Travis Stoliker was promoted from Vice President of Marketing to Chief Executive Officer of Scribe Media — the Austin-based book publishing and author services company. He had joined Scribe in March 2024 as VP of Marketing and was elevated to CEO within roughly a year, taking the top leadership role at a company that has published over 2,000 books since its founding, including titles by David Goggins, Naval Ravikant, and Eric Jorgenson.
Scribe Media had gone through Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in 2023 and emerged under new private equity ownership. Travis was brought in as VP of Marketing to rebuild the company's brand, marketing operations, and growth trajectory — and his results in that role led directly to his appointment as CEO. The promotion followed a pattern familiar from his career: enter a challenging situation, make meaningful impact quickly, and earn expanded responsibility.
The CEO role at Scribe represented the culmination of a career arc that had taken Travis from marketing at Liquid Web to co-founding a restaurant to advising startups to publishing leadership. Each chapter built on the last, and the "Year of the Opposite" philosophy he had been writing about publicly — the willingness to do things that feel uncomfortable or unexpected — found its clearest expression in this pivot from barbecue entrepreneur to CEO of a book publishing company.
