# Jason Citron

> Jason Citron is the American programmer and repeat founder who created OpenFeint and co-founded Discord with Stanislav Vishnevskiy. His career has followed an unusual rhyme: he set out to build games, then found that the social infrastructure around those games mattered more. After leading Discord from a small game studio to a global communications platform used by more than 200 million people each month, he stepped down as CEO in April 2025 and remains a board member and adviser.

- **Role:** Co-founder, Board Member and Advisor at Discord
- **Organizations:** Discord, Hammer & Chisel, Phoenix Guild, OpenFeint, Aurora Feint, Campus
- **From:** San Francisco, United States
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** Game Development, Full Sail University
- **Known for:** Built OpenFeint into a major mobile gaming network and sold it to GREE for $104 million in 2011., Co-founded Discord, which reported more than 200 million monthly active users by 2025., Led Discord through its growth from an internal side project to a global voice, video and text platform.

## Career timeline

- **1997** — At age 13, learned the possibilities of game programming after a friend demonstrated QBasic during a birthday sleepover.
- **2004** — Graduated from Full Sail University's Game Development program.
- **2008** — Started Aurora Feint, an early iPhone game studio whose social features became the foundation for OpenFeint.
- **2009** — Co-founded OpenFeint, a social network and services layer for mobile games.
- **2011** — Sold OpenFeint to Japanese game company GREE for $104 million.
- **2012** — Established Phoenix Guild, later renamed Hammer & Chisel, to develop multiplayer mobile games.
- **2014** — Launched the iPad MOBA Fates Forever; its communication features helped point the team toward its next product.
- **2015** — Co-founded and launched Discord with Stanislav Vishnevskiy after pivoting the studio toward voice and text communication for gamers.
- **2020** — Positioned Discord as a broader place to talk and build belonging as usage expanded well beyond gaming.
- **2023** — Named to the TIME100 Next list.
- **2024** — Refocused Discord on gaming, its original audience and product context.
- **2025** — Stepped down as CEO, appointing Humam Sakhnini; remained on Discord's board and became adviser to the CEO.

## Achievements

- Built OpenFeint into a major mobile gaming network and sold it to GREE for $104 million in 2011.
- Co-founded Discord, which reported more than 200 million monthly active users by 2025.
- Led Discord through its growth from an internal side project to a global voice, video and text platform.
- Named to the 2023 TIME100 Next list.
- Inducted into Full Sail University's Hall of Fame.
- Serves as an investor and board member at Campus.

## Latest updates

- **2025-04** — Transitioned from Discord CEO to board member and adviser to incoming CEO Humam Sakhnini.
- **2025-04** — Discord reported more than 200 million monthly active users and said Citron would support its next phase, including the long-term possibility of becoming a public company.
- **2025-03** — Featured by Full Sail University after his Hall of Fame induction, discussing programming, product focus and employee culture.
- **2025-01** — Continued serving as an investor and board member at online college Campus.

## Links

- Website: https://discord.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncitron
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/jasoncitron

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/jason-citron
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-09-26