Yelp Co-Founder And CTO Russel Simmons Is Out

Yelp co-founder and CTO Russel Simmons , pictured here (left) with fellow co-founder and chief exec Jeremy Stoppelman , is leaving the company. Simmons will be transitioning to an advisor role and take some time off to travel, we've confirmed with the company. Stoppelman and Simmons were both early software engineering employees at PayPal and went on to brainstorm new Internet startup ideas at a business incubator not long after the company was acquired by eBay. Out came Yelp, which first started as an email recommendation service, was transformed to become a local business review site for the San Francisco area in October 2004 and has now grown into an international network that receives some 31 million unique visitors per month. Six years later, Simmons is now transitioning to an advisor role at Yelp, we're told.