At 28, Whitney Wolfe has managed to do more in her few years of adulthood than the most clever minds can do in a lifetime.
As a philanthropist who created her own non-for-profit organisation while she was still in college, and who went on to create not one, but two, of the most successful and profitable dating apps of our time, Wolfe’s mark on the world has already landed her in the Forbes 30 under 30 list.
And though her achievements in tech have made her an official postergirl for women who have trail blazed an industry characterised by male dominance and gender inequality, the 28-year-old’s rise to the top has been one littered with hurdles.
Wolfe, who co-founded the billion-dollar juggernaut that is Tinder in 2012 at just 22, is long-credited with marketing the app to college-aged students in America before taking the company worldwide.
But in 2014, Wolfe left Tinder in a highly-publicised exit, later filing a lawsuit against the company for sexual harassment; a lawsuit that saw her reportedly receive a pay out of up to US$1 million.
A year later, in an interview with Vanity Fair, Wolfe says the stories that made headlines can speak for themselves.
“If you tell anyone the very basics—girl co-founds Tinder, girl leaves, now she starts Bumble, where only girls can talk first—it’s very easy to interpret that how you will.”