Chris Moody, Twitter‘s vice president of data and enterprise departed from the company and joined Foundry Group, an investment and capital outfit based in Boulder, Colorado. Moody came to Twitter through their 2013 acquisition of big data firm Gnip, where he was serving as CEO. Moody’s time at Twitter saw him managing their data workflow and helping developers who used it, as well as helping them stay in good standing with enterprise partners. At Foundry Group, he’s going to be a top-level partner assisting in finding and funding promising startups in the tech industry and managing existing investment funds.
Chris Moody’s ties to Twitter go back to 2013, but his ties to Foundry Group actually go all the way back to 2007, only a year after Foundry Group was created. Not only was Foundry Group an early investor in Gnip, but one of their senior partners, Brad Feld, worked closely with Moody over the years on managing the Gnip fund for Foundry. In a post announcing Moody’s arrival into Foundry’s ranks, Feld says that the higher-ups at the company have been talking about getting him on board since they formed Foundry Group Next in 2014, calling him a “close friend.” Foundry is an early-stage investor and is mostly focused on the tech industry. The company is also a long-term fund management firm, meaning it sticks with companies it invests in for the long haul, and relationships like those with Moody are somewhat commonplace around firms using that business model.
Foundry’s top brass insisted that Moody take the summer off and start with them in fall, and rumors point to that summer vacation starting at the end of May, at which time Moody will reportedly take his leave at Twitter. While Twitter has not yet released any official statement on the matter, the remaining time until Moody’s rumored departure takes place would give them time to find his replacement or come up with a different response to the situation. Moody’s departure could potentially prove to be a major blow to the company’s prospects, coming on the heels of a good number of developer positions going vacant in the last few months.