- Chris Sacca posted a series of tweets analyzing and largely criticizing Elon Musk’s leadership style.
- Sacca, an early Twitter investor, referred to Musk’s approach to Twitter as “move fast and alone.”
- “We all need people around us to push back,” Sacca said. “To say no. To call bullshit.”
Since taking ownership of Twitter, Elon Musk has been “straight-up alone” and “winging this,” Chris Sacca, an early investor in the company, said.
The venture capitalist posted a series of tweets on Monday where he analyzed Musk’s leadership style. Since taking ownership of Twitter on October 27, Musk has fired some of the company’s top execs and outlined plans to lay off half of its employees.
He’s also announced big changes to some of the platform’s features, including charging users for verification and the possibility of introducing tiers of content moderation.
“This guy is alone,” Sacca tweeted. “He has plenty of ‘pals’ and is the life of parties and dinners. But the hard truth is that he is straight-up alone right now and winging this.”
Musk has made his decisions about Twitter in what’s been dubbed his “war room,” surrounded by advisors including his personal lawyer Alex Spiro, tech investor Jason Calacanis, and venture capitalist David Sacks.
“One of the biggest risks of wealth/power is no longer having anyone around you who can push back, give candid feedback, suggest alternatives, or just simply let you know you’re wrong,” Sacca tweeted.
Speaking about Musk, Sacca said: “I’ve recently watched those around him become increasingly sycophantic and opportunistic. Simply put, agreeing with him is easier, and there is more financial & social upside.”
“We all need people around us to push back,” he continued. “To say no. To call bullshit.”
Sacca said that while he didn’t like Mark Zuckerberg’s former motto “move fast and break things,” at least the Meta CEO “keeps some smart people around and sometimes listens.”
“But, ‘Move fast and alone,’ and it’s all guaranteed to break,” Sacca tweeted.
“Twitter isn’t going to get better for users, the advertisers aren’t coming back at scale, and his huge investment just isn’t going to pay off unless there is genuine dialogue leading to thoughtful progress and stability,” he added.
Sacca said that Twitter would only succeed if Musk added some “desperately needed nuance.” Unlike Musk’s other companies – SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink, and the Boring Company – “many of Twitter’s core issues just can’t be reduced to black and white. They are gray AF.”
Sacca also criticized the mass layoffs announced by Musk.
“Every day it’s looking more like an uphill battle,” he said. “So much product and policy talent was pushed out the company door, and, my god, you just can’t fire that many engs [engineers], ops, and SREs [site reliability engineers] and expect the site to stay healthy.”
But Sacca also complimented Musk, saying that he had known him for “a long time” and had “a rare type of genius I’ve only seen in the greatest minds.”
“I can’t sit by and watch a guy I’ve looked up to for over a decade fumble this opportunity, stoke more insanity, and likely hurt a bunch of folks in the process,” Sacca said.
Sacca, who was once one of Twitter’s biggest shareholders, has been an outspoken critic of the company over the years. He joked on Monday that he was worried he’d get kicked off the platform for posting the thread about Musk.