In a fast-paced information cycle, a personnel change does not appear to seize our consideration, however this morning relationship app Bumble introduced a doozy: It is changing founder-CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd with Slack CEO Lidiane Jones.
Jones solely began as CEO at Slack final 12 months, changing one other founding CEO, Stewart Butterfield. Jones, whose background consists of roles at Salesforce, Microsoft and Sonos, will begin early this 12 months.
Wolfe Herd, who will function government chairman, spoke glowingly about Jones and her means to steer Bumble. “Lidiane’s experience and monitor file in merchandise and know-how is phenomenal and he or she is main the subsequent chapter of Bumble Inc. is a giant win for our firm, our prospects and our workforce,” she stated in an announcement.
Whereas Bumble now has a transparent line of succession, Slack stays in bother. Salesforce paid virtually $28 billion for the corporate on the finish of 2020. Two years later, Butterfield introduced that he would resign and that Jones could be his alternative.
Like Wolf Herd, he spoke extremely of Jones and noticed her as an ideal alternative. He described her as “pragmatic and sensible, insightful, passionate, artistic, pleasant and curious” in a Slack message asserting her promotion final 12 months.
She described her function as CEO of Slack in an interview with TechCrunch earlier this 12 months:
“I actually began this job with a contemporary perspective. How will we ship nice Slack-native experiences that contain Salesforce, versus constructing Salesforce in Slack? I wish to ensure Slack nonetheless seems like Slack,” she stated.
Jones brings a wealth of expertise within the enterprise and shopper environments. That features three years at Salesforce in numerous roles, together with head of product for Commerce Cloud, GM of Commerce Cloud and GM of Commerce Cloud, Advertising Cloud and Expertise Cloud.
Beforehand, Jones spent 13 years at Microsoft engaged on numerous merchandise together with Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Venture, Enterprise Software Virtualization, Workplace Collaboration and Azure Machine Studying. After leaving Microsoft and earlier than becoming a member of Salesforce, she spent 4 years at Sonos as VP of Product.
Based in 2014 by Wolfe Herd and different Tinder staff, Bumble was meant to be a brand new twist on relationship apps by letting ladies lead the dialog by messaging their matches first. Within the years that adopted, the corporate has taken a extra feminist and safety-oriented stance than its counterparts, implementing insurance policies that crack down on ghosting, doxing and sharing undesirable sexual images, and including options that stop unhealthy actors from spreading can disguise. of victims of their abuse.
Earlier than 2019, Bumble was majority owned by European relationship large Badoo, however Badoo founder Andrey Andreev later bought his total stake in Bumble’s dad or mum firm MagicLab and exited the corporate. Wolfe Herd, the founding father of Bumble, subsequently turned CEO of the corporate and retained her stake within the firm. That firm now consists of Bumble, Badoo and different apps equivalent to Fruitz, a relationship app it acquired in 2022, and a {couples} app, Official, in addition to a Bumble spin-out for friendships, Bumble BFF, which operates as a standalone app was launched. app this 12 months.
Wolfe Herd had just lately hinted at the place she needed to take the corporate forward of this transition, saying AI would “supercharge” love in digital matchmakers. Talking on the Code Convention final month, she talked about how AI would assist individuals discover extra suitable matches, and probably even enable customers to create their very own AI matchmakers who would discuss to different AIs to find out compatibility. It is unclear whether or not Bumble’s plans for AI will proceed in the identical approach, in mild of the brand new management, though Slack and Salesforce totally embraced AI.
The change comes at a time when the relationship app market amongst younger individuals is shedding steam. A survey of American college students from Axios discovered that 79% do not even use relationship apps as soon as a month, and 12% say they use Tinder month-to-month. Tinder is essentially the most used relationship app, however nonetheless does not have the traction it had years in the past, forcing proprietor Match Group to extend income from its paying prospects, together with via costly subscriptions equivalent to Tinder Choose’s Tinder Choose subscription. $499 per thirty days.
This altering consumer habits has additionally affected Bumble. Since its 2021 IPO priced at $43, the inventory reached over $70 on opening day however was price round $14 right now, earlier than right now’s information. The inventory is at present buying and selling round $12.67 as traders react to the announcement.
Bumble will announce its third quarter earnings tomorrow, November 7, 2023. In its newest quarter, the relationship app maker exceeded analyst expectations, with income up 19% 12 months over 12 months to $259.7 million and third-quarter forecasts consistent with Wall Road estimates.
When the brand new 12 months begins, it will likely be Jones, who has skilled a meteoric rise since late final 12 months, bringing a brand new perspective to Bumble, simply as she did when she took the helm at Slack.
