Clubhouse witnesses two senior management exits

Social audio platform Clubhouse has witnessed two key senior management exits even as the pandemic-driven hype around live audio has gradually faded in recent months.

Aarthi Ramamurthy, who was leading the company's international product efforts, announced on June 2 that she is leaving after about a year-long stint.

"I’m going to take some time off to be funemployed for the first time in my career, continue to be an active angel investor and product advisor," she said on Twitter.

I’m going to take some time off to be funemployed for the first time in my career, continue to be an active angel investor and product advisor.

In the meantime, you’ll still see me on The Good Time Show (@GoodTimeShowAS) with @sriramk (fun episode coming up tonight!)

— Aarthi Ramamurthy (@aarthir) June 1, 2022

Ramamurthy had joined Clubhouse from Facebook (now Meta) where she was leading the product efforts for the company's communities product group, responsible for helping people build "healthy, sustainable communities" on the platform.

She was also the product lead for creator monetisation at the social media firm, responsible for building payments infrastructure and experiences for creators including its tipping feature Facebook Stars. Ramamurthy has also had stints at Netflix and Microsoft.

Ramamurthy was also independently hosting a recurring audio talk show on Clubhouse called ‘The Good Time Show’ with her spouse Sriram Krishnan, which was one of the earliest programmed shows on the platform. The couple recently expanded it as a video show on Google-owned YouTube.

Clubhouse's community head Anu Atluru, who was one of the company's earliest employees, is also leaving after a two-year stint, she announced on Twitter on June 1.

"After 2 yrs, I’m officially taking my leave from Clubhouse! It’s been a wild ride building zero to one, serving as our first Head of Community, and going from a team of 3 to 100+! Next, I’m excited to explore new ideas again as a founder, investor, & community builder!" she said on Twitter.

Atluru's LinkedIn profile indicates that she is an early investor in startups such as BeReal, Clubhouse, Collage, Daze, Pallet, Peachy, Squads, and Station as well as venture capital firm Banana Capital.

She was also previously a resident physician in Emergency Medicine at Harvard / Mass General Hospital and had co-founded a medical device startup in the area of maternal-fetal medicine.

Clubhouse was last valued at $4 billion in April 2021, when it raised an undisclosed Series C funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from DST Global and Tiger Global and Elad Gil.

Since then, a number of internet majors such as Twitter, Meta, Spotify, Discord and Telegram have debuted similar offerings over the past year, although none of them seem to have taken off in a significant manner.

Earlier this month, Meta folded its Live Audio Rooms feature into its Facebook Live product while Spotify said last month that it will integrate the live audio capabilities from the standalone app Greenroom within the main Spotify app along with select live audio shows. It also rebranded Greenroom as Spotify Live that will continue to allow independent creators to go live.