It is said that when challenging times arise, chances for success also increase.
For Whitney Wolfe Herd, a challenging departure from her previous role at the online dating app firm Tinder - for which she had initiated legal action for sexual harassment - was inescapable. She then established her own competitor company, Bumble, with a clear emphasis on female empowerment.
After almost 10 years and amassing a staggering wealth of $1 billion, Ms Wolfe Herd declared this week that she is relinquishing her role as CEO of Bumble.
It's a bittersweet occasion. In an interview with the BBC before announcing her departure, Ms Wolfe Herd expressed sadness that, out of the bunch of young women who were part of the tech industry during the 2010s, not many remain.
She expressed her disappointment about the lack of progress for women, saying, "It's tragic to witness the decline of the so-called 'girl boss era'."
However, a woman, Lidiane Jones, the former boss of Slack, will still be in charge of Bumble as she takes over as its chief executive, while Ms Wolfe Herd will remain executive chair.
When she created Bumble in 2014, it was designed to empower women in the dating world. As opposed to other apps at the time, it was structured to allow women who date men to take the "first move" and initiate conversation with a prospective match.
Ms Wolfe Herd wrote in a 2020 blog post that she thought of flipping the outmoded gender dynamics of dating and romance on its head.
Within seven years' time, Ms Wolfe Herd had achieved the feat of becoming the world's youngest female self-made billionaire.
A 2017 Bumble ad campaign encouraged women to "take charge of their own destiny and find someone they actually like, rather than settling for a partner their parents might have wanted for them".
Ms Wolfe Herd served as chair for panel discussions, organized social gatherings to help build relationships, and championed women in the business world.
Her Instagram contains pictures of her taking her children to Bumble Headquarters, being featured on magazine covers, and spending time with Hollywood star Reese Witherspoon.
She recently revealed to the BBC that she doesn't distinguish between her work life and her personal life; she prefers to combine them.
Perhaps that is the right approach for me; however, it may not be suitable for someone else. In any case, I can tell you it is difficult.
Ms Wolfe Herd has indicated that her life in the past has been difficult.
She has previously declared that her goal in life is influenced by the abusive relationships she experienced in the past, implying a former boyfriend she had as a adolescent (her ex-boyfriend has refuted all of the allegations).
Not long after leaving Tinder, she prosecuted a legal case against one of the other co-founders, whom she had been romantically involved with, for sexual harassment.
Match Group, the parent company of Tinder, repudiated the claims, however, ended up settling the matter with a payment of approximately $1m.
She described her state at the time as "super depressed" and "paranoid", recounting to the Diary of a CEO podcast that she did not leave her residence for three weeks and admitted to drinking an excessive amount of alcohol.
Her now-husband, Texas oil heir Michael Herd, is credited with helping her get through it.
She was given backing by Russian magnate Andrey Andreev, the mastermind behind dating app Badoo.
Ms Wolfe Herd had no intention of creating a new dating app, until she was persuaded to do so by Mr Andreev.
In 2014, they journeyed to the Greek island of Mykonos with some former Tinder personnel and developed the concept.
Ms Wolfe Herd departed from Tinder and, within a few months, had founded Bumble.
At 25, she had the ambition to become a billionaire by the time she was 31 - a goal she would eventually attain temporarily.
A large proportion of the company's employees during its early days were female, which was unusual in the tech industry, and it developed its brand to focus on strengthening women.
One of Bumble's key characteristics was that the female users could initiate contact after the two users had been matched.
This was created to provide women with more authority in the world of online dating, yet overtime has worked towards being even more inclusive of genders - allowing individuals to start conversation regardless of gender in matches between two non-binary people or of the same gender.
The app prevents individuals from body shaming others, and, similarly to other dating apps, uses AI to detect private messages containing nude images, giving the receiver the option to view or block them.
It supported initiatives that promoted the safety of women, including advocating for cyber-flashing to be criminalised in the UK and the European Union. This eventually led to success in the form of the Online Safety Act 2023, and was made possible due to efforts from various advocates.
Despite the obstacles, progress was made.
In 2019, Andrey Andreev divested from Bumble's parent company and exited the enterprise after Forbes conducted an inquiry into claims of a noxious and misogynistic atmosphere in the London office.
Mr Andreev refuted the accusations against him. Ms Wolfe Herd noted that she had never witnessed any hostile conduct in the office, and stated: "Andrey has always been cordial and courteous to me."
As 2021 rolled around, the app had acquired an impressive 40 million profiles. It had also expanded its offerings to include Bumble BFF, an app specifically designed for making friends, as well as a business networking tool.
Badoo was later incorporated into its parent firm, Bumble Inc., and when Bumble Inc. went public in February 2021, Ms. Wolfe Herd achieved a billionaire status suddenly.
She embraced her young son tightly as she ceremonially rang the bell to open the Nasdaq market, and yellow confetti showered down on them.
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CEO Secrets (2017): Founder of Bumble, Whitney Wolfe, advises not taking yourself too seriously.
At that time, the stock was priced around $75.
By the time November rolled around, the value of her assets had declined to less than half their original value and Forbes noted that this resulted in her no longer being considered a billionaire.
Despite revenue growth and a surge in user pay for additional services, the stock price is still below $14.
Match Group, a rival of Bumble, owning Tinder and Hinge, has likewise experienced a reduction in their share price in the same period.
This could be taken as an indication of how challenging the internet matchmaking business is.
If the apps are successful, customers will engage with each other and cease to be simply customers.
In the event that they are not effective, users may grow disenchanted and ultimately remove them.
AI is employed by Bumble to identify and eliminate photos or messages that breach its regulations.
Ms Wolfe Herd intends to reach even greater heights in the future.
The app's aim is to provide users with improved experiences, such as advising them on better photos, bios, and conversations with others. She refers to this as "coaching people."
She desires to use AI to help "instruct people and demonstrate to them and direct them, how to act better" and to "increase assurance in all of our daters".
She inquires: "What role could generative AI have in aiding us to enter a dialogue that is beneficial, empowering, and productive? How can it help us filter out all the irrelevant information and get down to the core issues?"
It is also clear that people are seeking opportunities to connect in person - whether through a dating app, a friendship app, or a business app.
Starting in January, it will be Lidiane Jones' responsibility to manage these matters regularly, instead of Ms Wolfe Herd.
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