Fired by Musk, inspired by Nadella: the making of ex-Twitter CEO’s new AI startup

Parag Agrawal, who was ousted as Twitter CEO after Elon Musk acquired the platform, is now the founder of AI startup Parallel Web Systems — a role shaped, he says, by lessons he drew from Microsoft’s Satya Nadella during his time at Twitter.

‘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 as Twitter CEO forced him to figure out how the company could evolve and differentiate itself in a crowded tech market, and that watching Nadella completely change Microsoft’s business, culture and product gave him a model to aim for. ‘I thought of wanting to be a founder in that mold, in that moment,’ he said.

He did not have standard founder status at Twitter, having risen through the ranks as CTO before succeeding co-founder Jack Dorsey. ‘Being a founder is like a state of mind,’ he said — a mindset he now applies directly as the founder of his own company.