The Scoop
Several months into Louise Story’s tenure as CEO of Atlas Obscura, co-founders Joshua Foer and Dylan Thomas seemed pleased enough with her performance that they sent her a gift basket with a note thanking her for a “transformational first 100 days.”
But just a few months later, the relationship — and the relationship between the founders and some of the company’s investors — appears to have soured. According to three people familiar with the situation, the duo have been effectively pushed out of the company they founded in recent months, amid significant differences in their and Story’s competing visions for the company.
Earlier this year, Foer and Thomas made their displeasure known to the rest of Atlas Obscura’s board. In September, Thomas left the company after 15 years; Foer, who does not have a day-to-day role within the company but serves as its executive chairman, had also expressed frustration. In a note to shareholders on November 28 shared with Semafor, Atlas Obscura said common stock shareholders had voted to remove Foer and Thuras from the board and replace them with two new members, Sim Blaustein of 1745 Ventures and OpenAI’s Gabor Cselle.
Foer, Thomas, and Story declined to comment.
Know More
After joining as CEO in April, Story quickly executed a series of moves to remake the company. It had been on shaky financial footing, and Story determined that it needed to abruptly change course. She laid off 10 employees, a move that prompted other top employees to depart in protest.
In the subsequent months, the company also shifted its editorial strategy; according to one person familiar, Atlas Obscura slowed its publishing of original material and leaned more into user-generated content. Story also emphasized the need to incorporate artificial intelligence into the company’s workflows.
The moves angered much of the company’s small staff; some employees aired their grievances on the record to the media newsletter Breaker earlier this year. Some of Atlas Obscura’s passionate community members have also expressed displeasure with the company’s recent pledges to integrate artificial intelligence into its website.
Still, the company’s recent cuts and departures have helped improve its finances. In a note to investors in October obtained by Semafor, Story said that the company had just completed two profitable quarters and was “headed in the right direction.”
“We’ve taken many impactful steps in a short period of time, including tightening our budgets and our operating model; expanding our sales team, given the strong appetite that destinations and brands have for partnering with us; and laying the groundwork for a more engaging travel community product that will thrive in the era of AI,” she said. “We have said a fond farewell to some colleagues and welcomed others who are excited to dig in for a new phase focused on creating enterprise value.”