Shopping bag.

“In my personal life I’m so confident, but when it came to dating I always felt like a piece of meat, which became this weird, back handed, never ending cycle of bad. So I wanted to create a platform that says BS on that expectation.”

When it comes to the app—which Wolfe launched in 2014 after co-founding and leaving her biggest competition, the hugely recognized and often criticized Tinder—Wolfe’s message is clear: women have all the power. Bumble is, in essence, the same dating app that you’ve used before, except that women can send a message first (and she only has 24 hours to do so). Consider it the same as spotting a cute guy in a bar (or hiking Runyon Canyon, surfing in Tulum, or making you an almond milk cappuccino at your local coffee shop), locking eyes with him, smiling, and having the confidence—or in this case, the easy tool— to go up and say “hi” first. “When I started the app, my objective was—and still is—to make women feel comfortable and confident. I didn’t like that our society works to make women feel powerful and confident in the workplace and in their daily lives, but when it comes to dating and relationships, the message is that they shouldn’t be too forward or sleep around or approach dating the same way that men can,” explains Wolfe. “It creates this unfortunate and destructive society, not only for millennials, but for the whole dating community. So that was my big issue with it. In my personal life I’m so confident, but when it came to dating I always felt like a piece of meat, which became this weird, back handed, never ending cycle of bad. So I wanted to create a platform that says BS on that expectation.”

Hence, Bumble was born. While Wolfe drew on her experiences from her time at Tinder to create the app, she also looked back to her own relationship dramas. “I’m extremely fortunate in the fact that I have a wonderful boyfriend who is very pro-women, and is all about women being treated with respect,” says Wolfe. The pair met the old fashioned way though, when he clipped the back of her ski’s while the pair were skiing in Aspen. “He had a lot to do with the psychology of Bumble and taught me how screwed up some of my past relationships were,” explains Wolfe. “I know from first hand experiences and the emails I now get, that women weren’t receiving the same treatment in the dating game as men.”