A year ago, Toronto-based photo sharing service 500px brought on a few “tech heavy hitters” to grow its business. Andy Yang, formerly the managing director of Extreme Startups, joined as COO, and former co-founder of iStock Photo, Patrick Lor, signed on a board member.
Co-founder Oleg Gutsol stated at the time that “big ideas demand big thinkers… We’ve assembled a team of bright, innovative leaders who will help us push the boundaries of 500px as we work to achieve our goal of being the best photographer-centred platform in the world.”
Unfortunately, Gutsol is no longer with the 500px, a company he started with Evgeny Tchebotarev in 2009. Gutsol shared the news on Facebook, noting that he was “ousted from the company that [he] created by the people [he] trusted most.”
According to TechCrunch, Gutsol’s role shifted six months ago to work on special projects and Yang stepping in the CEO role. “We’re just basically going different ways. They have a very different opinion of where the company should go, and I think it was probably too strong of a push from my direction, it was probably too different – where I wanted to take the company and where they wanted to go,” Gutsol said.
500px currently has over four million photographers on its platform and aims to be the “premier photography community and remains dedicated to enabling and rewarding visual creativity for everyone.”