Whitney Wolfe Herd Steps Down as Bumble CEO

Bumble’s founder and longtime CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd will step down from the helm, and Lidiane Jones, the CEO of workplace messaging tool Slack will take over in January. Herd will move to Executive Chair of the company.

The news comes as Bumble’s stock price has fallen over 80 percent since it went public two years ago (from $76 to below $14). The dating app is not alone. Match Group is also going through a rough period, thanks to inflation and other economic concerns. Members are dropping their subscriptions and not using paid services on the apps, causing a decline in revenue the last few quarters.

Herd supported Jones in a statement: “This move to Executive Chair gives me the ability to step forward into a new and exciting role, get back to my founder roots and bring immense passion and focus to this next chapter of growth,” According to CNN, Wolfe Herd also added that she and Jones would be “fantastic partners.”

Analysts had doubts about Herd’s direction for the company, according to Yahoo! Finance. One from Jeffries investment bank said: "Bumble has failed to execute on its vision of becoming a broader women's platform for beyond dating use cases like friendship and professional networking,” adding that how the new CEO handles this expansion will be “a key question.”

Bumble launched in 2014, and Herd created the app to be a space where women could make the first move and have more control over the process. It gained a lot of recognition and praise for its innovation and female-forward attitude. When the company went public, Herd became one of the youngest self-made female billionaires.

Dating apps, including Bumble, saw record numbers in memberships and revenue during the pandemic, but in the past year with all the economic uncertainty, people don’t want to spend money on unnecessary expenses like dating app features. App companies are also spending more on AI features, as well as on marketing and business development, including expanding in growing markets like India.

Bumble is expected to report earnings in mid-November, and Wall Street analysts projected the company’s sales will grow 19 percent from the year-ago quarter to $276.9 million. However, profits are expected to fall by 31 percent year-over-year – a significant drop, according to Refinitiv data and reported by CNN.

Jones has a deep background in technology. According to The Wall Street Journal, she has been head of Slack since late 2022, and before that, she was in various executive roles at Slack’s parent company Salesforce. She was the vice president of software product management at speaker company Sonos and before that, spent 12 years at Microsoft.

“As a woman who has spent her career in technology, it’s a gift to lean on my experience to lead a company dedicated to women and encouraging equality, integrity and kindness, all deeply personal and inspiring to me,” Jones said in a statement about her new position.