Nikhil Shah is stepping back from MixCloud to embark on a new chapter of his life; Co-founder Nico Perez to be CEO

As you all know, our mission at Tech Startups is to share stories about technology startups, innovations, emerging technologies, and how these technologies are being used to benefit mankind and technologies are being used to improve the quality of life for people around the world. However, behind every startup, there are founders and teams with personal stories. Sometimes in life, we are faced with circumstances beyond our control. As such, we may have to take a step back, reevaluate our lives, and focus on what matters the most.

Today, we would like to share the story of one of the great startup founders. Nikhil Shah is a co-founder of Internet radio platform MixCloud. Shah co-founded MixCloud with his partners Nico Perez, Sam Cooke, and Mat Clayton over a decade ago. In a Medium post on Thursday, Shah announced he’s stepping back from MixCloud to embark on a new chapter of his life.

“After nearly a dozen years, this month I’m stepping back from my full time role at Mixcloud. I will continue working with the business as a board advisor, and my Cofounder Nico Perez is taking on the CEO position. I’m excited about where he continues to take the business, with my ongoing support from further back,” Shah wrote on Medium.

Towards the end of 2019, Nikhil made a decision to step back from MixCloud after the sudden loss of his father last Summer. “Losing my father made me see the world differently. It gave me perspective,” Nikhil explained.

At my dad’s funeral in July 2019, I was standing in a line with my closest family outside the crematorium to shake hands with the guests, as is custom in Indian culture. A man I’ve never met, an old buddy of my dad’s from school in Kenya, shook my hand and held me by the shoulder, looked intently into my eyes and said into my ear: “The 2 most important things in life are your body and your family”, and he walked off. The line stuck with me. Losing my father made me see the world differently. It gave me perspective.

Mixcloud is an online long-form audio platform providing content such as radio shows, podcasts and DJ mixes. Shah and his Cofounder Nico quit their jobs in the summer of 2008 to build a platform to connect the world’s best radio and DJ content to listeners. After searching high and low for some technical brains, they found two other Cofounders, Mat Clayton and Sam Cooke, and Mixcloud was born.

So, what’s next for Nikhil? He’s still plans to spend a few days a month with Mixcloud as a board advisor. This means ongoing strategic input to the board, advice and support for key people in the leadership team; and continuing to work with external partners to identify great growth opportunities for the business.

Nikhil also plans to give back and spend more time into helping others in the next chapter of his life. He said he has  already started working with a number of charities and early stage founders. We wish Nikhil Shah the very best.