Twitter is losing another key executive as Gnip chief executive Chris Moody has announced his departure. He has joined venture capital firm Foundry Group as a partner, a move Moody described as a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” It’s believed that his last day will be at the end of May.
For more than two decades, Moody has been involved in the enterprise either as an executive or consultant. He’s worked at Oracle, IBM, and Aquent before joining Gnip as chief operating officer in 2011 and then assuming the role of CEO at the big data platform in 2013, leading up to its acquisition by Twitter in 2014. Since then, he’s served as a vice president and general manager of the company’s data and enterprise solutions.
Moody’s relationship with Foundry Group isn’t new, as both he and the firm are from the Boulder, Colorado area, and the firm had been an investor in Gnip. When it came time for Foundry to raise its next fund last September, the partners decided to begin having conversations with Moody.
“We knew Chris was an extraordinary board member as well as an extremely seasoned CEO. We had a great affinity for each other, and he shared our value system. When the five of us sat around talking about Chris, after each conversation we got more excited about having him join us, especially as we learned about his personal view for the next decade of his life,” wrote Brad Feld, managing director for Foundry Group.
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The departure of Moody strikes another blow to Twitter’s developer relations, especially among brands using the service’s feed of data. But it’s likely that the company already has a backup in place, although a name was not immediately known. We’ve reached out to Twitter for additional information. His resignation joins others in the developer advocacy and platform side who have recently left, including developer advocacy lead Bear Douglas, senior developer advocate Romain Huet, head of developer relations Jeff Sandquist, and senior director of developer and platform relations Prashant Sridharan.
And let’s not also forget about the other executives that have also departed since 2016, such as COO Adam Bain, chief technology officer Adam Messinger, vice president of communications Natalie Kerris, vice president of product Josh McFarland, Vine general manager Jason Toff, and vice president of global media Katie Stanton.
Moody’s move to venture capital could be nothing more than a sign that he wanted to become an investor. But what will Twitter do now to maintain its relationship with brands eager to tap into the service’s firehose of data?
Although no specific investment themes were stated, it’s possible that Moody could focus on the enterprise and finding the next big data platform that could make a big impact in the marketplace.
