A16z’s Sriram Krishnan to help Elon Musk with Twitter rejig; all you need to know

The Indian-origin Krishnan had previously led the product and engineering teams at Twitter, Meta and Snap. At Twitter, he led the core consumer product team from 2017 to 2019.

Krishnan, whose firm invests in early-stage consumer startups, took to Twitter to state that he was helping Musk ring in the initial changes at Twitter. The Tesla chief finally acquired the company last week for $44 billion, after months of uncertainty.

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“Now that the word is out: I’m helping out @elonmusk with Twitter temporarily with some other great people,” Krishnan said in his tweet.

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“I (and a16z) believe this is a hugely important company and can have a great impact on the world and Elon is the person to make it happen,” he posted.

He drove Twitter user growth up by more than 20% (YoY) in two years and launched several products, including a redesigned events experience, IANS reported.

Krishnan has created and overseen various mobile ad products for both Snap and Facebook, including Snap’s Direct Response ads business and the Facebook Audience Network, one of the largest networks in display advertising, per the IANS report.

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He has also worked as an investor and advisor with many companies in a personal capacity, including Notion, Cameo, Coda, Scale.ai, SpaceX, CRED and Khatabook.

Krishnan also hosts a podcast/Youtube channel with his wife Aarthi Ramamurthy called The Good Time show, a late-night Clubhouse event that has featured Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Calvin Harris, among others.

Krishnan and Ramamurthy hail from Chennai, where they were raised in “typical middle-class Indian upbringings,” Ramamurthy told
The New York Times in an interview last year.

On his LinkedIn profile, he says, “I’m a builder, engineer, Youtuber and venture capitalist. I invest in crypto/web3 as a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. I previously had leadership roles running product and engineering at Twitter, Meta and Snap”

Changes coming

Musk has already started announcing changes to the platform, like expanding the 280-character limit, allowing lengthy videos, revamping account verification policies and more.

On the first day after the acquisition, Musk fired top executives at Twitter, including Indian-origin CEO Parag Agrawal, chief financial officer Ned Segal and chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde.

The new boss is expected to slash the workforce and reorganise Twitter.