{"id":10268,"date":"2026-04-07T18:02:41","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T18:02:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/?p=10268"},"modified":"2026-04-07T18:02:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T18:02:41","slug":"why-calm-ceo-david-ko-is-stepping-down-after-scaling-the-meditation-app","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/?p=10268","title":{"rendered":"Why Calm CEO David Ko is stepping down after scaling the meditation app"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"content-chunk\">\n<p>What does it take to lead a meditation company without finding a moment\u2019s peace? David Ko spent years as CEO of Calm, one of the world\u2019s most recognized mental health and wellness apps, helping millions manage stress. Now he\u2019s stepping down. Ko unpacks why he made the call, what the relentless pressure of the C-suite really does to a person, and how to draw the line between the kind of stress that sharpens you and the kind that quietly breaks you down.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"content-chunk\">\n<p><em style=\"\">This is an abridged transcript of an interview from<\/em> <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/mastersofscale.com\/episode_category\/rapid-response\/\">Rapid Response<\/a><em>, hosted by the former editor-in-chief of<\/em> Fast Company <em>Bob Safian. From the team behind the <\/em>Masters of Scale <em>podcast, <\/em>Rapid Response <em>features candid conversations with today\u2019s top business leaders navigating real-time challenges. Subscribe to <\/em>Rapid Response <em>wherever you get your podcasts to ensure you never miss an episode.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/art19.com\/shows\/674dce4f-cbe7-432b-b9b7-319222baf119\/episodes\/edb74e22-592b-47b7-85fc-88169922d063\/embed\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 200px; border: 0 none;\" scrolling=\"no\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>So you\u2019ve just announced you\u2019ve stepped down as CEO. You\u2019re becoming a senior adviser to the board. I have to say, I was surprised by this turn of events. How did this come about?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m glad we\u2019re starting with this.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"content-chunk\">\n<p><strong>Going right at the elephant in the room.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Bob, thank you for the question. I made the decision to leave because, as I took a step back, I saw that Calm is a brand today that, for those who don\u2019t know, has had more than 180 million downloads of the product and is growing in more than 190 countries and seven different languages. We\u2019ve really made strides in health outcomes. That\u2019s where we\u2019re going with Calm Health.<\/p>\n<p>But at the same time, what\u2019s become abundantly clear to me is that we\u2019re in the midst of something so much bigger. It\u2019s bigger because what we\u2019re finding is that everything is much more interconnected than it was before. What I mean by that is there\u2019s a reliance on employers, payers, providers, apps like ourselves, other apps being developed at lightning speed with AI, and real policy at both the federal and state level. So it\u2019s really not just about one individual or one company. It\u2019s more about how you create a movement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fastcompany.com\/91522961\/why-calm-ceo-david-ko-is-stepping-down-after-scaling-the-meditation-app\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What does it take to lead a meditation company without finding a moment\u2019s peace? David Ko spent years as CEO of Calm, one of the world\u2019s most recognized mental health and wellness apps, helping millions manage stress. Now he\u2019s stepping down. Ko unpacks why he made the call, what the relentless pressure of the C-suite<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10269,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10268","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brand-spotlights"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}