Ro’s co-founder and chief growth officer Rob Schutz is stepping back from his current role and will stay involved with the digital health company in an advisory role, TechCrunch has learned. The shift comes just weeks after Ro cut 18% of its staff to “manage expenses, increase the efficiency of our organization and better map our resources to our current strategy,” leadership wrote in an e-mail obtained by TechCrunch and confirmed by multiple sources.
“Ro has gotten to a scale where I can now confidently pass the baton to the teams in place to continue to grow, innovate and build the company from here,” Schutz wrote in an email sent to staff today. TechCrunch reached out to Ro for further comment, but had not yet heard back by time of publication. Schutz confirmed his departure on LinkedIn, providing a copy of the memo that TechCrunch received.
He’s not the first executive to depart from the company following Ro’s entrance into the growth stage. In February, Ro announced that it raised $150 million exclusively from existing investors at a $7 billion valuation. A week after the fundraise, TechCrunch learned that Ro COO George Koveos and GM of Ro Pharmacy Steve Buck moved on from the company. In May, Modern Fertility co-founder Afton Vechery left Ro about a year after her company, built alongside co-founder Carly Leahy, was sold to it for north of $225 million. Schutz is the first co-founder to leave the company, as CEO Zachariah Reitano and chief product officer Saman Rahmanian remain at the business.
Schutz wrote in the e-mail that he will step back from day-to-day operations after Labor Day, which is September 5, 2022. “What I’ve realized upon reflection is that the areas where I can flex my superpowers are most helpful to companies at a smaller stage,” Schutz wrote. He also hinted at partnering with some of Ro’s investors — which include FirstMark Capital, General Catalyst, Seven Seven Six, BoxGroup, Altimeter Capital, Baupost Group, Initialized, TQ Ventures and TCG — to advise early-stage startups.