Not every CEO needs to be a public influencer. It depends on the predisposition of the CEO and whether they can be good at it without being cringe.
Amjad offers a nuanced view: some CEOs like Dario Amodei succeed without social media, while others like Grok's CEO rely on a team member. The key is whether the CEO enjoys it and can do it without harming the brand. ✦ AI generated
Amjad Masad · a16z Podcast · 2026-07-17 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 17:54
“Would you recommend that [CEOs who aren't interested] cultivate the desire to do it, or would you recommend that someone else on the team can do it?”
Look, I think there's so many paths to to success. I don't think there's one. Um like yeah, there are a lot of companies where this it's not the CEO that's out there... Dario is an example where he's not playing the social media game, and kind of the product sort of speak speaks for itself... It comes down to the predisposition of the CEO. Like, do you actually enjoy it? Do you think you can be good at it?
verbatim transcript · starts at 17:54
17:38>> Yeah. >> The you you mentioned earlier that you sort of developed a a desire for this. For CEOs who are, you know, so locked in, they're just not that interested in in doing this. Would you recommend that they cultivate the desire to do it, or would you recommend that someone else on the team can do it? Does it have to be the CEO, or how would you think about
17:54this? >> Look, I think there's so many paths to to success. I don't think there's one. Um like yeah, there are a lot of companies where this it's not the CEO that's out there, like um uh Grok with a Q, and uh like Sunny's the person on Twitter, but the CEO is kind of not not on there. Um and they they've done a great job, and obviously
18:16they kind of uh the company's great, their IP is great, but they also they memed it to kind of into success, cuz I think part of the story that's not being told there is that they actually had a lot of trouble fundraising in Silicon Valley. They had to kind of go to Saudi, and and all of that. And so, that that's an example um where the CEO is not out there. You
18:35know, but you look at Dario as an example where he's not playing the social media game, and kind of the product sort of play uh speaks for itself, and he's writing these big essays. So, I think it comes down to the predisposition of the CEO. Like, do you actually enjoy it? Do you think you can be good at it? Um I think forcing people to do it where they they can come out
18:57and be totally cringe, and like be actually ne- negative on the brand. Obviously, they can learn over time and do it, but uh but it it really depends on the situation. >> Have you gotten any leverage or way to lower the activation energy in in terms of or any help doing it? And is it possible for others too or is it just all you just whenever you think
19:15something? >> Well, I I I think I have the benefit of this long period of incubation. Um I think that if your company is already high-profile, you don't want to kind of practice in public and so maybe getting some some coaching earlier on. >> Just so some people ask, "Hey, how should I think about X versus other platforms? You know, maybe their customers aren't on X, etc." How do you
19:44think about that? >> Well, I I think X is very good for the set of Silicon Valley, for tech, for kind of the in-group messaging, for maybe one hop outside of Silicon Valley, which is kind of the early adopter, if you're targeting early adopters. Uh you know, so I would also cluster Hacker News within that as well. Um but it it actually once you want to go to late adopters or like early