Bumble's Vision: Empowering Women and AI's Role

Bumble's founder, Whitney Wolfe Herd, met Lidiane online and recognized her as a perfect balance to her skill sets.

### Bumble's Future: AI, Hyper-Compatibility, and Empowering Women
* 🤝 Bumble's founder, Whitney Wolfe Herd, and CEO, Lidiane Jones, met when Whitney saw Lidiane in an interview and recognized her as the **perfect balance to her skill set**.
* 👭 The transition from founder to new CEO is unique, with Whitney emphasizing the **importance of keeping the soul of the company intact** and both leaders working together to **push the mission forward**.
* 💏 Bumble's recent app relaunch focuses on giving women more control over **how they make the first move**, with a continued emphasis on **empowering women in their relationships**.
* 🧠 Bumble is exploring the use of AI, specifically generative AI, to create **hyper-compatibility for users**, with a focus on helping people find **more meaningful connections** with **fewer matches**.
* 🤖 The AI tools are designed to help users better understand themselves and improve their connections, but always with the **user in control** and **transparency about the recommendations**.
* 💔 Bumble recently faced backlash over an ad campaign, but both Whitney and Lidiane acknowledged the mistake and are **committed to learning from it and improving future campaigns**.
* 👩 The company underwent layoffs earlier in the year, with Lidiane emphasizing that the goal was to **organize the workforce to accelerate the mission and better serve customers**.
* 🌍 Whitney sees Bumble's mission as much bigger than just a dating app, aiming to use technology and innovation to **change how people treat each other** both online and offline.

- So I wanna take this back a little bit since you handed the CO
torch over to Lidiane, and of course you're still founder and executive chair now, Whitney. How did you two meet? - Well, I wish I had been on Bumble, but it was similar because actually it
had been a long search. I knew I was ready to take this next step, and it had been a decade of being... Nearly a decade of being the CEO. And I saw Lidiane online. I watched an interview
on CNBC and just said, I need to meet this woman. She is brilliant. She feels like the perfect balance to my skill sets, and the
things I'm not excellent at, she seems to be brilliant
at, I need to find her. And so I went back to the recruiters, and they're like, oh, that's impossible. That's a no-go, that's a hard no. And I said, okay, well then I
have to go through my network.

We had one mutual connection. I said, Can you please beg this
woman to just speak with me for 20 minutes? That's it. I just want
20 minutes of her time. And she graciously agreed
to get on the call with me. She was a customer, so
it was a little tricky. You felt obligated. So I'm glad it worked out. It was great. I love that. Well, there have been a lot of founder to new CEO transitions that
we've seen over the years that can get complicated. We've seen Howard Schultz with Starbucks doing a little
backseat driving lately, the Disney debacle with the two Bobs. How is it going to be different, and how is it going to
go right with you two? Well, I think first of all,
it is different for women. I think for me, it's an
honor to be entrusted by a founder that I deeply admire. But it's really important that
Whitney is successful too.

in that we keep the soul of
what she's built at the company. So it's a very different dynamic, and I was telling Emily backstage that it's been incredibly supportive. It's very interesting when you're deciding to take on a job,
especially from a founder. The founders will always say, like, of course, I'll give you all the space, but it's been the case for sure. Whitney not only is just a great resource, an incredible soul of this company, but also it's just
giving me a ton of space. So it's been phenomenal, and I can't say enough good things about how gracious you've been. - Well, and just to add onto that, thank you for those really kind words. We're in this together, and
we're not here out of ego. We are not building upon the last decade and Lidiane ushering in the next decade for anything other than
the genuine intention of pushing this mission forward. This was never meant to
be a company without soul.

Everything we've done has had the intention of really pushing women forward, giving them agency over their relationships, over their choices. That is the that's the founding principle, but that is so much of the heart and soul of Lidiane as well. And so we are doing this to really have a positive impact on the world, and we're pretty competitive. So I think we're gonna build the biggest business maybe ever run and founded by women. I think that's our goal, but we work together, not against each other and that's really exciting. - I wanna pick up on, you mentioned, of course Bumble at its core is about women, and at its core it's about women making the first move. The app relaunched recently, and now it's about doing that a little bit differently. So Lidiane, can you tell us a little bit about this app relaunch? - Just to emphasize what Whitney just said,

I came to Bumble because of its mission, because I believe there's still
a lot of room in the world for women to be empowered,
for women to take charge, and make the first move has
been the foundation of that. I think Whitney has made
the first move herself in so many ways as a great role model for women everywhere. And it was important for both of us at this next stage of the company that making the first move gave women autonomy and agency and how they do that. So we are still making the first move. Women still make the first move in Bumble, but now they get to
control how they do that. And we're gonna continue to focus in the next several years. It's all about putting the
control on women's hands, even more so in everything that we do. So we're really excited
about this evolution. It's been really rewarding to get our customers'
feedback as we navigate this. How do Gen Z's
preferences fit into this?

None of us are Gen Z on this stage, in case anyone was wondering. So how do you market to them, and how do you bring them into the app, and kind of bridge those online connections, and then take it to IRL after? - Well, she's now our expert. - Well, Bumble has always been a platform that you meet online so we can get offline. And that is still the principle of how we think about the work that we do. And that's more important for younger users than ever, for young people in general. There is just a great need for connection, for real human friendships, and love, and that's become even more important in this post-pandemic era. So our goal is to help people find real human, safe, healthy, kind connections. We are gonna continue to focus a lot of our efforts around that. And we announced yesterday that we are acquiring a company called Geneva that's really focused around making connections in communities. And again, it's all about meeting in real life.

So we're really thrilled to take more and more steps towards helping younger people find real connections in their lives. Whitney, you've talked about the loneliness epidemic. And I think taking off of what you said, Lidiane, where we're all here right now, but I think at many points in different people's lives, no matter who you're surrounded with or how busy you might be, you might still feel lonely. And I'm just curious, Whitney, if you could tell us a little bit more about what you think about that term and how Bumble fits into it as well. Yeah, so I really think we have all been a bit disconnected, largely due to technology. And so we've taken a different approach where we've said, how can we build something that, to Lidiane's point, starts online, but then really has the genuine intention of getting us offline. And so I think this is going to be so critical.

in the era of AI as well,
which we'll talk about, but it is not to drive us further apart. It is not to replace humans
with artificial intelligence or a chatbot. This is really all centered around trying to help us
reconnect with other people and find our community because loneliness, it's only going to get worse if we stay in our phones and we stay disconnected. So really we do run a
tech business with a lot of intention behind getting you offline and into the real world and
looking each other in the eyes. There's no replacement for this. You can watch from the
webinar and that's great, but us making eye contact and just seeing each other, there's just nothing better
than being really engaged with someone in the real
world, the here and now. - So I do wanna talk about AI though, 'cause you did mention that, and I think first we'll
start with some comments that you made recently just around potential dating concierges

and how one could connect to another, and maybe they could filter out our dating world for us in the future. Is that something that Bumble
has brainstormed about? I mean, there's so much potential with AI. - So just to clarify, and for the record, I've
never seen Black Mirror. I've got a lot of comments that this sounds like
a Black Mirror episode. I need to go watch it, but I do think that some
context is important here. Nothing we ever do, and I'll let Lidiane speak to this, will be in an effort to
replace human connection. So my comments around potentially an AI agent concierge of
sorts, which is not obscure-- - I mean, it sounded kind of great. - It does sound great. So the reason why it's
great is the baseline of it is hyper compatibility. I think what has bothered people, stressed people out about
this modern era of love is that people feel

that they're putting themselves out there, and they're forced to swipe through so many different profiles and engage with so many different people to maybe not even find something that's compatible. And so our efforts, and I'll turn it to you here shortly. Our efforts are really about hyper-compatibility. How do we get to know you in a way that is authentic to you, and how do we help you really find what you're looking for? So we save you time, we save you energy, we make it safer, more compatible, more desirable, and always through the lens of Bumble's values. So how do we make sure that this is not a disempowering experience, but something that can supercharge your quest to community, love, friendship. We just announced Geneva. This is an ecosystem of human connections and using technology as a bridge to build healthier and more equitable relationships. And that's really ultimately what was at the base of that.

- I wanna turn it to Lidiane,
and also keep talking about AI. You're former CEO of Slack. You've worked on a ton
of emerging technologies, cloud at Salesforce, machine
learning at Microsoft. I don't need to list your whole resume, but you know a lot. When you're thinking about Bumble and AI, what are some of the... And generative AI, just to be super clear, what are some of the
tools or additional areas that Bumble is using right
now when it comes to AI, and maybe what are some
of the near future options or added benefits that could come from using
generative AI down the line? - Yeah, I think one important
thing to think about in terms of generative AI specifically is that we're transitioning
from predictive modeling. So recommendations, personalizations, things that we're all used to
already are very predictive. You get a system to look
at your previous behaviors and determine to the best of its ability

what you're gonna like. That's what a lot of
our compatibility models are built on today. And to Whitney's point with generative AI, there's a couple of major differences. I'm gonna oversimplify, but the intent is we can
input way more information like multimodal based information. And it's no longer just predictive,
predictive to important, but not the only thing. It is also about inferences. It's able to create reasoning
behind all of this data. And so with reasoning and
a lot more information, we can completely transform our compatibility information looks like. So there's two big things
that we're looking at. One is how do we describe ourselves? We all project ourselves
in the best possible way. - AI will tell us the
best way to describe that. - Today, it's a little funny if you're trying to go on a date, if you're trying to build
your profile on Bumble, usually people ask for a
little help from their friend.

Like, okay, do you think
I really like this? Like, you kind of want a
little bit of validation. So being able to like
express yourself in a way that feels more human to
you, that not only it's okay to start with a very
optimistic view of ourselves, but we can learn with you along the way. Based on your tone of voice, based on the way you're
interacting with other people. It's a self-learning
system about who you are. And we're not gonna
do, to Whitney's point, we're not gonna make any
decisions on your behalf. We want users to always be
in control of the system. But we make you aware
that you tend to actually have a better conversation with people that are more this way instead
of the way you described it. But we're gonna help people
become better at understanding who they are so that they
can connect more confidently. And then because we're
gonna have more access

to more information and
feedback loops built in. The system of compatibility
gets completely transformed. And so we really wanna emphasize
smaller number of matches, but ones that truly,
truly feel great to you. And not just from a romantic perspective. Whitney just said that incredibly well, it's about connection in
different parts of your lives. We really think about every moment you're new into a city,
you're looking for a new job, you're new to a new job, you're a new mom. Like, there's all these phases in life that are extremely vulnerable for people, and we think we can play a
role in helping you navigate. But again, it's all about
meeting real people. At the end of the day, we
succeed if you get out there and you meet a real person,
and you make a friend, or you meet the love of your life. And that's been one of the best things about joining Bumble, it's the piles of letters
that we get from people.

who found love, who have their babies, who are planning their weddings-- - So I was gonna say, Whitney said back in the day that she used to read like a lot of the reader feedback. Is there anything that stood out to you, either of you now, like recent feedback that you've gotten of finding love that just stood out that you got excited about? - Oh gosh, this is what we do all day, sending each other love stories back and forth. The thing that has struck me as something so beautiful and it was my original hope and dream, and just to give everybody here a little background, we did announce a acquisition for Geneva, which is going to help build friendship and community out further. But we've had Bumble for friends for multiple years. So the original vision of Bumble actually, funny enough, did not start as a dating app. I wanted to start a company, it was called Mercy at the time,

where we would treat each other with kindness on the internet. I wanted to build the kindness
place online for people to find community and friends because of the toxic
behavior on the internet. And so it's been beautiful to see that original mission take
shape first through dating and then really spread through
these other communities. But the love stories that I've heard to kind of put a pin
in it, people will say, I got on Bumble, I met my
spouse, boyfriend, husband, whatever you wanna call it, and then I met my best
friends on Bumble for friends, and they all became my
bridesmaids in my Bumble wedding. And so you see this like
incredible circle of love, and I mean, the stories
have been profound. We would need six hours,
but I mean, we love this. - It sounds really validating, and I do wanna open it
up to questions soon. I just have a few more here first.

I mean, we're talking
about a lot of the changes that Bumble has been going through, and also how technology can
continue changing Bumble. I do wanna ask about one, which is that there were
layoffs earlier this year. A lot of companies, the Wall
Street Journal reported on, including a lot of tech
companies, have had layoffs. I was hoping you would
just give us a sense of what the workforce looks like and if you expect more
layoffs in the future, or if you think the company's at a good spot right now, Lidiane. One of the key things
for us, first and foremost, is going through a layoff is really hard for any
organization. Given the mission and the set of values that Whitney has built at the
company, it was really important for us to go through it in
a way that was respectful to everyone impacted. So I'm really grateful for how the values of the company has helped
us navigate a difficult time.

these last few months. But our goal is always simple, is we really wanna organize ourselves to help us accelerate achieving our mission. If we can be faster and higher quality and better responsive... More responsive to our customers, then we're set up for success and that was really the foundation of how are we right sizing ourselves to be as innovative and as fast as we can be and that was the anchor behind that. And I was very grateful to have Whitney as a sounding board as we're navigating all of this because I was so new and so she's been just a great, great support. - It's not always easy as CEO stepping in and then having kind of a layoff announcement and just navigating through that. I do wanted to open it up to questions in just a moment, but I'd be remiss if I just didn't ask about the recent ads. Not every ad campaign lands perfectly and Whitney in the beginning did a bunch of different things

to try to get attention for Bumble. There were recent anti-celibacy ads that drew up a little concern around the internet and elsewhere. Can you guys just explain
how that one happened and what you learned from that lesson? - Yeah, the intent really was we support all choices
people make, all of it. Really, that's the intent,
is that women are in control of making whatever
choices they wanna make. And we just made a mistake
in how that landed. It was not good, and we felt
really terrible about it. It was really important that
we responded in a genuine and honest way because
the mission of the company is to support women. And so we are using this
as an opportunity to learn and really focus on how are we gonna elevate not
only our marketing campaign moving forward, but our investments to make our mission shine even more. So this is why I joined this company, this is why you founded this
company, is to support women.

So when it doesn't land well with a core audience, we're trying to serve, we just gotta do much better. That's what we're focused on. - We were devastated by the way it made our customers feel, and we're going to do better next time. We made a mistake, we will learn from it, and we will overcome. - Own it and move forward. Let's open it up to questions. Do we have any in the audience? I see a gentleman in a suit over there, and then we can go to the lady in the front in blue after, thank you. - [Speaker] So if I understand correctly, your hope is to be able to use AI to create a hyper compatibility. If the machines get people together, they get married, they have children, it means that the machines will be breeding humans. Do you envision what society might look like if everybody was matched by hyper compatibility? Is it gonna cause polarization? Do you concern yourself with the end result?

- It's a good question. The way that I think about it is how do we facilitate you meeting great people? At the end of the day, it's not about machine controlling the experience. I think the point I made earlier about the user is always in control, and there's always transparency in what our machine is recommending, then we're not making decisions for people. And I think that's a very important point to be clear about. We have always focused on safety and ethical use of AI. I actually believe Bumble can be a really important voice on how AI responsibility is being set because the company has focused so much on safety for the past 10 years. So that is our focus, is that people are always in control, and our goal is that you meet great people at the end of the day, and that's gonna just differentiate in terms of where humans are. - I'd like to just make one point, machines have been connecting people.

So the number one way people meet, according to various studies, is online. So, technically speaking, this is not a very far-out concept of oh no, the phone or the computer is going to be matching us. I mean, how many of you in the audience met somebody from your phone or on the internet, did anybody? Whitney did not bring hats this time when she asked that question. I do have hats, I'm always prepared with my merch. No, so I want you to just take that in for a moment. It's the next layer of that. It's not necessarily a disruption to how we meet, it's just enhancing it, it's making it more compatible. And so everything Lidiane said will be intact as we go to this next evolution of love, but we're already meeting through the computer, through the phone, and we have been for a very long time. Good point, let's squeeze in one last question over here, a short one if you may.

- [Speaker] First, I was just gonna say, I am one of those people who did meet my husband and made the first move pre-Bumble back in the day. My question is, you're in a very cluttered category, obviously, and everyone's trying to differentiate themselves. You guys have come with a unique angle of women make the first move. How do you continue to differentiate yourself in this category? Is it storytelling? Like how do you continue to kind of lead? - For us, we've talked a bunch about this. It is still going to be about women's experiences, the foundation of what we do, but it is a combination of things, great innovation, great storytelling. One of the things that I think we haven't celebrated enough is the number of success stories that we have. We just ran a campaign for people that wanna get married in Vegas. We got hundreds of people telling their stories. We're gonna celebrate about 50 couples.

that are gonna get married. And we're just so thrilled to
get to learn their stories. So I think there's just a lot, honestly, that we can do that's unique for Bumble. - Yeah, and just to close that out, the vision for Bumble was never just to be another dating app. It was really meant to be a movement for healthy relationships. If you look at the state of relationships and love around the
world, it is not equal. If you look at how women
live in their love lives around the world, it is still a disaster. And so we have so much runway ahead of us. We have decades of work to do to really use technology,
and innovation, and AI as a component of that to really progress how we love each other and
how we treat each other. And I do believe that the vision and mission of Bumble is so much bigger than just a dating app. How can we use both innovation,
thoughtful leadership, an exceptional CEO to really
change how we treat each other,

Bumble Executives on AI in Dating Apps, Online Relationships and More | WSJ News

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The Meeting of Bumble's Founder and New CEO

Whitney met Lidiane after seeing her interview and being impressed by her complementary skills.

The transition of power is focused on maintaining the company's soul and mission, with a supportive dynamic between the founder and the new CEO.

The Bumble app relaunch is still centered on women making the first move but now offers more control and autonomy, aligning with the company's focus on empowering women.

Marketing to Gen Z and Fostering Real Connections

Bumble's focus is on facilitating genuine offline connections, which is increasingly important for young people, especially in the post-pandemic era.

The company's acquisition of Geneva and emphasis on real-life meetings highlight their commitment to helping younger users find meaningful connections.

Bumble's approach to technology is centered around combating loneliness and bringing people together in the real world, rather than replacing human interaction with AI.

Bumble's Focus on Hyper-Compatibility and AI Use

Bumble aims to enhance user experience by focusing on hyper-compatibility to save time and energy in finding meaningful connections.

The company is transitioning from predictive modeling to generative AI, allowing for more in-depth user self-expression and learning for better connection building.

Generative AI will help users describe themselves in a more human way and improve their understanding of their own preferences, ultimately aiming to help them connect more confidently.

The Evolution of Bumble and Its Impact on Relationships

Bumble is focused on creating meaningful connections in various aspects of people's lives, not just romantically.

The company's original vision of promoting kindness and building community has expanded from dating to fostering friendships and now includes plans for further community building.

Despite facing layoffs, Bumble is committed to upholding its values and mission while navigating the changes.

Bumble CEO's Response to Recent Ad Controversy

The CEO aims to accelerate the company's mission by improving quality and customer responsiveness.

The recent anti-celibacy ad campaign was a mistake that deeply affected their customers, and they are committed to learning from it.

Bumble's focus is on using AI to facilitate connections while prioritizing user control and transparency, with a strong emphasis on safety and ethical use.

The Evolution of Online Dating and Bumble's Unique Approach

Online dating is now the most common way for people to meet, gradually enhancing and not disrupting traditional methods.

Bumble differentiates itself through women-centric experiences, storytelling, and a focus on promoting healthy relationships.

The app aims to be more than just a dating platform, striving to use technology and innovation to transform how people treat each other both online and offline.