The end of 2022 was a turbulent time for Twitter. Elon Musk’s months-long tussle with the company eventually ended in a $44 billion acquisition in October, with then-CEO Parag Agrawal among the top executives who left the company.
Between the legal battle, Musk’s takeover and the leadership shake-up that followed, Twitter was in the middle of a storm. However, Agrawal says he was not feeling the kind of pressure many might expect.In a recent podcast interview with Sourcery, Agrawal recalled how he handled the turbulence at Twitter during its 2022 takeover.
While Silicon Valley watched the drama unfold, the former CEO says he remained calm. In fact, Agrawal says he was tracking his sleep score through the acquisition, and, by his account, sleeping just fine.When the podcast host asked him how he managed pressure through a competitive career, Agrawal pushed back on the premise. “What pressure?
You don't feel pressure? No.
No. Why?” he said.He went on to explain that he does not see pressure as a necessary part of performing well. “I think it's kind of a made-up thing, right?” he said, before recalling his experience during the Twitter acquisition. “Through the Twitter acquisition I used to track my sleep score really, and I was sleeping fine.” Agrawal, who spent 11 years at Twitter as an engineer, chief technology officer and eventually CEO, said having a clear sense of what needs to be done can help keep pressure at bay. “If you know what you must do, you do it.
You don't have to feel pressured,” he said. “The world can come at you, but if you know what you're capable of and you have a slightly long-term view, like everything is a week or a month.”What is Parag Agrawal doing now?As for what Agrawal is doing now, he has moved on from Twitter to build Parallel Web Systems, a startup developing search and research APIs for AI agents. Its technology allows AI agents to search and access information from the live web to complete tasks, rather than simply returning links for people to browse.
Parallel recently raised $100 million in a Series B funding round, valuing the startup at $2 billion. The round brings its total funding to $230 million.During the podcast, Agrawal also spoke about how the growing use of AI agents could reshape the internet’s business models.
He believes agents could eventually use the web thousands of times more than humans do. Unlike people, agents can run searches in the background and are not limited by the time it takes to browse websites manually.“I was the lunatic walking around three years ago telling people agents will use the web thousands more than humans ever have,” Agrawal said.
He now believes even that estimate may be too low. “If you just look at some high-level math a person, an average person, does like order of 10 or less Google searches. I was checking how many I do.
Several thousand now. My agents, the ones I track.”- Ends