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Austin-based dating and networking app Bumble, which was founded in 2014 by Whitney Wolfe Herd, is reportedly considering an IPO.
Bumble, the Austin-based dating and networking app, is reportedly considering a multi-billion-dollar initial public offering that could come early next year, according to a report by Bloomberg.
<p><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-01/dating-app-bumble-is-said-to-prepare-for-6-billion-plus-ipo" target="_blank"></a> </p><p>The company has not finalized anything and the timeline could change, according to the story's unnamed sources "familiar with the matter."</p><p>From the report: </p><p style="margin-left: 20px;"><em>"Bumble could seek a valuation of $6 billion to $8 billion, said one of the people, asking not to be named because the matter is private. While it is talking to banks, it hasn't settled on a lineup, the people added."</em></p><p><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-01/dating-app-bumble-is-said-to-prepare-for-6-billion-plus-ipo" target="_blank"></a></p><p>Bumble was founded in 2014 by Whitney Wolfe Herd, who previously co-founded the popular hook-up app <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/0967908D:US" target="_blank" title="Company Overview">Tinder</a>.</p>
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Brittany NO FOMO (Hallberg)
Looking for love has always come with obstacles, and they've only been magnified by COVID-19. Nevertheless, many Austinites continue to navigate these uncharted waters. We'll be sharing their stories every week right here.
Brittany Hallberg has no trouble meeting people under normal circumstances. Before the pandemic hit, the New Jersey-born Austinite was a marketer, event coordinator, music photographer and journalist—the latter two under the moniker Brittany NO FOMO—trekking across the country and making music-industry friends along the way.
<p>Hallberg, 30, spent the first several months of 2020 planning SXSW corporate events. She moved into a new apartment, her first without a roommate, the day before Austin officials canceled the festival, effectively halting her career and cutting her off from her community.</p><p>Suddenly, Hallberg faced daunting questions on a personal and professional level. How would she meet new people without a career that facilitated those connections? And how would she present herself to the world without the work that had become a cornerstone of her identity?</p><p>"It's been really weird introducing myself without a career because I'm so tied into my music community and representing myself as Brittany NO FOMO instead of Brittany Hallberg," says Hallberg, whose <a href="https://www.instagram.com/brittanynofomo/" target="_blank">@brittanynofomo Instagram account </a>has amassed more than 13,000 followers. "It's [hard] to try to find my confidence and sexiness when meeting someone new—when I have nothing."</p><p><strong>"He was one of the five people that would actually see me during this time."</strong></p><p>Seeing her social circle—and the opportunities to add to it—shrinking drastically, Hallberg downloaded Hinge, marking her first foray into the world of dating apps. </p><p>"A lot of my close girlfriends here are taking COVID extremely seriously, so I haven't seen them for like five months," she says. "So I was like, 'You know what, if I have to make friends or find company through a dating app, I will.'"</p><p>Hallberg soon connected with Aaron (who requested to have his last name withheld for privacy reasons), and the two shared immediate chemistry. Over the last three months, they've spent a lot of time walking through parks, going to bars that implement good safety measures and hanging out at each other's apartments. </p><p>Hallberg admits she and Aaron have seen each other a lot more than they might have under normal circumstances. It's hard to avoid when the pandemic has wiped out the social calendar. A trip home to New Jersey gave Hallberg some perspective, and reminded her to slow it down. </p><p>"When you have a career and friends to hang out with and gigs and projects, when you date someone, you give them one day a week or maybe two times a week," Hallberg says. "I was putting way too much value and way too much energy into time with him, because he was one of the five people that would actually see me during this time."</p><p>It's hard to know how their relationship will look post-pandemic, so Hallberg and Aaron are enjoying each other's company and keeping things casual during a tough time. </p><p>"It is hard to put your best self forward when you're going through this depression," Hallberg says. "We've kept each other company during a time of increased loneliness, and we always make it clear that we appreciate one another. I think that's all that matters right now."</p>
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(Mariana Gonzalez/Bri Cheairs)
Looking for love has always come with obstacles, and they've only been magnified by COVID-19. Nevertheless, many Austinites continue to navigate these uncharted waters. We'll be sharing their stories every week right here.
"There weren't many things to distract us"
When Mariana Gonzalez got out of a relationship at the beginning of April, she thought to herself, "I'm probably not going to meet anybody all pandemic. Who knows how long it's gonna last?"
<p>She was wrong.<br/></p><p>Bored and mildly heartsick, Gonzalez got on Tinder a few weeks later. It didn't take long for her to hit it off with Bri Cheairs. After a successful, hours-long FaceTime date, they met in person on May 15, with the understanding that they were both looking to keep things casual and find somebody to spend time with during the pandemic. </p><p>"It was kind of weird because we kind of jumped into that part of a relationship—even though we weren't in a relationship—where you're just comfortable being around the house with each other, because it was really the only option," Gonzalez says. </p><p>Gonzalez and Cheairs kept seeing each other throughout the next month. They had an unintentional "first date" in mid-June when they walked to Planet K at 37th and Guadalupe, picked up a pizza from the neighboring Domino's and ate it at a desolate Central Park. </p><p>Despite their noblest intentions, they were both catching feelings for each other. </p><p>"I think obviously with the pandemic going on, there was less possibility for me to go on half-assed dates," Gonzalez says. "There weren't many things to distract us or pull us away from each other."</p><p>On July 11, Gonzalez and Cheairs made their relationship official. In reality, they just put a label to the activities they had already been enjoying together for nearly two months, like watching vintage horror movies at the Blue Starlite Mini Urban Drive-In Theatre and hiking isolated trails around Austin. (They attempted one ill-fated trip to a packed Barton Creek, which Gonzalez describes as a "lawless place.") </p><p>"It's been going great so far, and we both are kind of still navigating this world and this landscape," says Gonzalez, who credits the pandemic for accelerating her and Cheairs' emotional connection. "I don't know if I would have ended up in a relationship like this outside of what's going on in society."</p><p>They're both looking forward to visiting museums and aquariums when life returns to relative normalcy, and hopefully taking advantage of the flights Gonzalez booked to Cancún for early 2021. Gonzalez is also excited to introduce Cheairs to her friends, though the prospect of going out in a post-social distancing age raises one minor concern for both of them.</p><p>"When we first started dating, [Cheairs] said something like, 'How are you supposed to date somebody if you don't even know if they can dance yet?'" Gonzalez jokes. "We're gonna be like six months into this relationship, realizing the other person can't dance."</p>
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(Jimena Peck)
Looking for love has always come with obstacles, and they've only been magnified by COVID-19. Nevertheless, many Austinites continue to navigate these uncharted waters. We'll be sharing their stories every week right here.
"What do you have to lose?"
Kristen Hubby thought that she found a promising match on the dating app Hinge recently.
<p> She had been talking to a man via text for several weeks, but when she asked if he wanted to chat via FaceTime or have a socially distanced picnic, he ignored her invitation.</p><p>"We've remained texting, but I have no end in sight," Hubby says. "I don't know if I'm ever going to meet this guy." </p><p>This exchange exemplifies the challenge daters face of finding somebody who respects their boundaries and shares their priorities. It was no small feat pre-pandemic, and it's taken on a new level of difficulty and gravity during a time when simply meeting in person can be risky.</p><p>"It's hard to date in general, and the success rate of graduating from the app to in-person is so low in normal circumstances that it's been almost impossible to get that same result in COVID times," Hubby says.</p><p>Hubby has maintained a fairly rigorous quarantine for the last several months, limiting her in-person socializing to a few close friends. She says she would be willing to go outside her quarantine bubble, however, if she met the right person who was willing to take the same precautions.</p><p>"I really want to find a partner, and I want to date someone," she says. "And I'm willing to put my mask on and go out and meet you in the circumstances that I feel comfortable with, aka outside, not at your house and not at a bar."</p><p>For now, though, Hubby has had to get used to getting to know people almost exclusively via digital communication. It can be awkward or feel like a game with no defined end, but it does have a few perks.</p><p>"Because meeting up isn't so readily accessible right now, I've been able to be more of myself and try to just let my guard down and just be, I guess you could say vulnerable, when texting and just really owning who I am," Hubby says. "My friends and I always tell each other, 'What do you have to lose?'"</p><p>Hubby has also witnessed and practiced more empathy lately, as pandemic dating requires people to be mindful of each other's mental health as well as their own. </p><p>"I've become more attentive," Hubby says. "I think about how the other person is feeling or care to know about how they're feeling. And I actually ask them more now than I ever did, because of what's going on. It can be the time we live in right now. It's very taxing emotionally and mentally, so I always make sure to ask, 'How are you doing today?'"</p><p><em>Check back next Monday for another installment.</em></p><p><em>Editor's note: This article has been updated to clarify the response of Hubby's Hinge match. </em></p>
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(Jett Anderson/Hinge)
The coronavirus pandemic has radically changed the way people perform everyday tasks, from buying groceries to getting a haircut. But perhaps no activity looks more different—and in some cases, more challenging—than dating.
<p>Looking for love has always come with obstacles, and they've become even greater in an era of mask-wearing, social distancing and quarantining. Nevertheless, many Austinites continue to navigate these uncharted waters. Their stories make one thing clear: Dating during COVID-19 is no walk in the park—except for when it is. </p>
Making it to the next round
<p>Mary Añez is not a big fan of text-based communication. If she matches with somebody on the dating app Hinge, she's quick to invite them to talk via Zoom. The video chatting tool isn't seamless, but it's a good way to gauge chemistry before committing to an in-person date.</p><p>"I don't want to use the word interview, but it's kind of like that," Añez says with a laugh.</p><p>Añez has maintained a fairly strict quarantine, and she admits the path forward for dating during a pandemic is often unclear. She's gone on a few socially distanced walks and has the option to hang out with dates on her spacious balcony, but even then, she has to trust the other person has been respecting quarantine as well.</p><p>"I'm not about to be like, 'You have to only see me,' but there is a virus," she says. "So it's like, kind of, you do only have to see me, although that's not really the emotional terms of engagement that we have."</p><p>While COVID-19 presents a unique set of obstacles for dating, the principles are familiar. For Añez, maintaining a strict quarantine or opting to meet up at a spot where both people feel comfortable ultimately boils down to respecting boundaries.</p><p>"All I ask is that you respect my time, and you respect me as a person, which makes it sound like the bar's on the floor," Añez says. "But that, I think, is the highest bar that a lot of people never really reach."</p>"That escalated quickly"
<p>Jett Anderson and Sean Moore couldn't have predicted how momentous their first date would be. Not because sparks flew, but because it took place one week before Austin partially shut down in March.</p><p>"That was the last time I went downtown," Moore says. "I was driving down there thinking, 'Why am I going to see a guy in a pandemic? Why am I doing this?' But it worked out, I guess."</p><p>Moore and Anderson have been dating for nearly four months now. From their second date onward, they've had to spend virtually all their time together at each other's homes.</p><p>"Literally on our second date, I'm inviting a strange man into my home," Moore jokes. "I remember just getting weirdly like, 'OK, I trust you with my family's life. I hope that you're serious.'"</p><p>Since then, they've enjoyed many blissful nights watching <em>The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel </em>and <em>What We Do in the Shadows </em>and playing <em>Animal Crossing: New Horizons. (</em>They're keeping an eye on their in-game avatars as they talk to me via Zoom.) They're looking forward to the day they can safely go kayaking or play disc golf again, but they're grateful for the firm foundation they've established during the pandemic.</p><p>"I would like to do other things, yeah, but because of how close we've gotten and how hyper-focused we've been, I really enjoy that," Anderson says. "If it ever opens up again—"</p><p>"<em>Please </em>don't talk like that!" Moore interrupts.</p><p>Anderson tries again: "<em>When</em> it does, eventually, that foundation's there."</p>Pandemic pro tips
<p>Britny Eubank was arguably better-equipped for pandemic dating than most people. She's been practicing <em>extreme </em>social distancing—about 1,600 miles—for the past eight months with her boyfriend, who lives just outside Philadelphia.</p><p>The two last saw each other in February; the pandemic derailed Eubank's plans to fly to Philly in June, and they're not sure when they'll see each other next.</p><p>"We have another attempt planned for the fall, but at this point, everything is 'wait and see,'" Eubank says.</p><p>In the meantime, they've stuck faithfully to phone and video dates every Thursday night for the last eight months; they boosted it to twice a week after Eubank's June trip got canceled. In that time, Eubank has picked up a few long-distance tips that could make pandemic dating more bearable.</p><p>"Do your small talk via text, that way you can find out what you have in common and talk about those more interesting things on actual 'dates,'" she says. "Try to be as patient as possible with technical difficulties. And if your relationship seems like it's going in the long-term direction, definitely be intentional about the time you spend together."</p><h5>Want to read more stories like this one? Start every day with a quick look at what's happening in Austin. Sign up for Austonia.com's free daily morning email.</h5><!-- Begin Mailchimp Signup Form -->
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