David Brown

And once that confidence cracks, raising capital or making the next big bet can get a whole lot harder.

Soon after the earnings release, some of Bumble's top worker bees announced their departures from the hive.

Bumble's chief financial officer is leaving.

So too its chief marketing officer, the architect behind the brand relaunch that included those now infamous anti-celibacy billboards.

In a statement, CEO Lidiani Jones praises both the outgoing CFO and CMO.

But she says nothing about her own future at Bumble.

By this point, it's already slipping away.

It's January 2025 in Montecito, California.

Whitney Wolf Hurd takes a call while sitting in the courtyard of her sprawling Spanish-style home.

Huge fountains bubble behind her.

The scent of rosemary wafts through the air.

The ocean and mountains, they're in the distance.

It's a bucolic scene.

But this call won't be relaxing.

Bumble CEO Lydiany Jones is on the other end, and she has difficult news.

Wolf Hurd sits silently for a moment.

What she's hearing sounds painfully familiar.

In fact, it's the same thing she said to herself before she stepped down from the CEO role at Bumble.

When the call ends, Wolf Hurd takes a long walk through her property, strolling past the horse stables, the pastures, before making her way back to the main house, an historic home that dates back to 1845.

In a strange bit of real estate symmetry,