful treatment online. Wolf Heard herself became a symbol of that promise after taking on Tinder and Silicon Valley's bro culture. But now, the company backing Bumble stands accused of the very behavior Bumble claims to fight.

23:36Whitney Wolfe:You know, at a time when there's a lot of talk about corporate values and how much they really matter, there's a big takeaway here. When your brand is built on values, your partners become part of that promise, whether you like it or not. Alignment isn't optional. If your ecosystem contradicts your mission, the market may very well pick up on it before you do. The controversy ends with Andreev selling his majority stake in the holding company that owns Bumble and Badu to the private equity giant Blackstone in a deal that values the company at$3 billion. Blackstone replaces Andreev with someone who knows all about sexism in the workplace, Whitney Wolfe Hurd.

24:21She takes over as CEO of Bumble and Badu. Five years earlier, Wolf Heard was suing her way out of Silicon Valley. Now, at just 29 years old, she's running one of the largest dating empires in the world. The promotion cements her status as more than a CEO. She's a symbol, a woman fighting for other women, willing to take hits while pushing for change. It's a powerful position to be in, but it's also a fragile one. Because in Silicon Valley and on Wall Street, power can disappear faster than it arrives. First, though, Wolf Herd and Bumble are about to make stock market history.

25:12Whitney Wolfe:It's February 2021, and Wall Street has come to Austin, Texas. Inside Bumble's headquarters, known as the Hive, representatives from NASDAQ have set up a temporary trading floor. Normally, companies ring the opening bell in New York City, but it's the middle of a global pandemic, so today, the bell is coming to Bumble. Whitney Wolf Hurd steps up to a podium. She's wearing a bright yellow pantsuit and matching heels, Bumble's signature color. Behind her, a pink neon sign reads, Make the First Move. A handful of employees and investors stand in the background, spaced six feet apart. More appear on a giant screen, Zoom-style, and just off to the side, someone is holding Wolf Heard's infant son.

25:58As cameras roll, Wolf Heard begins to speak. Her voice trembles slightly, unusual for a CEO known for her careful, polished presentations. We are humbled and grateful to be with you today, and we look forward to building the future of love, friendship, networking, and community as we chip away at archaic gender dynamics and make the internet a kinder and more accountable place. Wolf Heard finishes her remarks and then turns and scoops her baby into her arms. And for just a moment, the CEO disappears. There's just a mother and her child. Then the countdown begins. Music swells. Employees cheer.

26:40Wolf Heard stands ready.