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WP Engine CEO Jason Cohen replaced by COO Heather Brunner

75 points by alwaysunday 13y ago

jmduke 13y ago
To clarify: Jason is stepping down into a CTO role. This makes sense. Like he said in the post, as a company grows, the CEO role tends to shrink farther and farther from the technical nitty-gritty.
- dotBen 13y ago
  And to further clarify, the choice use of the word "replaced" in the OP-submitted headline implies Jason was pushed aside or something, which is very much not the case. This is something that has been in the works for some time, even before Heather was brought on as COO in the Spring.
- nerdnorth 13y ago
  Managing a company is a lot different than starting a company. I think that's what Cohen is getting to here: he was good at growing the company in the beginning, but managing a company of 80 people is a completely different job description.
programminggeek 13y ago
This is a smart move and it is the sort of answer to the question, "do you want a big piece of a small pie or a small piece of a huge pie?" that every founder must decide for themselves. Ultimately the best thing is to put yourself where you can do what is best for your business, but sometimes that means not being in charge.
ckdarby 13y ago
Why is this on hacker news front page?
- simonw 13y ago
  Because 34 people voted for it.
  - 8ig8 13y ago
    Thank you. I think this every time I read such a comment... "because your peers expressed interest in it."
- if_by_whisky 13y ago
  I'll pretend your question is genuine. It's because of his thoughtful explanation of how the CEO role changes as startups become established businesses. (Not because of the notoriety of his business-- which I assume is the source of your sass.)
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
- integraton 13y ago
  Jason Cohen's blog (http://blog.asmartbear.com http://blog.asmartbear.com) has historically been very popular among the startup crowd and used to be regularly front-paged on hacker news. Also, WP Engine is popular and many of us use it. Note that they host the blogs of several well-known tech companies.
antidaily 13y ago
80 employees. Wow.

75 points by alwaysunday 13y ago

To clarify: Jason is stepping down into a CTO role. This makes sense. Like he said in the post, as a company grows, the CEO role tends to shrink farther and farther from the technical nitty-gritty.

dotBen 13y ago
And to further clarify, the choice use of the word "replaced" in the OP-submitted headline implies Jason was pushed aside or something, which is very much not the case. This is something that has been in the works for some time, even before Heather was brought on as COO in the Spring.
nerdnorth 13y ago
Managing a company is a lot different than starting a company. I think that's what Cohen is getting to here: he was good at growing the company in the beginning, but managing a company of 80 people is a completely different job description.

programminggeek 13y ago

This is a smart move and it is the sort of answer to the question, "do you want a big piece of a small pie or a small piece of a huge pie?" that every founder must decide for themselves. Ultimately the best thing is to put yourself where you can do what is best for your business, but sometimes that means not being in charge.

ckdarby 13y ago

Why is this on hacker news front page?

simonw 13y ago
Because 34 people voted for it.
- 8ig8 13y ago
  Thank you. I think this every time I read such a comment... "because your peers expressed interest in it."
if_by_whisky 13y ago
I'll pretend your question is genuine. It's because of his thoughtful explanation of how the CEO role changes as startups become established businesses. (Not because of the notoriety of his business-- which I assume is the source of your sass.)
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
integraton 13y ago
Jason Cohen's blog (http://blog.asmartbear.com http://blog.asmartbear.com) has historically been very popular among the startup crowd and used to be regularly front-paged on hacker news. Also, WP Engine is popular and many of us use it. Note that they host the blogs of several well-known tech companies.

antidaily 13y ago

80 employees. Wow.