CEO leaves to choose family and the press eats it up

We’ve all heard this line before… a CEO steps down and says its to spend time with family. Everyone knows its because they were replaced.

The MongoDB CEO did the exact same thing… except instead of a brief statement, he wrote a long blog about it. Company is doing great. Really! Job is awesome. Really! Just doing it for my family. You know women get asked this, why not men?

Suddenly, the internet makes him a cause de celebre.

Wow. Sounds really great. Except. MongoDB isn’t doing well. Nobody really considers using MongoDB as a primary backing store anymore. Its hype has come and gone, and anyone foolish enough to use it for their primary database are now kicking themselves in the butt.

“I’m quitting for my family” still means the same thing – blog post or not, spin or not – the board wants me to step down. Only Andrew Mason has the balls to come out and admit it:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/01/groupons-ceo-writes-the-best-resignation-letter-ever/