Twitter vice president of product Michael Sippey has announced he is to leave the micro-blogging firm in order to move into a more advisory capacity.

In an email that went around to staff – which was posted on his personal blog – Sippey cited a desire to move on based around his career and passion working at startups, adding: “I hear this Internet thing has legs.”

“As we head into 2014, I’ve had a chance to reflect on what’s important to me and what I love to do,” Sippey wrote. “I’ve spent most of my career working at startups, helping them scale and having a direct hand on the product.

“Over the past few weeks I’ve talked with Dick [Costolo, CEO] and Ali [Rowghani, COO] about what I want next in my career, and what Twitter needs at this stage of its life.

“And I’ve decided that it’s time for me to move on.”

Sippey, who has been at Twitter since 2012, was somewhat vague on what his advisory position would entail, only noting that he would be working on product strategy and giving advice on team initiatives in 2014, as well as finding his successor.

This is certainly an interesting move, given Twitter’s IPO drama of last year. Back in November, Twitter priced its IPO at $26 a share, putting the firm’s value at around $17bn.

It’s a very impressive figure, especially considering early value figures were predicted at anywhere between $10bn and $15bn.

But there’s always been one nagging issue – Twitter has gone public having never made a profit. According to analysts the company’s clear path forward is in mobile, but with WhatsApp, Line and others in the mobile messaging space, it’s a clearly saturated market.

This begs the question: is Sippey leaving because he wants a new challenge, or is he leaving because the company will struggle to make a profit, especially with the glare of shareholders burning a hole in their account sheets?

Watch this space.