Some members of the original team behind the dating app Tinder are swiping left into a new film about the Whitney Wolf swiping.
A group of OG executives had only seen the trailer, but were inaccurate before release, so they were already pounding the buzzy film released on Friday.
“Swipe” – starring Lily James as a Wolf’s pack – made his debut at the Toronto International Film Festival and is currently competing on Hulu.
But Jonathan Badeen, co-founder of Tinder, is no longer a fan, and only told last week’s Page Six.
Badeen says he was first heard about the film from the “drunk executive” who met him about the details of the flick. After that conversation, “It got a bit crazy to know that this was going to be full of errors and (actual founder) hits,” he said.
There was bad blood from the past between Wolfe’s flock and Tinder executives, including the lawsuit. (Wolfe’s flock has become the founder of Bumble, another online dating platform that was launched in 2014. She also became the youngest homemade female billionaire in the world, reported in 2021.)
Badeen and some others from the original Tinder claimed that the biggest misconception about the origins of their dating apps was Wolfe Herd’s role as “co-founder.” (Wolfe Herd’s team has disputed the claim in the past, saying, “She’s always been the co-founder of Tinder and that’s not something to contest.”).
Tinder Insiders claims Badeen, Justin Mateen and Sean Rad are the only co-founders, while Bedeen says the Wolfe flock “similar to an internal role.”
(Other insiders involved at the time also explained that she had the role of junior).
Rosett Panbakian, the company’s former vice president of communications and marketing, remembers her as “Justin’s girlfriend.”
“She didn’t add anything to the meetings or Tinder business, but she was always pleading for (in the article) to be included as a co-founder, and she said it was important to her career.
Wolfe Herd’s name as co-founder first appeared in a 2013 article for Harper’s Bazaar.
But while watching her being listed as a co-founder, Baden said, “it’s making me very angry.” “At the time I made no noise. No one was fighting publicly.”
But things came to mind when the Wolf swarm filed a lawsuit against Tinder and its parent company, IAC, alleging discrimination and sexual harassment and other allegations.
Her relationship with Mateen is even more complicated. They broke up and she included some inappropriate text messages in her lawsuit as evidence of harassment. (This case was resolved when both parties did not admit fraud.)
But they said the title of Tinder co-founder was somehow stuck, and in part it was not corrected as the original team said it was at the muzzle after the lawsuit.
Josh Metz, a former brand manager who joined Tinder in early 2013, said the film’s trailer “isn’t he seriously takes Tinder’s success.” He added: “She was not considered part of her leadership.”
The Mets further said the Wolf’s pack “was not involved in any of the early marketing. It was just Justin who was thinking about the strategy.”
He says he was silent for fear of losing his job. But the Mets said, “I saw the trailer reignited the fire on me…it felt inaccurate,” he said.
Badeen, Pambakian, Metz, and other insiders believe “Hollywood is manipulating lies.”
“The film works like Hagiography, but the real stories of Tinder, Bumble and Whitney Wolfe are completely different,” the source said.
“She wasn’t an integral part of Tinder. She wasn’t perceived as a key person either me or success,” Badeen said. “When she was out of work, no one was mad at losing her when she left.”
The Hulu and Wolfe herd representatives did not comment.
The Wolf’s flock told CNBC on Friday that he was not involved in the film, saying, “No, I’m not involved in it… Frankly, this film was informed about the film after it had already gone out to race. I think they’d already done all of this.
