A NEW Hollywood film tells the real-life story behind Tinder and Bumble, charting Whitney Wolfe Herd’s path from co-founding one app to creating the other.
The Hulu drama Swiped digs into the rise of Whitney Wolfe Herd, the young tech executive who went from Tinder co-founder to Bumble boss after a bitter split.
A New Hulu film shows how Whitney Wolfe Herd went from co-founding Tinder to suing its founders[/caption]
Wolfe Herd, now 36, was just 22 when she helped launch Tinder in 2012 (stock)[/caption]
British star Lily James takes the lead role, playing Wolfe Herd as she takes on Silicon Valley’s “boys’ club”[/caption]
The streaming release hit screens Friday in the US.
British star Lily James takes the lead role, playing Wolfe Herd as she takes on Silicon Valley’s “boys’ club” and fights to build her own empire.
The script is inspired by real events, including Wolfe Herd’s 2014 lawsuit against Tinder for sexual harassment and discrimination.
Court papers revealed shocking text exchanges that leaked the toxic culture inside the app’s founding team.
Those messages included Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen calling Wolfe a “psycho” and “pathetic,” while also making racist remarks about men she dated.
Tinder’s CEO at the time, Sean Rad, was also pulled into the drama, with texts showing him pushing Wolfe to resign “peacefully” as tensions boiled over.
In the film, James delivers those same lines word-for-word, giving audiences a glimpse of how the real fight unfolded behind closed doors.
But Swiped is not a documentary.
A disclaimer at the end of the movie warns viewers that the story has been “fictionalized for dramatization,” and Wolfe Herd herself did not take part due to legal restrictions.
Wolfe Herd, now 36, was just 22 when she helped launch Tinder in 2012.
She ran the app’s breakout campus marketing push, convincing sororities and fraternities to sign up, a strategy that sent Tinder viral across colleges.
But just two years later, she walked away from the company in turmoil.
After suing Tinder, Wolfe Herd reportedly secured a settlement of just over $1 million before starting over.
She then partnered with Russian tech investor Andrey Andreev, who bankrolled her new ventures, a female-first app that became Bumble.
Tinder & Bumble
Tinder
- Launched: 2012
- Co-founder: Whitney Wolfe Herd (among others)
- Concept: Swipe-based dating app, anyone can message anyone
- Notable: Wolfe Herd sued Tinder in 2014 for sexual harassment, reportedly settled for just over $1 million
Bumble
- Launched: 2014
- Founder: Whitney Wolfe Herd
- Concept: “Women message first” dating app, designed to reduce harassment
- Milestones: Wolfe became youngest woman to take a company public in 2021
- Ownership: Majority stake previously held by Andrey Andreev, sold to Blackstone in 2019
The name wasn’t her idea.
Wolfe initially pushed for “Moxie,” but the suggestion was blocked after she learned it was already taken by a soda brand.
She wasn’t thrilled with “Bumble” either, though it stuck – and ultimately defined the brand.
The film also brings Wolfe’s husband, Texas oil heir Michael Herd, into the storyline, with actor Pierson Fodé playing him on screen.
Other real figures portrayed include Rad, Mateen, and Andreev, played by Dan Stevens.
But not all characters are rooted in reality.
Myha’la plays Tisha, a fictional colleague who challenges James’ Wolfe to think about intersectionality in tech, a theme the filmmakers said they wanted to highlight for modern audiences.
The movie also invents a fiery final speech in which Wolfe confronts Andreev on stage.
In reality, Wolfe defended him when a 2019 Forbes exposé uncovered harassment and misconduct allegations at Badoo, his company that partly owned Bumble.
She told Forbes at the time that Andreev was “family” and denied seeing toxic behavior.
Months later, however, Andreev sold his stake to Blackstone following the investigation.
Despite some dramatization, Swiped stays true to key real-life events, including Wolfe’s lawsuit and her departure from Tinder.
