Who Is Sriram Krishnan? Indian-Born Software Engineer 'Helping Out' Elon Musk At Twitter

Krishnan, who earlier used to work at Twitter as product leader, is a partner at the Silicon Valley investment firm Andreesen Horowitz, which funded Musk’s Twitter $44-billion acquisition

Venture capitalist Sriram Krishnan has earlier served on the boards of Bitski, Hopin, and Polywork.

With Elon Musk taking charge of Twitter, the top management of the social media company is undergoing a major revamp. Billionaire Musk, the world’s richest person, is said to be working with a few of his close business associates and trusted lieutenants to give Twitter a new shape. Along with venture capitalist (VC) David Sacks, Indian American Sriram Krishnan is also part of the Tesla CEO’s pack.

Who is Sriram Krishnan?

On October 31, Krishnan made it public that he will be “helping out” Musk “temporarily” in Twitter along with "some other great people".

Indian-origin VC investor Krishnan earlier used to work at Twitter as product leader. Now, he is a partner at the Silicon Valley investment firm Andreesen Horowitz, also known as a16z, which funded Musk’s Twitter $44-billion acquisition.

According to a report in The New York Times, both Krishnan and his wife, Aarthi Ramamurthy, were born in Chennai, where they were raised in “typical middle-class Indian upbringings”. The two met in 2003 when they were in college studying to become software engineers. He did his schooling in India and also his college education. Krishnan completed his engineering (B Tech) from SRM Engineering College, Anna University, Tamil Nadu.

According to the NYT article, the couple, both 37 years old, now live in San Francisco’s Noe Valley neighbourhood, and have a daughter who is 2. 

Role in Twitter

Sriram Krishnan, sharing details of his new role in Twitter, posted a picture of Twitter HQ on Twitter on October 30. He wrote: “Now that the word is out: I'm helping out @elonmusk with Twitter temporarily with some other great people. I (and a16z) believe this is a hugely important company and can have a great impact on the world and Elon is the person to make it happen.”

Now that the word is out: I’m helping out @elonmusk with Twitter temporarily with some other great people.

I ( and a16z) believe this is a hugely important company and can have great impact on the world and Elon is the person to make it happen. pic.twitter.com/weGwEp8oga

— Sriram Krishnan - sriramk.eth (@sriramk) October 30, 2022

Krishnan has also served on the boards of Bitski, Hopin, and Polywork. Before joining a16z, he was part of the core consumer product teams at Twitter, Snap and Facebook. He was leading Snap's Direct Response ads business and the Facebook Audience Network. Krishnan, who started his career with Microsoft, worked on various APIs/services for Windows Azure.

According to Krishnan’s LinkedIn profile, the Indian engineer became a part of Andreesen Horowitz in January 2021. The VC firm is a major investor in Clubhouse, a social audio application. Krishnan and Aarthi also hosted a show on Clubhouse called “Good Time Show”, where they met Musk, Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and others.