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Peloton co-founder Tom Cortese is stepping down

Peloton co-founder Tom Cortese is stepping down

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Tom Cortese, Peloton’s co-founder and chief product officer, is getting replaced by former Twitter executive Nick Caldwell.

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Tom Cortese, Peloton co-founder and chief product officer, is stepping down from his role. In a press release shared on Tuesday, Peloton says it will replace Cortese with former Twitter executive Nick Caldwell.

“After nearly 12 years of pouring myself into Peloton and serving our Members, I have decided it is time to move on and create space for new perspectives,” Cortese says. “I’m eager for new growth for Peloton and for me personally, but I’m also excited to support and watch this next phase of Peloton’s evolution.”

Cortese isn’t leaving the company completely. Peloton says he’ll enter an advisory role on November 1st to “support its vision and growth.” Cortese has held a pivotal role at Peloton, where he led the company’s development of new fitness equipment, such as its rower.

Meanwhile, Caldwell previously held several roles at major tech companies. After a 15-year career at Microsoft, Caldwell served as the vice president of engineering at Reddit from 2016 to 2018 and later worked at Google as the senior director of product and engineering. More recently, he worked at Twitter as the vice president of engineering and general manager from June 2020 to November 2022.

Peloton has gone through many changes after experiencing a major dropoff in sales during the aftermath of the covid pandemic. In February 2022, the company announced a wave of layoffs and the departure of co-founder and CEO John Foley. Since taking Foley’s place, Peloton CEO Barry McCarthy has been attempting to steer the company toward profitability by introducing new subscriptions and adding a new leasing option for Peloton’s bikes.