Mastodon: Founder Steps Down as CEO, Receives One Million Euros
Mastodon will in the future be developed by a non-profit organization under Belgian law. Additionally, Eugen Rochko is stepping down but not leaving Mastodon.
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The founder and CEO of the microblogging service Mastodon is stepping down as managing director and will receive a one-time compensation of one million euros for his work to date. The Mastodon team announced this on Tuesday, adding that Eugen Rochko will remain with Mastodon in an advisory role. The service has introduced former CFO Felix Hlatky as his successor, who has been involved with Mastodon for five years. Together with the CTO, who remains in his position, and a new Head of Community, they aim to increase the number of users and facilitate the operation of decentralized network instances.
Major Restructuring Nine Years After Founding
Eugen Rochko launched Mastodon in Jena, Thuringia, in 2016 as an open-source project after being dissatisfied as a long-time Twitter user with the mainstream platform. His decentralized microblogging service has benefited from dissatisfaction with Twitter ever since. The real growth spurt, however, only came at the end of 2022, after Elon Musk bought Twitter (now X). As a result, many migrated to Mastodon, and the user numbers increased massively. Although there are now larger alternatives like Threads and Bluesky, Mastodon has a loyal user base and is part of the significantly larger Fediverse. The payment of one million euros has now been agreed upon for Rochko's preparatory work and the transfer of the Mastodon brand.
Rochko is to support the Mastodon team as a strategy and product advisor, a role in which he can contribute his “extensive knowledge of the Fediverse and social media.” Furthermore, an agreement has been reached on the future structure of Mastodon; the social network will be further developed by a non-profit organization under Belgian law. This change was announced at the beginning of the year and is a response to the withdrawal of non-profit status in Germany. However, donations from Germany will remain tax-deductible in the future.
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To mark the restructuring, Mastodon has also disclosed some particularly generous major donors: By far the largest donation, worth 2.2 million euros, came from Stack Exchange founder Jeff Atwood. Also particularly generous were Twitter founder Biz Stone and Craigslist founder and namesake Craig Newmark. The alternative iOS store AltStore has also donated to Mastodon. The money was primarily used to pay new employees, which accelerated the further development of Mastodon. In addition, the Mastodon team was able to implement its hosting services, which are intended to ensure long-term financing.
(mho)
