Business Insider founder Henry Blodget sent out the following on Friday:
Team,
Seventeen years ago, in the early days of Business Insider, I learned about the “startup-founder life-cycle.”
First you had to create a product people loved. Then you had to build a business to support it. Then you had to hire an amazing team. Then you had to make yourself irrelevant. Then, finally, you had to fire yourself — or you would just get in the way.
For the last few years, I’ve been in the end stages of that life-cycle.
Last year, we promoted Barbara to CEO, while I stayed on the board. I was confident you and Barbara wouldn’t need my help, and you haven’t. In fact, as ever, I have been filled with pride and gratitude for the extraordinary work you are doing despite the ongoing challenges in our industry.
As many of you know, we launched Business Insider in 2007, in the loading dock of another NYC startup. First, it was me. Then it was three of us.* Then five. We banged feverishly on our laptops all day, fearing that, if we stopped writing, our audience would disappear, and our “little flame” of a company would go out. Our workspace was so cramped and unheralded that when I brought my five-year-old daughter to see it, she wandered away and couldn’t find it again.
Fortunately, we kept the flame burning. And over the next two decades, thanks to you and many others, we have grown it into a roaring fire. Business Insider has become bigger, more meaningful, and better than I ever thought possible. And our best days are still ahead.
Meanwhile, my own life cycle has rolled on. The daughter who got lost in our first office has now graduated from college. I’m nearing the end of my sixth decade (!). And I have succeeded in making myself irrelevant. (Actually, you have. Well done!)
So, I will now leave the BI board, but I’ll remain an advisor and supporter. And if Jamie and our incredible editorial team will have me, I’ll keep contributing columns from time to time.
I’ll also do more of what I’ve been doing in the past few years — writing, advising others, and helping launch new journalism projects. Some parts of our industry have yet to be fully rebuilt for the digital age, and I’m excited to continue to help do that. I’m also getting back to something I did four decades ago before I “got a real job” — writing fiction. My first novel, naturally, is about a billionaire who wants to rule the world. ;-)
Your dedication amazes and inspires me, and I will never stop being grateful for it. It has been an enormous privilege to work with you. And I’ll be rooting for you and BI forever.
Thank you all.
