Linus Sebastian is stepping down as Linus Tech Tips CEO in transition to new role

Linus Sebastian, the creator of the tech media giant Linus Media Group, has officially announced he is stepping down as the CEO and transitioning to a new role, one that will still have him on camera as much as always. 

In a sudden May 18 announcement video on the Linus Tech Tips channel, Linus has officially announced he is stepping down as the CEO of LMG and Floatplane effective on July 1. 

In the video, he explained he is not retiring from the company as a whole, despite a $100 Million offer to do so, but is instead taking on a different role. Starting on July 1, Linus’ new position will be as Chief Vision Officer, helping with creative direction while still appearing on camera as much as fans have grown to expect.

Linus reassured viewers he is not going away from the public spotlight, nor is he retiring just yet. In fact, he hopes he would appear on camera much more regularly with the new position.

Rather, his managerial responsibilities as a CEO have been handed over to Terren Tong, who was Linus’ former boss when he worked under NCIX.

Linus announces move from CEO to new creative position

In the video, Linus fully explained why he is stepping down as CEO at this point in time. “The truth is, I was never cut out to be a CEO,” he said. “I remember putting it on my business cards in the early days when we had four employees thinking, ‘this feels ridiculous’, and I’ve never really outgrown that.”

He went on to jokingly list the aspects he feels he is good at, but pointed out none of them make him fit as a CEO. 

“In addition to those strengths, both real and imagined, I have a lot of weaknesses, and chief among them is that I’ve never really had the attention to detail or the temperament it takes to run an organization this large.” 

Linus further explained that the managerial side of the company will have no drastic changes and they ensured the handover will be as smooth as possible.

Additionally, Linus and his wife, Yvonne, are still the sole shareholders and directors of the company. Assuring that it has not been purchased out by a bigger corporate entity.

Linus has spoken candidly about his retirement and the future of the company very candidly in the past. Famously, he did a livestream when the Linus Tech Tips channel hit 10 million subscribers talking about his potential retirement.

He has also spoken candidly about buy-out offers they have gotten, in particular an offer for $100 million. He further explained in the announcement video that the offer was very attractive with him getting 60% cash and 40% equity, but they ultimately turned it down.

Who is Linus’ replacement as CEO of Linus Media Group?

As mentioned before Linus’ replacement as CEO is Terren Tong. Tong was Linus’ former boss at NCIX, and someone Linus clearly puts a lot of trust and respect on.

He explained it as much in the video, “he was my boss when I worked in NCIX, which makes him kind of uniquely qualified for this position because managing me is a challenging task. I’m everywhere, even the most skilled of administrators have struggled with it, and he’s one of the only people to ever successfully do that.”

After Tong’s long tenure at NCIX, he would go on to work at Corsair for nine years from 2012 to 2021, and he would go on to work at Dell. Linus described his time at both companies as successful enough that they “thwarted all attempts” to hire him.