Jonathan Skogmo and Lee Essner are leaving Jukin, “confident” it’s in good hands

One year after selling Jukin to Reader’s Digest owner Trusted Media Brands for upward of $100 million, co-founders Jonathan Skogmo and Lee Essner are leaving the company.

Skogmo and Essner co-founded Jukin in 2010, and since then has become known for its content brands, like FailArmy, People Are Awesome, The Pet Collective, Poke My Heart, This Is Happening, and WeatherSpy, as well as its vast trove of user-generated content, which it licenses out for use in TV shows, films, ads, and more.

Skogmo tells Tubefilter that in his time with Jukin, its team has “accomplished a lot,” including paying out more than $40 million in royalties to content creators, bringing in a collective 225+ million followers for its content brands, and parlaying FailArmy’s popularity into a primetime comedy TV series that aired on FOX in the U.S. and Channel 5 in the U.K.

“In my wildest dreams I couldn’t have predicted this amazing ride and success we’ve had,” Skogmo said in a letter to Jukin staffers. “I couldn’t have imagined employing over 1,000 colleagues, managing 4 global offices, and paying out tens of millions of dollars to content creators in a market that never existed before.”

He added that Trusted Media Brands’ acquisition of Jukin “was the best option for the business, the stock holders, and employees,” and that he’s “confident in the success of the combined entity.”

“TMB will go on to do great things and continue to innovate our industry,” he said. “And I’ll be rooting you all on.”

About where he’s off to next, Skogmo said “the unknown is exhilarating.” Essner has not announced what his next role might be.