Bumble Founder Whitney Wolfe Herd Explains Decision to Take Company Private

Bumble cofounder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd said on Tuesday a sale of her 12-year-old dating app was important for the “for the longevity of Bumble’s mission” given the way the public markets had treated the company, whose stock had dropped to near $2.

Herd said she would “disassociate” watching the stock price but was newly optimistic about Bumble’s future after new tech investment firm Ithaca Holdings agreed to take the company private in a $1.3 billion deal announced earlier this month.

“I felt like I was stuck under a wave for like five years,” she said at The Information’s WTF Summit, in her first interview since Bumble agreed to a sale. “But now I’m on the beach.”

Herd said she expected the company to take advantage of AI to modernize a product she said had become disconnected from the “revolutionary technology at the tips of your fingers today,” such as Anthropic’s Claude. She said Bumble could use AI to introduce more people to relevant events and groups of people, feeding what she termed as an “absolute craving of meeting people out in the world again.”

As part of the deal, Wolfe Herd will step down as CEO, ceding the role to Ithaca Holdings founders Ravi Gupta, a former Sequoia Capital general partner, and former Meta Platforms executive John Hegeman, who will serve as co-CEOs. Wolfe Herd, who founded the company in 2014 with the unique feature that women would send the first message to a potential date, said she will remain involved and an “active shareholder.” She said she plans to continue being involved in the brand. “I’m not a technologist,” she said. “This is not my area of expertise. Like, you want me to build you a brand? Call me. I got you.”

Wolfe Herd abstained from voting on the deal, which was unanimously approved by the rest of Bumble’s board. Still, she was optimistic about the sale, which she described as “the best outcome for the way the public markets were viewing our business.” Bumble went public in 2021 at a roughly $14 billion valuation. Its market cap has since sunk to less than $1 billion amid a decline in revenue and a drop in paying users.

As for why the company has struggled in recent years, Wolfe Herd blamed fatigue among users in their 20s and 30s, who she said have just gotten “really, really overexposed to technology.”

But she maintained there is still demand for dating apps, even as the broader industry has struggled. “Fundamentally speaking, the demand for love and connection I would argue is stronger today than when I started the company,” she said.

The company has been making changes to its core features. Earlier this year, the company announced it was rethinking its core swipe feature (Wolfe Herd said “swipe is still breathing” though suggested it is being rethought) and introducing a new AI assistant called Bee that would help with the matchmaking process. According to Wolfe Herd, the company will also focus on using AI to improve the quality of suggested matches and for improving safety on the platform.

“This can be a company that outlives me and that’s why I’ve hung on so long. And I don’t say that in some weird, delusional founder narrative,” she explained. “I just really do believe in this.”