Jack Dorsey: Your Twitter Account Is His Invention
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Writing when you have a word limit to stick to is stimulating and challenging at the same time. The leveraging character limit for your own good is simply at another level. And that’s the idea behind Twitter. This social media platform has revolutionized concise messaging through the concept of tweets—posts with a 280 characters limit.
News, views, reviews, and whatnot are exchanged on Twitter. Sports, politics, movie industry, social workers, businessmen, organizations, the ordinary public…nearly every class and kind of person could be found on Twitter. It’s hard to follow that favourite celeb of yours had it not been for Twitter. Twitter is social media platform founded by Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, Evan Williams, and Noah Glass
Jack Dorsey is an American entrepreneur and the co-founder and former CEO of Twitter. He is also the founder of Block, Inc. (Formerly Square). The net worth of Jack Dorsey is $5.2 billion, as of May 2022. Dorsey remained the CEO of Twitter till November 29, 2021, when he stepped down from the coveted position and was replaced by Parag Agrawal. Dorsey also resigned from Twitter's Board of Directors on May 25th, 2022. Â
Here we are going to uncover the success story of the man behind the success of Twitter, Jack Dorsey.
Jack Dorsey - Biography
| Name | Jack Dorsey |
|---|---|
| Born | November 19, 1976 |
| Place | St. Louis, Missouri, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Parents | Marcia Dorsey, Tim Dorsey |
| Education | Bishop DuBourg High School, Missouri University of Science and Technology, New York University |
| Known for | Co-Founder and Ex-CEO of Twitter, Co-Founder of Block, Inc. |
| Net Worth | $5.2 billion (May 2022 ) |
Jack Dorsey - Childhood
Jack Dorsey - Education
Jack Dorsey - The Dot-Com Setback
Jack Dorsey - Launch of Twitter
Jack Dorsey - Exit From Twitter
Jack Dorsey - Working for Block, Inc.
Jack Dorsey - Childhood
Jack Patrick Dorsey was born on November 19, 1976, in the city of St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Jack grew up in a middle-class Catholic family. He grew to be one of the most famous entrepreneurs alongside his brothers, Andrew and Dannie Dorsey. Tim Dorsey & Marcia Smith Dorsey are the parents of Jack Dorsey.
When Jack Dorsey was young, he was an observant kid who had a speech impediment. As a result, he normally stayed at home and developed a fascination for simplicity. An introvert in childhood, Jack overcame his shyness by participating in various oratory competitions. After many failed attempts, he overcame his fear of speaking in front of the public.
As a teenager, Dorsey loved spending time with computers. An early version of the IBM computer fascinated him and he spent hours, if not days, analyzing and understanding it. His ambition was to draw a live map of New York City, comprising several dots or legends that represented vehicles and landmarks.
Jack Dorsey - Education
Jack Dorsey attended Bishop DuBourg High School and after leaving high school, he enrolled in the Missouri University of Science and Technology.
He left after two years to pursue his dream of living in New York and joined New York University only to drop out in the final year to work on his idea of Twitter. His goal of creating the live map took over his academics but fate has its quirks.
During the summer of 1991, Jack Dorsey joined Mira Digital Publishing Company. A young Dorsey interrupted his boss in the middle of a project. Although his boss promised to talk to him within a minute, Jack didn’t get to speak to him. After the meeting, his boss saw him standing at the same spot. Jack had a thing for patience. He went on to lead a team of programmers in their thirties.
Piyush Mishra
Jack Dorsey - The Dot-Com Setback
Jack Dorsey got into the Dispatch Management Services Corp by hacking their security system and emailing the company’s manager, Greg Kidd, on how to patch the hack. He worked for the company for several years and worked for Greg Kidd’s project called dNet.com. However, the dot-com bubble destroyed the efforts that were put in for dNet.com, and Dorsey was left unemployed. His condition was so bad that he had to go for massage therapy courses.
Dorsey was then saved by Odeo Company, which specialized in internet startups. The company was headed by Evan Williams and faced a financial crisis and ideological difficulties amongst the employees.
Jack Dorsey - Launch of Twitter
Jack Dorsey created Twitter because he wanted to combine the SMS concept with an algorithm so that the would-be read only by the sender’s network. This was the only core logic behind Twitter. After two weeks, Dorsey and his friend came up with the iconic blue bird logo for Twitter.
The first tweet was done by Dorsey which read - “just setting up my twttr” (yes, twttr, and not Twitter). Twitter went public in the year 2006.
just setting up my twttr
— jack (@jack) March 21, 2006
In the start, many people labelled the Twitter concept as “useless”. Even Williams was sceptical about its potential. It was a hard time since companies like Odeo, which supported young programmers to build their own companies, were not available to help Dorsey with his Twitter venture.
Naturally, there was a concern for funds to keep Twitter away from shuttering. However, the Twitter team soon found a scanned image of half a million dollars in its checkbox. A guy named Fred Wilson offered this cheque and was willing to work for Twitter as a strategic consultant. His plans assisted Twitter in building a global reach.
With time, Twitter cemented its place and the rapid developments in smartphone tech only bolstered Twitter’s growth. Twitter has around 2.2 billion visits per month at present. During the Southwest Film Festival in 2007, employees used multiple screens to show the facility of the real-time messages offered by Twitter. This helped increase the daily tweets count from twenty to sixty thousand.
In May 2008, the billionth tweet was posted. In the same year, the market capitalization of Twitter reached a whopping $1.5 billion. The market cap of Twitter was last recorded at $26.10 Billion in February 2022.
In October 2009, Twitter gained its first revenue of around $25 million. Google Inc. and Microsoft had a role to play in this deal. The deal was centred on the condition that Twitter messages would become visible to Google and Bing search engines. Later, Dorsey refused to work with Facebook.
In 2013, there was a 182% increase in Twitter’s shares. This was due to an increase in the stock’s value in IPO (the stock price was $26, but increased to more than $46 on the first day of trading). At present, 85% of the revenues come from online advertisements.
Jack Dorsey, being the brain behind one of the most popular social media platforms of our times makes him an iconic social media entrepreneur. Jack Dorsey is currently worth around $5.2 bn, as of May 2022 reports.
Jack Dorsey - Exit From Twitter
Jack Dorsey served as the CEO of Twitter since he founded Twitter in 2006. However, he had to resign due to the alleged problems in the functioning of the platform and in the management of the company for which he was pushed out of his role by the board in 2008.
The genius, however, witnessed a Steve Jobs- style return to his home company as a CEO in 2015 and had finally opted to resign on November 29, 2021, when he left the office to give way to Parag Agrawal, who replaced him immediately the very same day.
Speaking about Agrawal, Dorsey has mentioned that firstly, he wants to stop Twitter to be an entity that is founder-led. Furthermore, he mentioned that his trust in him “is bone-deep”.
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey said that he won't be hanging there on the Board of Twitter for long. This is vital because he thinks that it is “important to give Parag the space he needs to lead”. Dorsey took to his homegrown platform to post his resignation letter, which reads:
not sure anyone has heard but,
— jack⚡️ (@jack) November 29, 2021
I resigned from Twitter pic.twitter.com/G5tUkSSxkl
Jack Dorsey Left the Twitter Board of Directors
Jack Dorsey quit the Twitter Board of Directors on May 25, 2021. Though he stepped down from being the Twitter CEO on November 29, 2021, he still remained aligned with the social media giant's Board of Directors, however, he had already planned to leave the Board since he stepped down from the CEO position. Twitter is witnessing a visible change in its administration and is going through a major transformation since the days when Jack Dorsey stepped down. Now, Parag Agrawal is the CEO of Twitter, while Elon Musk is on the verge of acquiring the popular social media platform, which would bring in more change to follow.
Niku Mandal
Jack Dorsey - Working for Block, Inc.
Dorsey is now working on the development of Block, Inc. (Formerly Square). While Square still exists as one of the company's main products, the company changed its name to Block on December 10, 2021.
Block Inc. is headquartered in San Francisco, California, USA, and is financial services and digital payments company founded by Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey in 2009. The company Block derived its former name "Square" from its square-shaped card readers. Block is currently a public company that was registered on the New York Stock Exchange in November 2015.
Square, which is a payments platform that helps small and medium-sized businesses accept credit card payments and use tablet computers as payment registers for a point of sale system, is one of the core businesses of Block. Some other products/businesses of Block include:
- Cash App - A mobile app that allows money transfers between users and businesses.
- Afterpay - A buy-now-pay-later service of Block.
- Weebly - Weebly is a website hosting service.
- Tidal - Tidal offers audio and music videos to the users as a subscription-based music podcast and video streaming service.
In the year 2012, Starbucks invested $25 million in Square, Inc. The CEO of Starbucks, Howard Schultz joined Square’s board and became one of the most important personalities on the board.
Ananya Shetty
FAQs
Where did Jack Dorsey go to high school?
Jack Dorsey went to Bishop DuBourg High School.
Where did Jack Dorsey go to college?
Jack Dorsey attended Missouri University of Science and Technology and New York University, but he dropped out in his final year to work on Twitter.
Where was Jack Dorsey born?
Jack Patrick Dorsey was born on November 19, 1976, in the city of St. Louis, Missouri, United States
When did Jack Dorsey start Twitter?
Jack Dorsey started Twitter in 2006 and his first tweet was “just setting up my twttr”.
How did Jack Dorsey start Twitter?
When Odeo went out of business, Jack Dorsey started work on his idea where he wanted to combine the SMS concept with an algorithm so that the would-be read-only by the sender’s network.
Did Jack Dorsey graduate college?
No, Jack Dorsey dropped out first from the Missouri University of Science and Technology and after two years he transferred to the New York University but dropped out from there too to work on Twitter.
Did Jack Dorsey leave Twitter Board?
Yes, Jack Dorsey resigned from Twitter's Board of Directors on May 25, 2022.
When did Jack Dorsey leave Twitter?
Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter, stepped down from the Twitter CEO position On November 29, 2021, which brought Parag Agrawal as the new Twitter CEO. Furthermore, on May 25, 2022, Jack Dorsey left the Twitter Board of Directors, which was when Jack Dorsey left Twitter altogether.
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