Former AOL CEO Tim Armstrong wrote a weird memo announcing his startup's spirit animal, and picking the wolf because it's 'flow' spelled backwards

Tim Armstrong

On Thursday, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong announced he'll be launching a new company focused on the direct-to-consumer retail market.
In a bizarre memo sent to friends and family explaining his latest venture, published by CNBC, Armstrong announced his company's 'spirit animal'.
Armstrong chose the wolf for a variety of reasons, not all of them lupine related.

Apparently, former AOL CEO Tim Armstrong takes his spirit animals seriously.

In a bizarre memo published by CNBC that was sent to friends and family to explain his latest venture — the dtx company — Armstrong wrote: "Our spirit animal is the wolf, as we believe the strength of the wolf is in the pack, and the strength of the pack is in the wolf. We also love wolf because it is 'Flow' backwards and we are building a Flow State culture."

The dtx company — which stands for "direct to everything" — aims to help "empower consumers and companies to build direct relationships," according to the memo.

Armstrong said that the "x" in "dtx" is symbolic because it's "two arrows meeting in the middle as we believe in two-way or no way." He also emphasized that the spelling be lowercased, saying "we are lowercase because our partners are UPPERCASE."

To date, dtx has already invested in a half dozen companies, including health beverage company Dirty Lemon, bra-maker Third Love , and manicure company OIive & June.

Armstrong also told CNBC that he wants to launch 'experiences' involving direct-to-consumer brands, which he envisions to be a mix between the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and Coachella.

Read the full Armstrong memo in CNBC's report.

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