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.
I know nothing about the European software market, but translating this in American, $100,000/year for a principal developer and lead of a project of this scale is like paying him 33%-50% of a US salary for those 10 years.
I’m a firm believer that people - including open source contributors - should be compensated for their time when an avenue exists that doesn’t compromise the integrity of the project. Mastodon an amazing platform and I wish him, and the project, nothing but the best.
us software salaries are insanely high compared to the rest of the world, because the cost of living in SV is insanely high.
with a €60k a year salary i’m in the 90th percentile of earners in my country and it took me about two years to have enough to finance my own three-bedroom apartment on one income.
I moved from Australia to the San Francisco Bay Area. My starting income was maybe 3x what I was getting paid in Australia, but the cost of living definitely wasn’t 3x higher. Major Australian cities are considered HCOL (high cost of living) areas too. Some things like electronics and food were cheaper in the USA too, at least until inflation and tariffs made everything go up.
what about insurance and healthcare?