Peloton co-founder Tom Cortez is leaving the company


People walk past a Peloton store in Coral Gables, Florida on January 20, 2022.

Joe Raddle | getty images

peloton Co-founder and chief product officer Tom Cortez is leaving the company and will be replaced by longtime Silicon Valley veteran Nick Caldwell, the company announced Tuesday.

Cortez, who helped found the connected fitness company with former CEO John Foley in 2012, will take on an advisory role starting Nov. 1, the company said.

“After nearly 12 years of devoting myself to Peloton and serving our members, I’ve decided it’s time to move on and make room for new perspectives,” Cortese said in a news release.

“I’m looking forward to new growth for Peloton and for me personally, but I’m also excited to support and see this next phase of Peloton’s growth. I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished together. Couldn’t be more proud.”

Caldwell most recently served on the boards of tech companies Bitly, HubSpot and True Search and previously worked at Twitter, Google, Reddit and Microsoft, where she worked for about 16 years at the start of her career, according to her LinkedIn profile.

He will oversee global product development and start the new role on November 1.

CEO Barry McCarthy said in a statement, “I want to thank Tom for his tireless dedication since I launched Peloton as a co-founder of the business nearly 12 years ago. Without his contributions we would not be where we are today. Would have been.” “Nick brings impressive engineering, design and product experience to the Peloton team. Nick joins us at an exciting time as we look to grow our customer base online and across our connected fitness hardware.”

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The news comes just over a year into McCarthy’s tenure as Peloton CEO. Since he took over, he has appointed Leslie Berland as the company’s head of marketing and Dalana Brand as chief people officer, among other appointments. Berland and Brand were both executives at Twitter before joining Peloton.

With Cortez’s departure, only two executives from Peloton’s early days remain in its C-suite. The company’s chief content officer Jennifer Cotter and its chief emerging businesses officer Dion Camp Sanders have both been with the company since Foley was at the helm.

During an interview with CNBC earlier this year, Cortez recalled the early days of Peloton and what inspired him and Foley to start the business.

Tom Cortez, co-founder of Peloton.

Source: Peloton

,[In] 2013, 10 years ago now, I was standing in the Short Hills Mall in New Jersey, my kids were thinking I was a mall retail guy, and we were selling people on the idea of ​​being able to reach energetic, remarkable fitness. Were. The most comfortable place on Earth: their home,” Cortese told CNBC.

“We were doing this because what we saw happening in the real world… was that people were turning to boutique studio fitness, which was starting to excite them, right? So just going to the gym ‘It’s just not doing…so the Peloton bike and everything that comes with it was born.”

According to his LinkedIn, Cortez started as the company’s chief operating officer and took over as head of product in August 2021. Most recently, he was involved in the development of Peloton’s app and the introduction of new product features on its associated fitness products.

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In the company’s early days, Peloton was a product-first retailer that earned the bulk of its revenue by selling its expensive connected fitness products, including its Bike, Bike+, and Tread, as an alternative to the gym.

However, in the years since, Peloton’s products have been recalled due to numerous manufacturing errors, some of which have injured customers.

Its Tread+ treadmill was recalled after the death of a child. The company has since been embroiled in fines and legal battles related to its products and their recalls.

When Peloton last reported earnings on Aug. 23, executives said they believed the most recent recall of bike seat posts led to an increase in membership churn and helped the company earn more than expected. The cost is coming.

These days, subscription revenue is Peloton’s primary revenue driver. Earlier this year, it announced a massive brand overhaul that beefed up Peloton’s subscription offering and signaled that the company is investing as much in its app as it is in its hardware.

Although the company often emphasizes that hardware is still one of its primary focus areas, new product development appears to be slow.

When asked earlier this year if the company planned to introduce new hardware, Cortez hinted at more to come.

“We maintain a strong hardware development team,” he said. “They’re certainly not twiddling their thumbs.”

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