- Peloton co-founder and chief product officer Tom Cortese is leaving the company after nearly 12 years.
- He will be replaced by Silicon Valley veteran Nick Caldwell, who previously held positions at Twitter, Google and Microsoft.
- “After nearly 12 years of commitment to Peloton and serving our members, I have decided it is time to move on and make room for new perspectives,” Cortese said in a press release.
People walk past a Peloton store in Coral Gables, Florida, on January 20, 2022.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images
Peloton co-founder and chief product officer Tom Cortese is leaving the company and will be replaced by longtime Silicon Valley veteran Nick Caldwell, the company announced Tuesday.
Cortese, who helped co-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 commitment to Peloton and serving our members, I have decided it is time to move on and make room for new perspectives,” Cortese said in a press release.
“I look forward to new growth for Peloton and for myself personally, but also look forward to supporting and watching this next phase of Peloton’s development. I couldn’t be prouder of what we’ve achieved together.”
Caldwell most recently served on the boards of technology companies Bitly, HubSpot and True Search and previously worked at Twitter, Google, Reddit and Microsoft, where he worked for nearly 16 years early in his career, according to his LinkedIn profile.
He will oversee global product development and will begin the new role on November 1st.
“I would like to thank Tom for his tireless efforts since he founded Peloton as a co-founder of the company almost 12 years ago. Without his contributions, we simply would not be here today,” CEO Barry McCarthy said in a statement. “Nick brings impressive engineering, design and product experience to the Peloton team. Nick joins us at an exciting time as we focus on growing our subscriber base online and on our connected fitness hardware.”
The news comes more than a year into McCarthy’s tenure as CEO of Peloton. Since taking over, he has hired Leslie Berland as the company’s marketing director and Dalana Brand as chief people officer, among others. Both Berland and Brand were executives at Twitter before joining Peloton.
With Cortese’s departure, only two executives from Peloton’s early days remain in the C-suite. Jennifer Cotter, the company’s chief content officer, and Dion Camp Sanders, chief emerging business officer, have both been with the company since Foley took the helm.
During an interview with CNBC earlier this year, Cortese recalled Peloton’s beginnings and what inspired him and Foley to start the company.
Peloton co-founder Tom Cortese.
Source: Peloton
“[In] In 2013, 10 years ago now, I was standing in the Short Hills Mall in New Jersey, my kids thought I was a mall retailer, and we were selling people the idea of access to high-energy, remarkable fitness from here.” The most comfortable place in the world: her home,” Cortese told CNBC.
“The reason we did this is because we saw how in the real world… brick and mortar, people turned to the boutique gym as something that started to excite them, right? I didn’t quite make it… so the Peloton Bike and everything that came with it was born.”
According to his LinkedIn account, Cortese started as the company’s chief operating officer and took on the position of head of product in August 2021. Most recently, he helped develop Peloton’s app and launch new product features for its connected fitness products.
In the company’s early days, Peloton was a product-focused retailer that generated most of its revenue from selling its expensive connected fitness products, including Bike, Bike+ and Tread, as an alternative to the gym.
However, in the years that followed, there were numerous recalls of Peloton’s products due to a number of manufacturing defects, some of which injured customers.
The Tread+ treadmill was recalled after a child was killed. Since then, the company has been mired in fines and litigation related to its products and their recalls.
When Peloton last reported earnings on Aug. 23, executives said they believed the recent recall of its bike seat post had increased member churn and cost the company much more than expected.
Today, subscription revenue is Peloton’s primary revenue driver. Earlier this year, the company announced a major brand overhaul that expanded Peloton’s subscription offerings and signaled that the company is investing in its app as much as its hardware.
While the company often insists that hardware is still one of its main focuses, new product development appears to have slowed.
When Cortese was asked earlier this year if the company had any plans to introduce new hardware, he hinted that there would be more.
“We have a strong hardware development team,” he said. “You certainly aren’t twiddling your thumbs.”