Interview: Will Whitney Wolfe Herd Make Us Fall in Love with Dating Apps Again?

It was Andrei Andrev, the head of Badoo and co-creator of Bumble. After Bumble was involved, you faced another workplace scandal. In 2019, Forbes published a survey accusing Badoo’s London headquarters of fostering a toxic, sexist work environment. He denied these allegations, but shortly after the article’s release, he sold his majority stake. It’s remarkable that you had to navigate a second high-profile case of suspected misconduct from a man in your professional life. How do you handle that now?
The reality is quite frightening. It’s the worst-case scenario. I felt deeply concerned for anyone who experienced it. I was unaware of any such allegations. Many assumed, “Whitney knows everything and is covering for him.” The truth is, I was busy managing Bumble as a standalone business in Austin. It’s not like I was present at [Badoo’s London]. I was courageously working in the office every day and interacting with those individuals. When Forbes called me, I was taken aback. It was vital for Andrei to be transparent about my personal interactions with him. Honestly, I never witnessed anything to that extent. However, I never doubted women’s accounts or anyone else’s experiences, and I communicated that. I believe these allegations surfaced years prior and were not current.

There have been numerous allegations from different periods. Correct. But I think most of this article addresses the earlier ones. I’m not trying to distance myself from anything; that’s not my intention. Reflecting on the early 2010s, we’ve all seen the images of WeWork and Uber. When you envision tech companies in 2012, do you picture a progressive office environment? I doubt it. What insights can you draw from that time? Perhaps I was merely in one specific situation, or it was a broader theme reflective of the prevalent tech culture back then.

That period was marked by significant technological optimism. Countless apps emerged, backed by incomprehensible funding, promising to tackle numerous global issues. Did you believe that back then? I certainly did. Having access to an app that allowed you to see people nearby and connect with them was revolutionary. Without such an interface, dating someone you’d never met before felt truly transformative. I could even summon an Uber black car. We were living in a remarkable era—if Gen Z is listening now, they might think, “What were these people doing? Were they living in the dark ages?” [Laughs]

Listen, I vividly recall the era before smartphones. You know where I’m leading with this. The leap in efficiency and convenience was astounding. It was hard to believe we were at the forefront of such a transformation. Achieving that level of critical mass twice is incredibly challenging; it’s often understated. Many people don’t grasp how difficult it is; they might think, “She’s just lucky, wearing yellow, and she’s blonde.”

In the subsequent Bumble phase, you experienced substantial growth during the pandemic as everyone turned to the app. It was a pivotal moment. Released in 2021, it echoed loudly, yet user growth began to taper off the following year. What do you believe contributed to that? In my opinion, the early years of running this company were defined by a quantitative approach. Phone manufacturers reached out to us early on, eager to feature our brand. They proposed pre-installing our app on every phone so that it showed up on users’ home screens, resulting in millions of downloads. I was grateful, but many questioned my approach, claiming it was the wrong way to grow. This isn’t a social network; it’s a two-sided market where one person needs to connect with someone similar. Flooding the system won’t help—just as you wouldn’t want to meet everyone on the streets of New York City, why would anyone want to do that in an app? It’s more than just a scrolling content platform. Growth skyrocketed during the pandemic and additional phases, which was welcomed as a transformational era.