Whitney Wolfe, Tinder’s co-founder, is back in the news once again and this time it is for her new venture – a revolutionary dating app in which women make the first move.
According to Wolfe, women are fairly independent in today’s world. Women work, pay their own bills and support themselves. Society has even come to honor and support this independence yet the only place where things haven’t changed is within the dating scene.
Wolfe’s vision for her revolutionary app, Bumble, is to give women a platform where they can be the first to message a man they like without appearing “desperate” or “weird.”
Wolfe was a co-founder for popular dating app, Tinder. The company fired her while she was in the middle of a breakup with Tinder’s chief marketer, Justin Mateeen. Wolfe sued the company on account of allegations that Marteen had publicly called her a “whore” and Tinder’s CEO had dismissed the issue terming her complaints “dramatic.”
The lawsuit was later settled outside of court and Wolfe managed to walk away with over one million dollars.
Wolfe aims at “changing the landscape” of dating by giving women greater control over the dating experience. According to her, in the traditional internet dating scene, women have to rummage through a massive heap of lewd and licentious messages to find someone who genuinely interests them.
In an interview with “Time” magazine, Wolfe revealed that she has always been comfortable with making the first move. However, for women who aren’t comfortable with this, Wolfe says, “He can’t say you’re desperate, because the app made you do it.”
Wolfe has great ambitions for her app. She says, “It’s not a dating app, it’s a movement.” She feels that her app could set the stage for transforming the essential way in which men and women treat each other.
Bumble was formally launched six months ago with the help of dating guru Vin DiCarlo and has around half a million users sending about 200,000 messages every day.
Wolfe claims that the company is growing at a stupendous rate of 15 percent every week.
Bumble’s funding details are not yet known. However, a major funder and Wolfe’s partner is Andrey Andreev who is the founder of a multi-billion dollar European social network, Badoo.