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- Twitter’s health team was instructed to listen to tech podcast “All In,” Platformer reports.
- In the podcast, Musk advisers David Sacks and Jason Calacanis discussed Silicon Valley layoffs.
- Staff were told the podcast “provides some insight into why this is happening/necessary,” Platformer reported.
Twitter staff were told to listen to a podcast hosted by two of Elon Musk’s advisers to learn why layoffs were necessary, according to Platformer.
David Sacks, who first met Musk working together on PayPal, and Jason Calacanis, a tech entrepreneur and investor, have been helping Twitter transition into its new ownership. They are also two of the four host of the “All-In” podcast, which talks about tech, the economy, and poker.
Platformer reported that Twitter’s health team — which works on misinformation and harmful content — was told to listen to “All-In” to help understand why half the company’s employees are being laid off.
One Twitter vice president told employees: “The most recent podcast covers the current layoffs happening across tech and provides some insight into why this is happening/necessary.”
Episode 103 of “All-In” was published on YouTube on Saturday, and primarily covers the surge in layoffs at tech companies including Stripe, which laid off 14% of its staff.
The four hosts, who also include former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya, and entrepreneur David Friedberg, agreed on the idea that mass layoffs were necessary.
Sacks said that falling profits across the board in tech were part of an “economy-wide slowdown,” rather than company-specific problems.
The hosts celebrated Musk’s decision to layoff 50% of Twitter’s staff, despite criticism and lawsuits brought against the company.
Friedberg said the move could allow Musk to set “a new standard for how profitable a tech company can get,” and suggested other companies could “try and mimic the Elon playbook.”
Sacks described companies laying off 10% of their staff as “tepid,” adding that in these instances, more layoffs are likely to be needed in the near future. “They have to come back and they do it again and they do it again,” he said.
Friedberg then added that Musk could show “the entirety of Silicon Valley that you can cut deep and you can turn a profit and you can do it fast.”
Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider on Platformer’s report.
On the podcast, Sacks explained that he and Calacanis don’t have official roles at Twitter, but “are just pitching in and helping out while Elon establishes his permanent team.”