The Evolution of the Entrepreneur with Bumble’s Whitney Wolfe Herd

**Whitney Wolfe Herd** (0:01)
The one thing you can never get back is your precious time. And the amount of time, Meg, that I wasted on being stressed, being miserable, being overwhelmed, being paranoid about what shoe was going to drop. You know what? I actually think I would have been more successful had I not been like that.

**Meghan** (0:25)
I'm Meghan, and this is Confessions of a Female Founder, a show where I chat with female entrepreneurs and friends about the sleepless nights, the lessons learned, and the laser focus that got them to where they are today. Let's be honest. Launching a business, it can be so overwhelming. Even with the best of teams, whoo, it'll keep you up at night. Because every single decision, every micro detail, in that moment, it feels monumental. For example, a month ago, I was absolutely consumed with packaging.

**Whitney Wolfe Herd** (1:17)
Boxes.

**Meghan** (1:19)
That's all I could think about. And I would sit there doing the unboxing in my head. Is there tissue paper? What about the packing peanuts? But they're biodegradable. And where does the sticker go? And hold on. What size of the box is going to be? No, that's not going to fit all the cues. Oh my gosh. And then someone says, but you don't want to brand the outside of the box because of porch pirates. Had never heard that before. What's a porch pirate? And then I'm sitting there and I'm like, does any of this actually matter? Of course it matters. It matters at the beginning. But how much does it matter? And the person that I thought, no, the person that I knew was perfect to talk to about this, that had to lead the season. Well, she's one of my closest friends. She's the founder of the dating app Bumble. She's been named one of Time Magazine's most influential people in styles, women changing the world. The list goes on and on and on. You've heard of her. It's Whitney Wolfe Herd.
Not only is Whitney a wildly successful female entrepreneur, but she's the kind of friend who just always seems to know the exact right thing to say when I need perspective.

**Whitney Wolfe Herd** (2:22)
Did you try your best? Did you really give it your all? If you missed the meetings for the packaging, and you let it slide till the final hour, then yeah, that's not great. But if you gave it your all and this is the way it ended up, it's going to be good. It's going to be great.

**Meghan** (2:39)
Whit is an undeniable visionary, but what I love most about her is her ability to cut through the noise, focus on what truly matters, and be vulnerable in the honesty of what that experience has been like.
Even when you're like me and you're sitting around stressed about packaging. You're in for a treat. How are you doing, Beauty?

**Whitney Wolfe Herd** (2:59)
I'm just so happy to see you and this is going to be so much fun.

**Meghan** (3:01)
I know. Honestly, I just want the conversations to feel relaxed and easy.

**Whitney Wolfe Herd** (3:07)
Yeah.

**Meghan** (3:07)
Also thinking about how I am just in it right now, talking to people who've also been so in it, and have so many iterations, whether they buy a PO or they're at the beginning of their climb, or they said, great, I'm done, and then came back.

**Whitney Wolfe Herd** (3:23)
Yeah. Those things happen.

**Meghan** (3:25)
Those things happen, and then the evolution of that. So I want to talk about all of that, but I think when it's friends that are on with me, that we have such a deep personal relationship and connection and love, as opposed to starting with just where it all began for you, I want to start with where we first met.

**Whitney Wolfe Herd** (3:41)
I love that, oh god. Do you remember when I came to your house in a disco cowboy outfit?

**Meghan** (3:47)
Yes, for New Year's Eve.

**Whitney Wolfe Herd** (3:49)
I was like, how am I going to meet this iconic, elegant, classy couple, and I'm wearing a rhinestone disco crystal ball cowboy outfit? Because that was the theme on New Year's Eve.

**Meghan** (4:06)
That was, yes, yes, that was the theme for the party you were heading to after you had dropped by our place, and it wasn't the theme of our house.

**Whitney Wolfe Herd** (4:13)
No.

**Meghan** (4:14)
We were having one of those quiet, we have young kids, we aren't having a night out kind of New Year's Eve's where we would have, I'd call it a East Coast New Year's. So that ball is dropping for our 9 p.m. and I'm going to bed. But you guys came over with our other friends, and it was the first time we met the two of you. And to this day, Archie still will say, when do I get to see the cowboys again? That first impression for him is so ingrained that even though, yes, I mean, your husband is a cowboy, and yes, you guys, like that is a huge part of your life. But to see a real cowboy as a, what was he at the time, two or three?