Forbes - USA (2019-06-30)

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JUNE 30, 20 19 FORBES.COM

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72. WHITNEY
    WOLFE HERD
    $290 million
    AGE: 29
    RESIDENCE: Austin, Texas
    SELF-MADE SCORE: 8
    Wolfe Herd’s dating app
    Bumble‚ on which women
    make the first move,
    continues to gain buzz. As
    of December 2018, the app
    had over 47 million users and
    estimated annual revenue
    of $175 million. Bumble
    has expanded into friend-
    finding and networking,
    and published a magazine
    earlier this year. It may
    even be headed for an IPO,
    Wolfe Herd told Forbes.
    The company also launched
    a venture capital fund—
    with Serena Williams, who
    starred in the app’s Super
    Bowl commercial, as a co-
    investor—that is focused
    on early-stage investments
    primarily in businesses
    founded and led by women of
    color and underrepresented
    groups. In 2012, Wolfe Herd
    cofounded dating app Tinder.
    She left the company and
    sued over sexual harassment
    claims. Tinder denied any
    wrongdoing. The parties
    eventually settled.
    73. SUSAN WAGNER
    $280 million
    AGE: 58 RESIDENCE:
    Mount Kisco, New York
    SELF-MADE SCORE: 8
    At age 26, Wagner cofounded
    investment firm BlackRock
    with Larry Fink and six
    others. She led the firm’s
    2009 merger with Barclays
    Global Investors, creating
    the world’s largest asset
    manager. She retired in 2012
    but still sits on the board.


73. ASHLEY CHEN
    $300 million
    AGE: 52 RESIDENCE: McLean, Virginia
    SELF-MADE SCORE: 9
    Chen, who has a master’s in computer science, paid $35 for
    the Internet domain http://www.actionet.com on Thanksgiving 1997.
    She then began reading Dummies books on accounting and
    programming. In October 1998, ActioNet landed a five-month
    project worth less than $50,000 from the Department of
    Transportation. Now the DOT and the Department of Energy,
    which were its first two clients, are the largest customers of
    the $360 million (revenue) company, which provides cloud-
    hosting, software engineering, and cybersecurity.


74. LYNDA WEINMAN
    $300 million
    AGE: 64 RESIDENCE:
    Montecito, California
    SELF-MADE SCORE: 8
    Weinman sold Lynda.com,
    her online-learning platform
    that housed hundreds of
    thousands of video tutorials,
    for $1.5 billion in cash and
    stock to LinkedIn in May


75. She stepped down
    as executive chairman a
    month later; Microsoft
    acquired LinkedIn for $26
    billion the next year. A
    former Web-design teacher,
    she is now president of the
    Santa Barbara International
    Film Festival and finances
    filmmakers under her
    Another Chapter Productions.

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