Twitter Axes its Head of Product During His Paternity Leave

 Kayvon Beykpour said CEO Parag Agrawal asked him to leave Twitter six weeks after the birth of his daughter.

Twitter is reducing its number of characters: the social media company fired two executives Thursday, one while he was on paternity leave.

“Interrupting my paternity leave to share some final [Twitter]-related news: I’m leaving the company after over 7 years,” wrote Kayvon Beykpour, the company’s head of product. He joined the company in 2015 after it acquired Periscope, of which he is a cofounder.

In a follow-up tweet, he revealed that the decision wasn’t his own: CEO Parag Agrawal allegedly asked Beykpour to leave the company. Twitter offers up to 20 weeks of paternity leave for employees. Beykpour and his wife welcomed a daughter on April 3, 2022. The company did not respond to a request for comment.

Beykpour was not the only exec that got canned today, as multiple reports are also confirming that Bruce Falck was also let go after five years at Twitter. Falck (whose Twitter bio currently says “unemployed”) was the Revenue Product Lead, and expressed gratitude in his own thread of tweets this afternoon.

Beykpour went on to tweet that he was disappointed in the decision while being “insanely proud” of his team’s work and journey. He said: “I’m proud that we changed the perception around Twitter’s pace of innovation, and proud that we shifted the culture internally to make bigger bets, move faster, and eliminate sacred cows.” It’s not entirely clear why Beykpour was asked to leave, but Bloomberg reports that in an email to employees, Agrawal confirmed the departures and explained that the company did not hit the growth goals it set for itself, and needed to be careful about who is on board.

It seems like Twitter is going through a bit of an identity crisis lately in the wake of all news of Elon Musk’s pending $44 billion acquisition. While it’s likely that this particular restructuring has nothing to do with the Musk takeover, it may be a sign of things to come when the billionaire takes over the platform.