Michelle Battersby has been talking to The Sydney Morning Herald about her time with Bumble and what impact the app has had on the Australian dating scene.
The former Country Lead has just stepped down from her latest role as Director of APAC Marketing, after just over three years with the company.
She was personally selected by Whitney Wolfe Herd to oversee Bumble’s launch in the country back in 2016. The app has since expanded quickly and now has more than three million registered Australian users.
Battersby believes both men and women are attracted to Bumble as a new way to date, find friends and land career opportunities, despite the platform branding itself around themes of female empowerment.
She told The Sydney Morning Herald: “It attracts women who want to make that first move and men who respect that in women. It means from the moment you’re matching with someone, there’s a different tone for the conversation.”
“[Women] shouldn’t have to wait for opportunities to come to [them] – if it’s in dating, don’t be afraid to speak to a guy; if it’s for a job opportunity, don’t be afraid to pursue it.”
One of her final projects with Bumble was to host to host a marquee at the Melbourne Cup, one of Australia’s biggest sporting events. It was the second year in a row the glamorous activation was installed and Battersby described it as “one of the networking events of the year”.
She has just started working as the Chief Marketing Officer of Keep It Cleaner, a subscription-based fitness app that curates personal training, workout and meal-plan schedules for users.
Looking back on her time with Bumble, she said she was glad she had left at a time when online dating was the norm instead of being considered a sign of desperation.
Read the full interview here.