Peloton's cofounder-CPO Tom Cortese out; ex-Twitter exec Nick Caldwell takes product

Peloton makes connected fitness hardware and the subscriptions that run on it.

That the product organization needed new, big-tech software perspectives — not founder-led hardware iteration — for the turnaround

Tom Cortese co-founded Peloton and spent nearly 12 years as chief product officer, leading development of new fitness equipment such as its rower.

After a major post-pandemic sales dropoff, Peloton announced layoffs and cofounder-CEO John Foley's departure in February 2022; CEO Barry McCarthy responded with new subscriptions and a bike-leasing option. On 2023-09-26 Peloton announced Cortese would step down and move to an advisory role from November 1.

Nick Caldwell — 15 years at Microsoft, VP of engineering at Reddit (2016–2018), senior director of product and engineering at Google, and VP of engineering and general manager at Twitter (2020–2022) — took over the product organization.

Caldwell's résumé — Microsoft, Reddit, Google, Twitter — is software and platform leadership, matching McCarthy's subscription-led turnaround.

Cortese's departure follows Foley's, leaving McCarthy as the non-founder face of the recovery.

Cortese framed the exit as making room for 'new perspectives', with the advisory role smoothing the handover.

Turnarounds often swap the builder for the operator: founder hardware instincts give way to software leadership when subscriptions must carry the company.

As of 2023-09-26 Cortese was set to become an advisor on November 1, and Caldwell was taking over the product organization under CEO Barry McCarthy's profitability plan.