GitHub co-founder Tom Preston-werner leaves

Today, GitHub co-founder Tom Preston-werner resigned. Last month, GitHub software architect and developer Julie Ann Horvath resigned, and openly said that GitHub had a problem with discrimination and insult to women, Tom and his wife were also illegal, and Tom suffered a sex discrimination investigation. After this round of questioning and turmoil, Tom chose to leave and leave the GitHub he had created. Although GitHub said the sex discrimination investigation did not find any evidence of wrongdoing.

One night, I found myself in a magical moment, when I was listening to Yancey Strickler about Kickstarter's history as an audience. I listened to him in awe of how Kickstarter from an office with only a large desk, to colleagues who grew to be friends, to a villa rented every year on vacation, to Yancey to put his desk in the center of all his colleagues. His story is full of love for company, colleagues and products, and I am excited to shed tears because I think of another company story.

Yancey was recently the CEO of Kickstarter. The two first founders left the company late last year. That night I got up the courage to raise my last question: "What happened to the company and the team after the founder left?" "Yancey's answer surprises me, he thinks the two founders are very brave, and even if the company is at the pinnacle of success, they still think they should try something else." In the company, employees are optimistic to look forward.

Later, I retell the story to my husband, and I said, "What strikes me is not what Yancey says, but how he speaks it." "The two founders have left, and they don't perceive it from what Yancey tells, as if they had never left, and if it wasn't for the question I raised, no audience would have known they had left the company." The company was born from the founder's heart, Will and hands, the founder is the company's starting point, Kickstarter's story began with the two founders. It was meaningful for Tom and me, and we began to rethink the company we founded, Tom's GitHub and my omakase Charity.

Tom co-founded GitHub with several friends, and the company developed in the process of constant communication between founders and early employees. In fact, GitHub advocated collaboration, bureaucracy, increased efficiency and the creation of a free community. In such an environment, the recent allegations of discrimination in GitHub appear to be particularly harsh and painful.

My family and I supported GitHub in the last month's survey of GitHub. We are not responding to queries on social networks because we do not want to disrupt the investigation. Our legal advisers advise us not to contact any GitHub, many of whom are close friends. We believe we can win because we know the truth behind it. But the overwhelming negativity of Twitter,secret and hacker News has made our silence miserable-imagine yourself, your family, and the company you created in the face of countless horrible and unrealistic accusations that you can't justify.

As expected, we cleared up all the allegations of discrimination. But our reputation has been irrevocably damaged by these accusations and by the unfounded rumours that have been spread maliciously.

If you know Tom and me, you should know that we are not idle people. I used to live in New York, run my own company, Omakase Charity, the first non-profit organization to be TechStars accepted. Tom also came to New York, he divided his time into two, one to help my company, another to participate in a new project. We often say to each other, "What makes you more than what kills you".

After weeks of silence, we found that, although the accusations of discrimination were lifted, the questioning of Tom's decision-making power began to ring. We learned that some employees were under pressure because Tom helped me with my non-profit organization. We were so omakase about this new accusation that I even began to question every decision I made for charity.

I have a lot of close friends in GitHub, so when I set up a company last summer, I took the time to visit these people. I haven't created a company, so I need a lot of advice. I invite every friend, whether in GitHub or outside, I will invite them to talk. Soon after, I began to touch people I knew, whether in meetings, party, bars or trains, I would find someone to share my thoughts with. I think it's important to build relationships and tell the world what you think.

I am terribly sorry if anyone feels that I am forcing them to give advice, labor or registration. I never had that intention. I'm just too excited about my career and eager to share her with everyone. In GitHub, some other couples also make social connections with their own labor, and I do nothing different from them. I'm the CEO's wife, but I've never used that identity with GitHub colleagues.

Because of my enthusiasm for the cause, and the degree of GitHub to the bureaucratic level of optimism, I did not realize that the power structure can not be completely eliminated. It was a bitter lesson and a mistake I would never make again.

Because of my behavior, Tom left the company he created. Although I knew Tom would not stay in GitHub forever, I knew he was very excited about the new project and I was still very frustrated at the moment he left.

Everything the founders feared.

In the beginning, I set the title of this essay "What all Founders fear-when a company becomes more important than the people in the company." GitHub has become a big company, and her top priority is how to heal itself internally and externally. The founder has an instinct to realize that the company's first priority is above the founder's original struggle. I used to be proud of Tom's efforts as a husband and founder of the company, but now I'm raising the level of his pride.

I don't know anyone like Tom. When I was asked by the investigator whether Tom was naïve, I was stunned and didn't know what to say until she offered another word "optimism", and I was sure that Tom was not naïve but absolutely optimistic.

I think what the founders are really afraid of is when the company is growing up and people are questioning their motives. They fear that the founders are out of touch with the team and just want to build a money-piling empire. Tom does not regard himself as the CEO, and he thinks he is a structural designer of a special business model. He wants to create a company where he is loved as an employee rather than a CEO. This philosophy guides every meeting, every email and every speech. He devotes a great deal of effort to his staff in trying to create a space where everyone has enough autonomy, powerful tools, and plenty of resources to support the great things. He came home every night with a passionate sense of how he created a company that freed employees.

I write these things because no one else can do it, and to answer a lot of people's questions, I hope some questions have been answered. I am grateful to Yancey, whose founder's story has made it clear to me that a great company will remember the founder's credit, which is an inspiring moment. Tom and I are looking forward to every happy party with GitHub friends. We also wear the T-shirt of the Octopus Cat (GitHub mascot), and we will cheer for every success of this particular company.