NOW ON HULU! Swiped is a drama based on the real-life founder of Bumble, Whitney Wolfe, and how her initial entrepreneurial ambitions to start a non-profit charity led to one of the biggest dating apps used today, while going against a male-dominated tech industry.
It’s 2012, and Whitney Wolfe (Lily James) is crashing a big tech event, hoping to meet someone to fund her charity start-up connecting volunteers with orphanages. She strikes out, but at the valet, she meets Sean Rad (Ben Schnetzer), the CEO of the start-up Cardify, who listens to her pitch. Although he doesn’t buy into her idea, he offers her a job as his marketing director.
On her first day of work, Whitney meets Tisha (Myha’la), who explains that Cardify isn’t the real company but instead its Hatch Labs, an incubator funding various ventures. One, in its early infancy, is a dating app that Whitney names Tinder. As the development of Tinder gains steam, Whitney goes on dates via other dating apps to find out their drawbacks in order to address them in Tinder. She beta-tests the app at her alma mater, visiting both sororities and fraternities to sell the idea. It’s an instant hit, and she’s named Tinder’s co-founder.
Meanwhile, Whitney has started dating a work colleague who is also her superior, Justin (Jackson White). As Tinder becomes more successful, she starts being left out of the boys’ club and doesn’t receive proper credit. This causes her relationship with Justin to sour and eventually leads to their breakup. Justin does not take it well and begins to harass her, and when she broaches it with Sean, it results in her being forced out. As Whitney tries to take legal action, she is told the process will drag out and that she will have a stain on her employment record. She acquiesces and signs the non-disclosure agreement, which includes not retaining the title of co-founder of Tinder.
(L-R) Myha’la as Tisha and Lily James as Whitney Wolfe Herd in 20th Century Studios’ SWIPED. Photo by Hilary Bronwyn Gayle. © 2025 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
“One, in its early infancy, is a dating app that Whitney names Tinder.”
Whitney falls into a dark depression but snaps out of it when Andrey Andreev (Dan Stevens), the CEO of the international dating app Badoo, wants to meet. Previously, Andrey had tried to poach Whitney because his app had no reach in the United States. Taking what she learned from her time at Tinder, and with funding and resources from Badoo, she forms a new dating app: Bumble, where women make the first move and have the power to choose.
Swiped could seem like a less cerebral version of The Social Network or just another biopic start-up tech story that we’ve seen before, but director Rachel Lee Goldenberg manages to make the film fun and inspirational. Bumble was created during a pre–#MeToo movement, and Goldenberg manages to paint that picture well — about the power and leverage of being a man versus a woman in the tech industry, and the trials and tribulations Whitney Wolfe endured to make Bumble successful.
What makes Swiped really stand out are the actors involved. Lily James is no stranger to the Hulu platform or to playing real-life people, as she did with Pamela Anderson in Pam & Tommy. Jackson White also stars in the Hulu series Tell Me Lies and delivers on playing a charming, then-douchebag boyfriend. The scene-stealer might just be Dan Stevens, a chameleon in his roles. Although I saw his name listed in the credits, it took me another scene before I recognized him as Andrey Andreev — complete with a Russian accent. 20th Century Studios smartly released this film on Hulu because you don’t have to see it on the big screen, but it’s entertaining enough to watch at home.
"…the scene-stealer might just be Dan Stevens, a chameleon in his roles."
