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Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

Evolving the Team

Mastodon Blog, May 05, 2025

This is pretty important I think: "Mastodon has taken the strategic decision not to accept venture capital investments for growth, but rather restructure to a European non-profit organisation." From where I sit, if you take venture capital, you're accepting that at some point your service will become user-hostile, as it prioritizes VC return on investment over all else. VCs demand an exit, which means you'll be selling or going public, and these create constraints that prevent you from fulfilling any sort of mission other than making money. Mastodon has a mission "related to an open internet, privacy, and data ownership" which is protected with this decision.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

Copyright 2025
Last Updated: Jul 30, 2025 08:21 a.m.

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