At Blueprint we believe everyone deserves a chance to succeed irrespective of background and we were really inspired after hearing Whitney Wolfe Herd’s story, overcoming discrimination against her and becoming the youngest female self-made billionaire.
According to Bloomberg, fewer than 5% of the 500 wealthiest people in the world are self-made women. Whitney Wolfe Herd’s story could mark the beginning of a shift in attitude to today’s self-made women entrepreneurs.
At 31 years old, Whitney Wolfe Herd has become the youngest female self-made billionaire as the founder of Bumble, a business and dating connection app.
At 20, Whitney started her first business, selling tote bags made from bamboo and later set up ‘Tender Heart’, a clothing line designed to raise awareness of human trafficking and fair trade. By the time she was 22 she had joined Hatch Labs and soon transitioned to dating app Tinder’s development team. In 2014, just two years later, Whitney had left Tinder and filed a lawsuit against the company for “sexual harassment and sex discrimination”. The company denied the allegations and the lawsuit was settled outside of court.
Whitney had seen the negative side of the online dating world through Tinder and she decided to create a safer, more respectful dating platform by handing the reins to women users and as a result, Bumble was born. Bumble’s core values are those that should serve as a template for modern and established businesses alike: accountability, kindness, equality, empowerment, and growth. Seven years later, these foundations have created a business that has been a huge success in today’s digital market and paves the way for women in business globally.
Including Whitney Wolfe Herd, Forbes’ annual list of the wealthiest people in the world shows that nearly 500 new billionaires were made during the pandemic year. These ambitious entrepreneurs show us what is possible to achieve even in the most difficult time and we ask what we can do to emulate this? And how do we make the most of the situations we find ourselves in?
From Blueprint we say congratulations to Whitney Wolfe Herd, an inspiration to women in business everywhere.