Last.fm founders quit

I don't think there should be undue stigma or speculation when founders move on. The type of person who can cast a vision that brings a company to this point isn't always (or rarely is) the same person who will thrive on the task of maintaining a company once it reaches, or nearly reaches the founder's original vision for it. There is nothing wrong with finding the most opportune moment to bow out, provided you aren't screwing over anyone else.

I wonder if they are essentially saying "since our stock is finished vesting over the last 2 years..."<p>They might have wanted to leave for some time.<p>edit: It's really close to the exact 2 year mark <a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/company/last-fm" rel="nofollow">http://www.crunchbase.com/company/last-fm</a>

I am not normally a conspiracy theorist, but the first thing that crossed my mind was the whole crappy drama with techcrunch.<p>Have the founders discovered that there was a data leak - and, given their opinions on the matter - decided it better to quit than work with whoever made it happen?<p>I hope not (edit: because I was rooting for last.fm, not because I want it to be true).

2 years...about the right time for bonus, retention payments, options, etc. to vest.

Well, if they all left at the same time, I really hope they are working on something new. It's interesting that Felix, RJ and Martin were actually the original team (I thought at first that they were just part of the original team): <a href="http://www.last.fm/about/team" rel="nofollow">http://www.last.fm/about/team</a> so I'm looking forward to see a new startup from them.

7 years is a long time to have spent working on a single company.

2 years seems a good average length to endure big-corp life. Wonder if there's some more data on this somewhere.

As a founder when (if ever) do you pass over control of a business you started?<p>That's a hard question to answer. Obviously it depends on what your goals were initially (build something, make some cash) and whether or not you've met them.<p>After building and selling a business what do you do next? Build another business and sell it? Or perhaps build a business, and keep on building it for the rest of your working days? Is that what twitter is up to? EV sold blogger a while back.

the reason i would read more into this than just 'it's time to move on' is when all 3 founders leave at the same time. or is that more common than i would suspect?

In an open world, <a href="http://libre.fm" rel="nofollow">http://libre.fm</a> shows promise.