Fly.io CEO Kurt Mackey is stepping down

Fly.io boss Kurt Mackey says he’s stepping down, handing the chief executive job to Scott Johnston while the company pivots hard toward its new AI-focused product, Sprites. Mackey insists this is not a panic move: he says the company has had its best financial months ever and has even raised more money. But the internet, naturally, smelled drama immediately.

The comment section quickly turned into a mix of startup wake, roast session, and amateur detective squad. One of the sharpest reactions came from people wondering whether Fly.io has simply faded from relevance, with one commenter noting that the company used to dominate Hacker News but now barely makes a ripple, especially after ending free app hosting for new users. Ouch. Others skipped the nuance entirely and went straight for dark comedy, with a brutally short “Congrats on quitting!” that pretty much won the prize for drive-by snark.

Then came the real tension: if Fly.io is betting big on something new, what happens to the old stuff? Users pressed the company on whether its earlier products are quietly headed for the graveyard. And not everyone loved Mackey’s blunt, profanity-heavy writing style either; one critic said the tone alone made them not want to use the company, even though they liked the product. So while Fly.io is trying to tell a story of reinvention, the crowd seems split between “bold new chapter,” “is this a soft goodbye?” and “please act like adults.”