8 Tech Executives Ousted From The Companies They Co-Founded

Even when you are the founder of one of the most globally successful technology companies, you can still be fired from that company. For instance, Steve Jobs used to be ousted from his founded company - Apple before coming back to the company after 12 years. Or Travis Kalanick, co-founder of Uber, resigned from his position after a ton of scandals in a year. Tesla’s co-founder, Martin Eberhard, was also fired from the company.

Here are names of 8 technology executives who used to co-found companies but were fired from these companies later:

1. Steve Jobs – Apple Co-Founder

After an argument with John Sculley, Apple CEO, Steve Jobs said goodbye to Apple in 1985. However, he came back to Apple after the company acquired his startup NeXT Computer in 1997. And only several months later of that year, Jobs persuaded the BOD to fire Gil Amelio, becoming CEO.

Steve Jobs - Apple Co-Founder

2. Travis Kalanick – Uber Founder

After months full of scandals, Travis Kalanick handed in his resignation from the CEO position in July 2017.

Travis Kalanick is Uber founder, but he resigned due to company’s scandals lasting long months such as Susan Fowler’s allegations of the toxic company culture, or #DeleteUber campaign with 200,000 participants deleting Uber application, etc.

Finally, Uber’s BOD called for Kalanick’s resignation and he actually left Uber in July 2017. Then, he started to dabble in many investments like food delivery service idea.

Travis Kalanick, Uber Founder

3. Jack Dorsey – Twitter Co-Founder

Jack Dorsey and Ev Williams founded Twitter in 2006. Then in 2008, Dorsey was fired by Williams from his CEO position although Dorsey was the first to have the idea for the platform.

However, Dorsey then founded Square, a platform of mobile payments, worth US $31 billion in 2009. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO, even attempted to hire him after he was fired from Twitter.

But in 2015, he came back as Twitter's temporary CEO, replacing Dick Costolo, a former leader. Then, he quickly became permanent CEO after the short period.

Jack Dorsey, Twitter Co-Founder

4. Parker Conrad – Zenefits Founder

Parker Conrad established Zenefits in 2013. It is a cloud-based software firm to support businesses to deal with human resources. But amid controversy about how the company licensed its agents, Conrad left.

Currently, he is running a startup called Rippling which is a service to offer businesses an easy method to onboard newbies that he launched in 2017.

Parker Conrad, Zenefits Founder

5. Palmer Luckey – Oculus VR Founder 

Palmer Luckey, the founder of Oculus VR, a Facebook’s subsidiary, left these two companies in March of 2017 after he was reported to fund a meme group against Hillary Clinton.

Luckey has founded Anduril in 2017. Also, he is building a hi-tech “virtual” border wall relying on AI for government defense.

Palmer Luckey, Oculus VR Founder

6. Andrew Mason – Groupon Founder

Andrew Mason who founded Groupon, a discount site, was sacked in 2013. While the site drew a lot of attention at first, its growth after going public let investors down, which led to his lay-off shortly.

Then, he started to found Detour, a startup for making smartphone audio tours in the same year.

Andrew Mason, Groupon Founder

7. Jerry Yang – Yahoo Founder

Jerry Yang founded Yahoo in the late 1990s and was made Yahoo’s CEO in 2007. But in 2008, he did not agree with Microsoft’s acquisition offer, causing the company’s stocks plummeting. Then he left Yahoo because the BOD reportedly forced him to resign.

Jerry Yang, Yahoo Founder

8. Martin Eberhard – Tesla Co-Founder

Martin Eberhard who was Tesla’s co-founder and CEO was fired from the company in 2007. He was replaced by an early investor of Tesla, Michael Marks as an interim CEO.

Currently, he is investing in several startups, as shown in his profile on LinkedIn.

Martin Eberhard, Tesla Co-Founder