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Veteran entrepreneurRakesh Mathurstepped down as CEO of the college sociable networkFizz , handing over the reins to 22 - twelvemonth - old founder Teddy Solomon .
It ’s full circle forFizz , the anon. platform that Solomon started with his Stanford classmate Ashton Cofer before they dropped out to work on the app full - sentence . Mathur has been wreak with the new founders since late 2021 , when his daughter — also a Stanford educatee — met Solomon at a company and proclaimed to her father that she had met “ the next Mark Zuckerberg . ”
Maybe Mathur ’s girl has a future career in early - stage investing because she was on to something . Fizz is n’t Facebook , and thankfully , Solomon has not yet had to testify for his company ’s shortcomings on Capitol Hill . But three years later , he has made a name for himself . Fizz has raised over $ 40 million and spread to 250 college campus , where educatee have posted on the political platform about 20 million metre .
“ From my standpoint , I get to the degree that I find somebody who can do a safe job than I can , that has the right level of passion , and then I tread back and I ’m a chairwoman , a mentor , ” Mathur tell TechCrunch .
Mathur adjudicate that Solomon was ready to take the rein of the company because of how much the fellowship had blend through in such a poor time period .
“ We raised money in the end of 2021 , and everything was easy ; 2022 was a catastrophe to prove money in , ” Mathur say . “ So he lived through that . That normally takes a whole cycle — six , seven years to go through an upturn and a downturn . ”
Fizz has also faced the pressure that will chevy any social media platform when it gains enough adhesive friction — what if citizenry practice the platform irresponsibly ?
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The company gravel into hot piss last year when students at a high school in Vermont abused the political platform , which turned intoa hotbed for bullying . Rather than doubling down on its plan to lucubrate to high schools , Fizz made the choice to contain catering to these younger users , who are less likely to use the anonymous platform responsibly . But at this point , some of the turbulence has settled for the caller , which still has about $ 20 million in funding in the bank .
“ The meter to do something like this is when you have as much momentum as you could possibly have , and we have unbelievable momentum right now , ” Solomon tell TechCrunch . “ We ’re witness the quickest expansion we ’ve ever had , and we ’re seeing just the morale in the caller and around the app and the hullabaloo around what we ’re building higher than ever . ”
“ We have a waitlist of company who are examine to do advertising with us , and we ’re taking it very slow , learning as much as we can , ” Solomon said . “ I take the air around Stanford ’s campus and I see DoorDash ambassadors all around campus and companies that are really attempt to reach college users , and what we can offer up them is they ’re all on our chopine . ”
For Mathur , stepping down as CEO means that he can get back to his retirement .
“ I ’m as much a successive failed retiree as I am a serial entrepreneur , ” he said . But the intergenerational hamper that the two entrepreneurs have formed is n’t going by . The two spend so much prison term together socially — Mathur even took Solomon on a trip across India — that his girl , the Stanford student who first introduce them , had to discourage him that he ’s not allowed to go to Stanford party .
“ My admirer at Stanford love Rakesh , you have no idea , ” Solomon said . But Mathur does n’t require to relive his youth — he just wants to get the sought after invite to Solomon ’s weekly pancake breakfast with his Stanford friends , which occupy place every Friday at 6 a.m.
“ Rakesh get mad because he says I do n’t invite him to pancakes any longer , ” Solomon enounce . “ That ’s not true . My ally graduated , Rakesh . ”
“ Part of this passage was that I would get invite to pancakes , ” Mathur joked . “ That was the final step … I ’ve got the pancake invite locked and loaded . ”
Solomon learned how to go a inauguration , raise uppercase , and supervise a team from Mathur . But what he values most from Mathur ’s mentorship is his knack for keep a stressful inauguration environment energise .
“ What Rakesh taught me most was how to have fun while you ’re doing it , because Rakesh has never stopped let fun to this day , after a dozen company and all he ’s done in his vocation , ” Solomon said . “ He has an eerily similar vim to me , fall in how many years apart we are , but we both just enjoy to do it what we ’re doing , and desire to proceed loving what we ’re doing . ”
