According to reports, former Tesla board member Steve Westly issued a warning to Twitter that, after the social media company announced on Tuesday, special After SLA CEO Elon Musk joined the board, they had to learn to work at Musk’s pace.
My advice to Twitter executives is to put on your running shoes because Elon is going to force you to speed up,” Whitstreet said Tuesday. Added editing here. ‘I think he’s going to be transformative,'” the Tesla investor added.
Musk’s announcement to join Twitter’s board followed a Twitter probe: “Do you want an edit button?” A day later, Twitter announced that it had been working on an edit button for the app, but denied it was related to Musk’s investigation.
The billionaire said he “looks forward to working with the existing Parag and Twitter boards to bring significant improvements to Twitter in the coming months.” Wall Street analysts worry that Musk’s ideas could be in line with the company’s CEO Parag Agrawal clashed.
“It’s definitely not going to be very quiet,” Westerly said of Musk’s potential interaction with Agrawal. The longtime Tesla bull, managing partner and founder of venture capital firm The Westly Group, also noted that Musk can be “a little moody and grumpy,” but believes that Musk’s entry “will be a major victory for Twitter”.
With more than 80 million followers on Twitter, Musk is one of the platform’s most powerful users, but he has also been a frequent outspoken critic of the app before. He released a survey on March 25 asking whether the platform adhered to “free speech” principles. In December, shortly after Agrawal succeeded Jack Dorsey as CEO, Musk appeared to criticize the new CEO via a Photoshopped photo.
The Tesla CEO has always been known for his distinctive style. At both Tesla and SpaceX, he has worked hard to achieve extremely high goals, and he will also work 120 hours a week, even sleeping directly on the factory floor. Former executives said the billionaire was difficult to get along with, he was prone to anger and even fired employees in a fit of rage — all of which Musk denies. He said on Twitter that the accusations were “wrong” and that he would simply provide “clear and candid” feedback to employees.
Westley said Musk could finally take Twitter into the future and show other Fortune 500 companies how to build relationships with consumers. The stock has surged sharply this week after Musk revealed on Monday that he was buying 9.2% of the Twitter stock and Tuesday’s announcement about Musk joining Twitter’s board. Twitter shares closed at $50.98 on the Nasdaq on Tuesday, up nearly 30% from Friday’s close.