Ev Resigned. But The New CEO of Medium is One of Us!
Should we be worried?
Just weeks shy of the 10th anniversary of the launch of Medium, the CEO and founder, Evan Williams, decided to pass the reigns. If you’ve been here a while, it’s hard to know what to think about that big step.
From one point of view, Ev is a powerhouse in the tech industry.
As the co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, he made his first mark on the world with one of the world's first blogging platforms, appropriately called Blogger. He later co-founded a podcast company in 2004 and then created the mother of all social media, Twitter.
His last famous venture was where you’re reading these little typings right now — Medium.com.
Nothing is constant but change
For the veteran writers here, you’re more than aware of the main unofficial mantra of Medium over the years.
Change. Change. Change.
From paid newspapers to official Medium editors and publications, from ads and claps and subscription-based payment models, algorithm changes, and random contests with Natalie Portman as an all too silent judge — the platform has been around the block a few times.
And it’s been a fun ride!
But also frustrating. Incredibly frustrating.
For those of us trying to make a significant chunk of our monthly income on the site, it’s been an uphill battle interrupted by random awesome water slides lasting a few months at a time before tossing us back on the boulders with hiking shoes.
I can’t help but think a lot of those changes were driven by Ev himself.
After all, people have said many times over that Medium was his personal pet project, as billionaires are wont to have. And that’s cool, I appreciate the vision, the effort, and the people putting in all the work (and the occasional nice payout).
But where does that take us from here?
I obviously don’t have answers direct from the source. Hell, even the new CEO, the amazing (and possibly familiar to many of you!) Tony Stubblebine publicly stated he needs time to get his feet wet.
And of course he does!
Taking over the reins of a large tech company, even if small by some of their competitors' perspectives, is never an easy task. But I have the impression this is a change for the better.
In case you haven’t heard of Tony Stubblebine before, he used to go by the name of Coach Tony. I had the pleasure of chatting with him via DM a few times a couple years back and was already impressed with his etiquette and knowledge.
That’s because he created three of the biggest and oldest publications on Medium, all of which are still running today!
He used to run the engineering department at Odeo, Ev’s podcast company mentioned above, and is apparently where they first met. Coach Tony was also the founder and CEO of the online coaching website, Coach.me, until two days ago.
But more important than his impressive credentials above are — in my opinion — his extremely relaxed and communicative manner.
If you’ve ever run into him on Medium, on Twitter, or in any of his well-written articles, you get the strong sense that this would be a good chap to sit down and have a beer with.
As a former tech worker who traversed the world meeting all different types of CEOs, managers, salespeople and everything in between, I can tell you the number one quality of a person who makes a good boss is how they treat strangers.
And from everything I’ve encountered with Coach Tony, I’m only left with the strong sense that he is one who is polite to those he encounters on a daily basis.
So, will Medium be okay going forward?
Only time will tell. But I can’t think of a better person to be leading the helm and bringing on the next round of (inevitable) changes.
And if you want to influence any of those changes yourself, go head over to Coach Tony’s announcement as the CEO. The comment section is already chock full of great suggestions, and he’s already responded to many of them.
I left my own two cents too, because of course I did.
As for other possibilities for Medium’s future, it still remains to be seen if Elon Musk will try to buy Medium as a publicity stunt to hide his other misdeeds.
P.S. Here’s Ev’s announcement if you haven’t read it yet.
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