Elon Musk fired him from Twitter. Here’s the Microsoft CEO who secretly inspired him

Parag Agrawal, who was ousted as Twitter CEO after Elon Musk acquired the platform, has opened up about the leadership figure who inspired him when he took the top job. Now the founder of AI startup Parallel Web Systems, Agrawal revealed he hoped to transform Twitter’s culture and product line, drawing direct inspiration from how Satya Nadella revitalised Microsoft.

‘When I took the job at Twitter, I was really inspired by Satya, and I used to call him the founder — or a re-founder, or whatever you want to call that,’ Agrawal shared in an interview earlier this year.

Agrawal explained that taking over the top job at Twitter forced him to figure out how the social media giant could evolve under his leadership and how it could differentiate itself in a crowded tech market. ‘The inspiration I got on someone like completely changing a company, a business, a culture, a product came from Satya, and I thought of wanting to be a founder in that mold,’ he said.

Agrawal did not have standard founder status at Twitter; he rose through the ranks as the company’s CTO before succeeding co-founder Jack Dorsey. ‘Being a founder is like a state of mind,’ he added.