: Burnout and slowing growth push Eugen Rochko into an advisory role after nearly a decade in charge

Eugen Rochko, CEO and founder of decentralized social network Mastodon, is stepping down after nearly a decade at the helm and walking away with a sizable exit payment.

“Mastodon grew beyond any of my expectations,” he said. “The past two years especially have been overwhelming, and my mental and physical health have taken a dip.”

Rochko’s move has, by his own admission, been a while coming. In April 2024, the establishment of a US nonprofit was announced with a governing board of directors that included Twitter co-founder Biz Stone. Rochko also announced that his ownership of the trademark and other assets were headed to the nonprofit.

  • Corridor8031@lemmy.ml
    416·
    4 hours ago

    ? what the fuck what kind of scam is this. so you donate them money for this guy to be rich

    • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de
      24·
      4 hours ago

      For this guy to be paid for all his previous work for which he was supposedly very much underpaid just like almost every open source dev out there. For relinquishing control of the project to a new non-profit he can have 10 million for all i care. From the original announcement:

      For our team, a vital aspect of getting this restructuring right was making sure that Eugen was compensated fairly for Mastodon’s brand trademark, assets, and the 10 years he spent building Mastodon into what it is today (while taking less than a fair market salary). Based on replacement costs, Eugen’s time and effort, and the fair market value of the Mastodon brand, its associated properties, and the social network, we settled on a one-time compensation of EUR 1M. We are deeply grateful for his past contributions, and look forward to his contributions still to come.

        • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de
          28·
          4 hours ago

          Idk man and i dont care. He probably couldve chosen to be a greedy asshole and sell to some big tech company for 100M but instead he took enough to buy a house and live in peace.

          • Gamma@beehaw.orgEnglish
            19·
            4 hours ago

            Good on you for replying like that. Behavior like this drives people out of open source, people are too easily outraged whenever money is mentioned.

        • nyankas@lemmy.ml
          18·
          3 hours ago

          In 2023, it was €5.000/month (source).

          That‘s about as much as a full stack software developer makes in Germany working a 40h week (source).

          Seeing that he was a CEO, definitely worked more than 40 hours per week and was the driving force behind Mastodon, I, as someone who supports them financially, am totally okay with him getting a big payout now.

    • Otter@lemmy.caEnglish
      10·
      4 hours ago

      The articles I’ve seen say that it was for the past 10 years of work, some amount of which was unpaid

      https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/18/mastodon-ceo-steps-down-as-the-social-network-restructures/

      With the revamp, Mastodon has the potential to expand its business, product, and mission, without being dependent on a single person’s leadership. It will also give Rochko a break, as he’s been singularly focused on Mastodon for the past 10 years.

      Going forward, Rochko will continue contributing to Mastodon as an adviser. He has also been compensated with a one-time payment of €1 million, given that he took less than a fair market salary over the years while building Mastodon.

      I don’t have insight into the decision making process that went into deciding on that amount, maybe it’s less than what he should have been compensated for, maybe it’s more. But it sounds like they reached that decision amicably