On July 26 2017, Kickstarter’s CEO Yancey Strickler posted on the company blog to officially announce that he will be stepping down later this year. Yes, that’s right, Kickstarter is currently on the lookout for a new CEO.
Strickler has been around since the beginning of Kickstarter as a co-founder and has been CEO since 2014. Before becoming CEO, Strickler played many different roles in the company before becoming CEO.
Since they launched in 2009, Strickler has spread Kickstarter’s message to artists and worked on team building, among other things. Under Yancey Strickler’s leadership these last few years, Kickstarter has:
Tripled the total dollars pledged to the platform
As of August 4 2017, $3,200,470,395 total dollars have been pledged to Kickstarter projects.
Expanded its services to creators in 16 countries
Currently, creators in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Mexico can launch projects on Kickstarter.
Built up a successful team of leaders at all different levels of the company
Kickstarter works with a team of 127 people. Half of these employees work on the platform itself and the other half work with the creators who use the platform.
Kickstarter hires professionals who specialize in many different areas, including: artists, writers, gamers, musicians, comedians, hackers, makers, and more.
Become a PBC (Public Benefit Corporation)
Kickstarter announced that they were switching from Kickstarter, Inc. to Kickstarter, PBC in September 2015. This change makes Kickstarter, a for-profit company, legally bound to not only consider the effects of its decisions on shareholders, but also the impact of their choices on workers, the community and the environment.
So, what’s next?
Kickstarter’s mission to support creativity means a lot to their current CEO. That isn’t going to change just because he is stepping down. In the blog post he shared, Strickler did mention that he has spent 12 years working on Kickstarter and it seems like he is ready for something different.
During his time at Kickstarter, Yancey Strickler has backed nearly 2,000 campaigns and launched three successful ones himself. Already hinting towards starting a few creative projects of his own when he steps down later this year, it will be interesting to see what Strickler does post-Kickstarter.
For the time being, Kickstarter is looking for someone who connects with their mission to support creative projects and will stay true to their PBC status going into their eight profitable year.
Being the CEO of Kickstarter is an exciting job in a growing industry. Soon, someone new will get the opportunity to help countless people turn their dreams into a reality.
Hopefully, Kickstarter will be able to find the right person to lead the platform into its next exciting phase.
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