Docker founder leaves billion-dollar company he set up

Docker founder and CTO Solomon Hykes has announced that he is leaving the $1.3 billion company that he set up.

Hykes confirmed the news in a blog post, stating that he no longer feels needed at the company. Although he didn’t say when he was officially standing down, Hykes confirmed that he will help to find the CTO that Docker ‘needs’ to help it develop. 

"To take advantage of this opportunity, we need a CTO by Steve’s [Singh] side with decades of experience shipping and supporting software for the largest corporations in the world," Hykes said in his post. "So I now have a new role: to help find that ideal CTO, provide the occasional bit of advice, and get out of the team’s way as they continue to build a juggernaut of a business. As a shareholder, I couldn’t be happier to accept this role."

Docker launched five years ago out of another startup founded by Hykes called Dotcloud. which Hykes started in 2008 and ran as CEO. The container technology behind Dotcloud was eventually tuned into Docker and has become one of the most important technologies in modern cloud computing. Hykes is credited with developing Docker’s name stake technology, which lets developers wrap code in what is known as a ‘software container’. Containers make it so developers can write a set of code just once, and run it anywhere, on any server or big computing cloud service.

Hykes will remain on the Docker board and retain significant ownership over the company, though he said he will no longer have any role in the company’s day-to-day operations. Other than that he gave little indication as to what the future holds. "After obsessing for so many years over my own ideas, I am rediscovering the joys of putting myself at the service of others – my friends, my family, and the brilliant entrepreneurs I’ve been lucky enough to advise and invest in over the years," Hykes wrote. "Over the coming months I plan to use my experience to help them in any way I can.”