Diksha Sundriyal
Hulu’s biographical drama film, ‘Swiped,’ follows the true story of Whitney Wolfe Herd, who took the online dating world by storm with Tinder and Bumble. The movie follows her trajectory from a college graduate looking to make a difference in the world to getting swept up in the male-dominated start-up culture. While her talent and dedication bring her immense success, her path is filled with thorns that prick at her until she decides to take control of the situation and live her life on her own terms. Getting there is quite a struggle, and that’s what makes the movie worth it. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Swiped Plot Synopsis
Whitney Wolfe is a young college graduate trying to find investors for her new startup. The problem is that her startup focuses on connecting volunteers to places where they will be needed, and no tech bro is interested in that. They’d rather launch a new flavor for a soft drink. Things take a turn when she crosses paths with Sean Rad, who is working on a few ideas of his own. Their chance meeting leads to another meeting where Sean is impressed by Whitney’s marketing skills, and he brings her on board in his company. It turns out that the team is working on a couple of projects, none of which has taken off so far. One of those projects is a dating app, which is initially named Match Box, until Whitney suggests that the name should be changed to Tinder.
From here, things only get better for business, as Whitney throws herself into work, researching other dating apps to find their flaws, and running across the grounds of her alma mater to convince sororities and fraternities to sign up on the app. In the midst of all this, she also gets into a relationship with Justin Mateen, one of the founders of Tinder, with Sean. At first, their relationship seems to work despite their boss-employee dynamic. However, as Whitney’s work is recognised, with Rad announcing that she will be credited as a co-founder for Tinder, things start to get bad between her and Justin. She is heartbroken when Tinder receives an award, and she is not invited to the stage because she is not named as one of the co-founders.
She breaks up with Justin but later notices that Justin passes her ideas as his own, that she is not being included in the meeting, and that she is slowly being sidelined from the business. Things get worse as Justin continues to harass her through texts and badmouths her so much in front of their colleagues that they call her bad names to her face. Whitney shares this with Sean, but not only does he not do anything, but when she tells him she cannot work with Justin around, he twists her words into saying that she is resigning from her post. She sues Tinder for sexual discrimination and harassment, but is advised to settle out of court to protect her reputation. She is also asked to sign an NDA, which means she cannot talk about Tinder in any capacity. This turns out to be counterintuitive because it puts the power of the narrative in the hands of her former employers.
She suffers online hatred, receives death threats, and feels alienated by everyone. Eventually, she starts working on another idea, which is when Andrey Andreev comes into the picture. She’d met him before at a party where he offered her the position of his dating app Badoo’s CMO. At the time, she had hopes and dreams about Tinder and didn’t accept his offer. But now, he is the only one fully invested in her idea. She tells him she wants to make an app for women that focuses on kindness. However, he asks her to take this idea of kindness for women and do something about it in the dating app business. This leads her to develop the idea of a new app, and once again, she gives her blood and sweat to it. But this time, she is the one in control. Or at least, that’s what appears in the beginning.
What Happens to Andrey? Does He Go to Prison?
When Andrey Andreev offers to go into business with Whitney, he appears to be the complete opposite of the men she worked with at Tinder. He is supportive and encouraging and keeps himself in the background, letting Whitney take center stage. Despite being the majority shareholder in Bumble, he does not exercise any unnecessary restraint on Whitney, as she has complete creative freedom on the app. This is one of the reasons why she is able to make Bumble a more tolerant and inclusive app that puts control in the hands of women. Over the years, he becomes a good collaborator and friend, which is why Whitney is shocked when she is informed about an article that details all the ways that he encouraged a toxic and misogynistic environment in Badoo.
Jessica Powell, who was appointed Badoo’s CMO after Whitney refused Andrey’s offer, goes to the media about the trauma she sustained in Badoo’s toxic work culture. Whitney cannot wrap her head around the fact that the friendly and seemingly feminist Andrey she knows and likes indulged in extreme debauchery and twisted acts that Powell has accused him of. When asked for an initial statement, Whitney speaks in favour of her friend. Later, she is advised by her lawyer to maintain this stance. However, this conflicts with her ideology of supporting and speaking up for women. It contradicts the idea with which she started Bumble and makes her feel like a hypocrite. She confronts Andrey about it, but he claims all allegations against him are false.
Then, at the event where she launches a new chapter of Bumble, she speaks out about being repulsed by the allegations made against Andrey and stands with the women rather than condoning his behaviour. The last we see of Andrey is him walking away while Whitney continues to speak out against him. However, this does not mean that he will be arrested. In real life, while such allegations were made, no criminal charges were filed against Andrey, and he never went to prison. Still, he did end up leaving Bumble. As shown in the movie, real-life Andrey sold his stake in the company to the Blackstone Group in a reported deal valued at $3 billion. This means that even as he parted ways with Whitney and Bumble, he made a lot of money.
Does Whitney Remain Bumble’s CEO?
When the allegations about Andre come out, Whitney’s lawyer advises her to speak in his favour. This is because she knows that if Whitney speaks out against him, she will lose Bumble, since he is the majority stakeholder in the company. Later, when Whitney condemns Andrey’s actions, she knows it will impact the app badly. Sure enough, the parent company’s stocks fall, which means that Bumble’s best days are behind it, too. There is no way that Andrey will let it continue now. Still, she chooses not to compromise on her morality and her ideals. She has already tolerated too much toxicity from men who didn’t care about what their manipulations were doing to her. If being true to herself means losing Bumble, she is ready for that, too. The no-regrets thing is amplified when her friend and colleague, Tisha, and her husband, Michael, support her decision.
A few days later, Whitney is visited by Matthew Slate from the Blackstone group. Whitney recognises him from a brief meeting where they were introduced to each other at a party. He tells her that Andrey has sold off Bumble and its sister apps, including Badoo, to them. This means that there will be a significant shift in the management. Whitney assumes that because her comments spurred this trouble, Matthew is here to ask her to leave her post as CEO. She reiterates her lack of remorse for holding her ground and warns Matthew that she will not step down from being CEO without a fight. However, Matthew assures her he is not there to take anything away from her.
In fact, considering everything, especially that Bumble and its success are her brainchild, she is the perfect person to continue leading the company, but that’s not it. He also wants her to take on Badoo and Magic Lab under her wing, as no candidate is more qualified than her. Whitney doesn’t have to think twice before accepting the offer, and in a move that shows she was born ready to be a leader, she tells Matthew she has a few ideas. Her enthusiasm and drive impress him, but he is not surprised because this is precisely what he expected of her. So, he leaves the reins in her hands, and Whitney, yet again, emerges a winner in a situation where it looked like she might lose all that she’d worked so hard for, yet again, because of a man.
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