Twitter Inc Top Female Execs Form Start-Up Investment Group

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Twitter’s handful of top-ranked female executives have come together to create a new investment group dubbed #Angels. The group will focus on interesting tech start-ups, helping them with their tech and business acumen.

What makes the group unique?

Although it sounds like a fund just like any other in Silicon Valley, the #Angels team has maintained that it is not a fund and that every member will make an investment individually. The team will offer guidance and advice uniformly to all start-ups, irrespective of which Angel member chooses to invest, says a blog post.

The group consists of Twitter’s top executives, suggesting that any advice or suggestion coming from the group will be of great significance. One thing worth noticing is that all the members of the #Angels group are women.

Will there be a conflict of interest?

One thing that can create a problem for Twitter and its employees, is a potential conflict of interest as the executives will be associated with other companies, notes the report from Re/code.

According to a Twitter spokesperson, the group has nothing to do with Twitter, and the employees teaming up will be held to Twitter’s existing conflicts of interest policy. Clearing up the issue, the team said that since the group will not take up investments, there are no chances of a conflict of interest arising from a competitive or potential acquisition point of view.

Top Twitter executives

In an email, Jana Messerschmidt, a group member and current VP of global business development for Twitter, told Re/code, “We’re focused on funding the best teams pursuing the best ideas just like any other investor.” The email further read that all the team members are very passionate about the diversity in technology.

Other group members include General Counsel Vijaya Gadde, Global Head of Media Katie Jacobs Stanton and Director of Corporate Development Jessica Verrilli. VP of North American Media Chloe Sladden and former Director of Product April Underwood are veterans from Twitter who also belong to the group.

On its blog, the company suggested that some team members are still focused on Twitter and will continue to do so while others are going ahead with the next phase of their entrepreneurial endeavors. “But all of us love working with start-ups. And we love working together.”

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