creator of the mastodon, Eugene RochkoThe open source, decentralized social network and X is stepping down as CEO of Rival, as part of the company’s transition to a non-profit structure, which was announced earlier in the year. This change is Mastodon’s most significant leadership overhaul, and is designed to ensure Mastodon’s longevity.
As part of the reorganization of the organization, Mastodon will be governed by a board of directors, which today includes Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, Karien Bezuidenhout, Esraa Al Shafei, Mastodon community director Hannah Aubry (who will step down) and Felix HlatkyWho will serve as the Executive Director.
Mastodon CEO
With the restructuring, Mastodon has the potential to expand its business, products and mission without being dependent on “Mastodon CEO” a single person for leadership. It will also give Rochko a break, as he has focused solely on Mastodon for the past ten years.
Going forward, Rochko will continue to contribute to Mastodon as an advisor. Rochko has also been compensated with a one-time payment of €1 million, as he took below fair market wages for years while building Mastodon.
Other members of the new leadership team include Renaud Chaput as Technical Director, Andy Piper as Head of Communications and Philip Schroepel as Strategy and Product Advisor. In total, Mastodon has 10 full-time employees.
The CEO said burnout was a factor in his decision
Rochko said he knew it was time to move because Mastodon had become bigger than he could handle alone and because he was also facing burnout.
“[Mastodon has] Become synonymous with my identity. I can’t look anywhere and see anything about social media without thinking about how it affects my work,” Rochko explained in an interview with TechCrunch. “I want to make it successful. And that leads to a lot of stress and, obviously, it ultimately leads to burnout,” he continued.
“I think that taking a step back, realizing it’s not just me anymore — now other people are involved, other people are responsible — will allow me to regain some balance in my life.”
He also suggests that others should do the same if they are able.
I definitely think it’s not healthy to invest all your time in work, because later, you’ll have nothing,” Rochko added.
This message stands in contrast to the new work-til-you-drop ethos that has dominated Silicon Valley in the AI era, where founders Embrace the rush culture and even China’s intense “996” work schedule (Working six days a week from 9 am to 9 pm).
What’s next: The unprofitable transition
Mastodon CEO
As a non-profit, Mastodon will be able to unlock new financing opportunities, especially in Europe, noted the new executive director, Hlatky.
The organization has already moved to a non-profit organization in the US but is still working to establish a non-profit organization Mastodon CEO in Belgium, or a AISBLTo replace the German entity, which It lost its nonprofit status Once established last year, the Belgian “Mastodon CEO” will be the future home of the non-profit organization. Meanwhile, US-based 501(c)(3) nonprofits will own trademarks and other assets.
To help with the transition, Mastodon raised funds from the founders of the Stack exchange Jeff Atwood and the Atwood Mastodon CEO family (who gave 2.2 million euros); Biz Stone; Alternative app marketplace AltStore (EUR 260K), The The Global Chinese Community of Universal Digital Commons (EUR 65K); and founder of Craigslist Craig Newmark.
Hlatky, who has a business and money Background TechA provided pro-bono advice for Mastodon prior to this transition, helping the organization establish its German nonprofit.
He says that through his work, he became disillusioned with the typical startup system associated with venture capital.
“It works for outsiders, but for others, it doesn’t,” Hlatky said. “I got bored with the system, and I didn’t see any point in contributing to the system anymore.”
In his new position, Hlatky will engage in more dialogue with industry stakeholders and the media, and sees opportunities to engage politicians, political parties and journalists more on the platform.
He will also help oversee projects to make Mastodon more financially sustainable, including new hosting and moderation businesses. Other members of the Mastodon CEO leadership team will also focus on trust and security issues, technical infrastructure and products.
One thing Mastodon won’t focus on is any kind of native interoperability between its platform, powered by the ActivityPub protocol, and other decentralized social networks like Bluesky — which runs on the AT protocol — or Nostre, a protocol championed by Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey. Instead, Mastodon “Mastodon CEO” will leave interoperability to third-party project creators like Bridgey Fed and Bounce. (These different protocols essentially compete with technical standards for how decentralized social networks communicate.)
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By restructuring Mastodon, Rochko believes the company will maintain its position as “billionaire-proof” social media. That’s the mission “Mastodon CEO” statement Also adopted by BlueskyA network that has grown from Mastodon with 40 million registered users compared to Mastodon’s 10 million. In both networks, a small number of users are active on a monthly basis.
At Mastodon, monthly active users fell below 1 million, a 2022 spike that came after Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter. Before “Mastodon CEO” the deal closed, Mastodon had about 200,000 monthly active users, Rochko noted; Later, it jumped to 2 million.
This, he believes, indicates the need for a platform that is not controlled by a billionaire.
“Thread, Instagram, and Facebook are owned by a billionaire. X is owned by a billionaire… All of these platforms are owned by the very rich, and they are increasingly using these platforms to manipulate public perception, public “Mastodon CEO” conversation, and politics,” he noted. “And Mastodon is one of the very few — if not the only — of these companies and social media platforms — and Fediversity as a whole, I think — that’s not about something like that,” Rochko said.