(Bloomberg) — Although Elon Musk’s $44 billion deal to acquire Twitter Inc. is still months away from closing, some of Musk’s fans are soliciting future employment at the social media platform via the mercurial entrepreneur’s Twitter feed.
Considerable turnover is likely, at least based on Musk’s twitter feed, which is often critical of leadership. So Musk’s followers are taking their shot.
“Hire me to run Twitter as VP of Product,” wrote Nikita Bier, co-founder of a positivity-focused polling app called tbh that was acquired by Meta Platforms Inc., in a post tagging Musk on Twitter. “I’ve been building social apps for 11 years — and not in a way that leads products to decay like a typical BigTech ‘product director dad.’”
During negotiations to acquire Twitter, Musk told bankers that he would be focused on the social media company’s bottom line, and floated nonspecific proposals to cut both costs and jobs, according to people familiar with the matter.
It’s unclear how Musk envisions his leadership team — especially the chief executive officer role. The billionaire is unlikely to take the job himself, which means he’ll need to find a thick-skinned executive who can handle Musk’s penchant for airing his displeasure in public.
In a regulatory filing, Musk said he does not have faith in the company’s leadership, leading many to speculate that Twitter’s CEO, Parag Agrawal, is on his way out the door. And on Wednesday, Musk posted two tweets that were critical of Vijaya Gadde, the executive who oversees the policy and legal teams, for a decision the company made in 2020 to restrict posting of a New York Post article about U.S. President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter. A wave of trolls proceeded to wage personal attacks against Gadde online, prompting former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo to accuse Musk of bullying.
For all the conflict that Musk seems adept at stirring, he’s also maintained an ardent fan base who believe that the Tesla Inc. CEO has made profound contributions to the clean energy, digital payments and space exploration sectors. Some took the same public leap as Bier.
Antonio García Martínez, the author of the tech insider tell-all “Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley,” nominated himself for a job at Twitter and even listed a brief resume fit for the platform’s 280-character tweet limit.
Even William Shatner, the actor best known for his role as Captain James T. Kirk of the USS Enterprise in the Star Trek franchise, is vying for a job as “the face of Twitter.” He’s got experience; Shatner was paid in equity to be the spokesperson for Priceline.com in the early 2000s, and reportedly missed out on millions in gains by selling his stake too early.
Conservatives and libertarians, who have argued that social media platforms disproportionately suppress right-wing speech, have applauded Musk’s Twitter takeover, particularly his vows to loosen content moderation restrictions. Now, a number of conservatives are jokingly soliciting job offers at the social media company.
Matt Walsh, a conservative political commentator and author of a children’s book that compares being transgender to pretending to be a walrus tweeted at Musk and asked to be hired as Twitter’s chief diversity officer, likely in jest.
But it’s MIT Research Scientist Lex Fridman’s job solicitation, which taps into Musk’s well-documented affinity for jokes including the numbers 420 or 69, that perhaps has the best chance of getting the billionaire’s attention. “This tweet is my official job application to Twitter for the position of Chief Love Officer (CLO). I request a monthly salary of $69, preferably paid in crypto,” Fridman said in a tweet. “In return, I will try my best to be useful and do what I can to increase the amount of love in the world.”
Musk has someone in mind for the CEO job, according to Reuters, which cited a person familiar with the matter. He has yet to share that person’s name publicly. The most qualified candidates might struggle with an owner like Musk, who has indicated his intention to be very involved with Twitter’s day-to-day business. He has already been making proclamations about ways the product should change.
When Musk married his first wife in 2000, he turned to her on the dance floor at the wedding reception and said, “I am the alpha in this relationship,” she later wrote.
Whoever takes over as the next Twitter CEO might find themselves in a similar situation.
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