Chris Wanstrath, the CEO and co-founder of Github, has announced plans to step down from his role at the decade-old developer platform startup as soon as he finds a replacement, according to a report released late on Thursday.
Wanstrath, one of the three founders of Silicon Valley tech unicorn Github, first came out with the news that he will be transitioning to an executive chairman role at an all-hands meeting in San Francisco last week. The company was reportedly celebrating new financial milestones including reaching $200 million in annualized revenues and blowing past new user highs, according to Forbes.
Github’s first CEO resigned once before in 2012 and was proceeded by the firm’s other co-founder Tom Preston-Werner, who was pressured to step down two years later following an investigation into gender-based harassment.
Wanstrath will maintain a hands-on role in guiding the 700-employee strong company as it enters its next stage of growth, and will work closely with the board of directors to appoint its next CEO. The co-founder will focus on product strategy and the Github community as executive chairman.
“I want to spend time traveling and getting to know how people are using Github,” he said. “And I want to be in the code.”
Github, backed by investors including Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, is a code sharing platform used by over 12 million co-workers, classmates, friends and strangers, who leverage its technology to build new things through the company’s desktop, mobile apps and Github Enterprise. In a Series B funding round which took place in July 2015, Github raised an additional $250 million, valuing the company at around $2 billion. Github has long-term targets in place to surpass 100 million users and revenue of $1 billion.
