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From experiencing toxic harassment to becoming the youngest woman CEO to take her company public as of February 2021, Whitney Wolfe Herd, Founder & CEO of Bumble, shares her career advice.
Whitney Wolfe Herd, Founder & CEO of Bumble (pictured above), has been through it all. Having experienced toxic behaviour on the internet, she founded Bumble in 2014 as a way to empower women, putting them in control of the interactions by making the first move.
Starting off with humble beginnings – no office, with four people working out of a two-bedroom apartment – she has since become the youngest woman CEO to take her company public as of February 2021. Not only has she since been named to TIME Magazine’s '100 Most Influential People' and Forbes '30 Under 30' list, she was also instrumental in helping pass a cyberflashing law in Texas in 2019 that makes sending unsolicited nude images a punishable offence.
With Bumble as a business aiming to level the playing field for women, it is no surprise that this principle is practised within as well. As a whole, 73% of the Bumble board comprises women, and the company has supported a campaign in the UK to criminalise cyberflashing alongside women's advocacy groups since 2021.
In making these strides, Herd shares five key takeaways she has picked up.
Turn your own challenges into your fuel. Early in my career, I was the target of online abuse and harassment. I lived in a perpetual state of anxiety; the internet felt like the wild west, dangerous and toxic. I knew there had to be a better way: a kinder, more respectful internet. By solving this problem for myself, I could in turn help make the online world a safer space for other women. Bumble — where bad behaviour isn’t tolerated, and where women feel empowered to make the first move — was born out of my own experience.
Except for my closest friends, not many people seemed to believe a woman-first dating app was necessary, or could succeed. I was often underestimated. But as a result, we were able to test ideas, to build, and to make Bumble better.
Know your weaknesses, and hire for them. When I founded Bumble back in 2014, we didn’t even have an office. There were four of us working out of a two-bedroom apartment, where I’d take calls from an empty bathtub. As we’ve grown, though, I’ve learned to be honest with myself about my strengths and weaknesses. I’m a marketer. I understand branding. What I’m not is a design guru, or a whiz at operations. As you build your business, look to create a diverse team of subject area experts—while being forthright about your own skills and limitations.
Throw the old rules out the window. I didn’t take the traditional founders’ route — I never took a consulting job or went to business school. My first job was not my dream job on paper, and it took me down a very different road. My career has not unfolded smoothly, or as expected. Bumble was actually born at a point when I wanted nothing to do with dating apps. Instead, I wanted to create a social network where women could exchange compliments. But then the idea became Bumble.
Over the years, the best ideas, opportunities, and even hires have come from unexpected places. We have to remind ourselves that the old rules of the working world were created by and for men, and make our own.
Don’t glorify the grind. At Bumble, we work hard — if we didn’t, we wouldn’t have been able to roll out new features, to scale, to take the company public. But we don’t glorify hustle culture. No one should sacrifice their mental health for the sake of their career. If I’m up early working through emails, I’ll carve out time in the afternoon to spend with my kids. And during the pandemic, when our mental health took such a collective hit, we instituted two company-wide weeks off a year, as well as an unlimited paid time-off policy.
Kindness is power. I’m proud of our culture at Bumble. We make sure our actions and decisions at work are aligned with our values as a platform, including honesty, inclusivity, accountability, and of course kindness. We live in a world that expects a lot of us, so asking for help is key. But remember to also offer something to others — whether that’s your time, your contacts, or even just your moral support. What you achieve matters, but how you achieve it is just as important.
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Lead image / provided
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