Jack Dorsey

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Jack Dorsey
Jack Dorsey 2014.jpg
Dorsey at a London cafe in November 2014
Born Jack Patrick Dorsey
(1976-11-19) November 19, 1976 (age 41)[1]
St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Residence San Francisco, California, U.S.
Nationality American
Citizenship United States
Alma mater University of Missouri–Rolla (transferred)
New York University (dropped out)
Occupation CEO of Square, Inc. and Twitter[2]
Known for Co-founder of Twitter & Square, Inc.
Salary

Square, Inc. $2.75 (2017)

Twitter $0 (2017)[3]
Net worth Increase US$6 billion September 2018[4]
Board member of
Twitter[5]

Jack Patrick Dorsey[7] (born November 19, 1976) is an American computer programmer and Internet entrepreneur who is co-founder and CEO of Twitter, and founder and CEO of Square, a mobile payments company.[8]

Early life[edit]

Dorsey was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri,[9][10] the son of Marcia (née Smith) and Tim Dorsey.[11][12][13] He is of English, Irish and Italian descent.[14] His father worked for a company that developed mass spectrometers and his mother was a homemaker.[15] He was raised Catholic, and his uncle is a Catholic priest in Cincinnati.[16] He attended the Catholic Bishop DuBourg High School.

In his younger days, Dorsey worked occasionally as a fashion model.[17][18][19][20][21] By age fourteen, Dorsey had become interested in dispatch routing. Some of the open-source software he created in the area of dispatch logistics is still used by many taxi cab companies.[11] Dorsey attended the University of Missouri–Rolla for two-plus years (1995–1997)[16] before transferring to New York University, but he dropped out in 1999,[22] one semester short of graduating.[16] He first came up with the idea that he developed as Twitter while studying at New York University.[16][23]

While working on dispatching as a programmer, Dorsey moved to California.[24][25] In 2000, Dorsey started his company in Oakland to dispatch couriers, taxis, and emergency services from the Web.[26] His other projects and ideas at this time included networks of medical devices and a "frictionless service market".[26] In July 2000, building on dispatching[11] and inspired in part by LiveJournal and by AOL Instant Messenger, he had the idea for a Web-based realtime status/short message communication service.[26]

When he first saw implementations of instant messaging, Dorsey wondered whether the software's user status output could be shared easily among friends.[11] He approached Odeo, which at the time happened to be interested in text messaging.[11] Dorsey and Biz Stone decided that SMS text suited the status-message idea, and built a prototype of Twitter in about two weeks.[11] The idea attracted many users at Odeo and investment from Evan Williams,[11] who had left Google after selling Pyra Labs and Blogger.

Career[edit]

Twitter[edit]

Main article: Twitter
Dorsey in 2008

Williams, Stone and Noah Glass co-founded Obvious Corporation, which then spun off Twitter, Inc., with Dorsey as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO).[11][27] As chief executive officer, Dorsey saw the startup through two rounds of funding by the venture capitalists who backed the company.[28] He reportedly lost his position for leaving work early to enjoy other pursuits, such as yoga and fashion design.[29]

As the service began to grow in popularity, Dorsey chose the improvement of uptime as top priority,[30] even over creating revenue – which, as of 2008, Twitter was not designed to earn.[31] Dorsey described the commercial use of Twitter and its API as two things that could lead to paid features.[31] He describes his three guiding principles, which he says are shared by the company, as simplicity, constraint and craftsmanship.[31]

On October 16, 2008,[32] Williams took over the role of CEO, while Dorsey became chairman of the board.[33][34] On March 28, 2011, Dorsey returned to Twitter as Executive Chairman after Dick Costolo replaced Williams as the CEO.[35] On June 10, 2015, Costolo announced that he was resigning as CEO of Twitter, effective July 1, 2015. Dorsey would assume the post of Interim CEO upon Costolo's departure.[36] He was named permanent CEO of Twitter on October 5, 2015.[37] On the day after the controversy about Twitter's new algorithms for tweets, Dorsey responded to the trend, saying it was only a hoax.[38]

In May 2016, Dorsey announced that Twitter would not count photos and links in the 140-character limit to free up more space for text. This move was an attempt to entice new users, since the number of tweets per day had dropped to about 300 million in January 2016 compared to about 500 million in September 2013 and its peak of 661 million in August 2014.[39]

On November 22, 2016, Dorsey was briefly suspended from his own Twitter user account with 3.9 million followers. After restoring the account, Dorsey tweeted the suspension was due to an "internal mistake".[40]

In February 2017, Dorsey and Executive Chairman Omid Kordestani matched a $530,000 donation to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) raised by Twitter staffers. Their match brought the total donation to $1.59 million.[41]

In March 2018, Dorsey announced that an improved version of the verification system is coming to Twitter. The purpose of redesigning verification is to let people verify more facts about themselves, emphasizing proof of identity.[42] The overhaul may be in place before the U.S midterm election of 2018 and help in verifying the identities of the candidates.[43]

In September 2018, Dorsey testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee alongside Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg about meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Following this testimony, Twitter shares fell 6%.[44]

Square, Inc.[edit]

Main article: Square, Inc.

Dorsey, along with co-founder Jim McKelvey, developed a small business platform to accept debit and credit card payments on a mobile device called Square, released in May 2010. The small, square-shaped device attaches to iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, or Android devices via the headphone jack, and as a mini card reader, allows a person to swipe their card, choose an amount to transfer to the recipient and then sign their name for confirmation. Square is also a system for sending paperless receipts via text message or email, and is available as a free app for iOS and Android OS.[45][46] The company grew from 10 employees in December 2009[47] to over a hundred employees by June 2011. Square's office is located on Market Street in San Francisco.[48] In September 2012, Business Insider magazine valued Square Inc. at US$3.2 billion.[49] Dorsey is CEO of Square, Inc.[50] On October 14, 2015, Square filed for an IPO to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.[51] As of that date, Dorsey owned 24.4% of the company.[52]

Other projects[edit]

Producer Tom Anderson and correspondent Lara Logan interviewed Dorsey for a segment of CBS 60 Minutes called "The Innovator: Jack Dorsey" which aired during March 2013.[53] In 2013, talking to CNN, Dorsey expressed admiration for Michael Bloomberg and his reinvention through design and simple interfaces of what it means to be mayor.[54] Dorsey thinks becoming mayor of New York City is an aspiration that would raise the bar for him.[54] He served as a judge for New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's NYC BigApps competition in 2011.[55] Dorsey is an on-record donor to Democratic Party candidates.[56]

Dorsey was announced as a new member of the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company on December 24, 2013. The press release referred to Dorsey as a "talented entrepreneur" and explained that his experience is aligned with the corporation's "strategic priorities."[57] In January 2018, it was reported that Dorsey would not seek re-election at Disney's March annual meeting, due to increased difficulty at avoiding conflicts of interest.[58]

He is also a board member of the Berggruen Institute's Governance Center.[59][60]

Former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo described Dorsey as a calm, thoughtful leader. Charles Whitehead, a business law professor at Cornell Law School who lectures on the dual CEO said "Half of Jack Dorsey is worth 100% of anyone else. He appeals to investors, whom he attracts, and employees, whom he retains."[61]

Personal life[edit]

In 2012, Dorsey moved to the Sea Cliff neighborhood of San Francisco with sweeping views of the Golden Gate, Marin Headlands and Pacific Ocean.[62] He walks five miles to work each morning and calls it a "very clearing time".[63] He is knowledgeable about the Art Deco architecture of Twitter's headquarters that was built in 1937, the same year as the Golden Gate Bridge. He is a fan of Kendrick Lamar's music.[61]

Recognition[edit]

long view of stage with Stone and Dorsey speaking in front of a slide presentation
Biz Stone and Dorsey accepting a Crunchie award for best mobile startup

In 2008, he was named to the MIT Technology Review TR35 as one of the top 35 innovators in the world under the age of 35.[64] For 2012, The Wall Street Journal gave him the "Innovator of the Year Award" for technology.[65][66]

At the 5th Annual Crunchies Awards in 2012, hosted by TechCrunch, Dorsey was named Founder of the Year.[67]

In 2013, he was considered by Forbes the world's most eligible bachelor.[68]

Dorsey was ranked by Fox Business as the #4 Worst CEO of 2016, citing stagnant growth, falling stock prices, and his part-time commitment to Twitter.[69]

In 2017, 24/7 Wall St. listed Dorsey among the 2017 Worst CEOs in America.[70][71]

In May 2018, Dorsey spoke at Consensus 2018, a digital currency and blockchain technology conference.[72]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Jack Dorsey". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2014. Retrieved December 22, 2014. 
  2. ^ "Twitter names Jack Dorsey as CEO". CNN Money. October 5, 2015. Retrieved October 5, 2015. 
  3. ^ Spangler, Todd (April 11, 2018). "Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Declines Compensation in 2017 for Third Straight Year". Variety. Retrieved August 18, 2018. 
  4. ^ "Jack Dorsey". Forbes. 
  5. ^ "Board of directors – About". Twitter. Retrieved January 31, 2017. 
  6. ^ "About Square". Square. Retrieved January 31, 2017. 
  7. ^ Dorsey, Marcia [@marciadorsey] (November 19, 2013). "This date/day is one of the BEST days of my LIFE! I am SO BLESSED...🎈Happy Birthday Jack Patrick Dorsey, (aka) @jack!" (Tweet) – via Twitter. 
  8. ^ Strange, Adario (April 20, 2007). "Flickr Document Reveals Origin Of Twitter". Wired News. CondéNet. Retrieved November 5, 2008. 
  9. ^ Profile Twitter founders: Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone and Evan Williams. Telegraph. Retrieved on January 14, 2014.
  10. ^ Taste of St. Louis first major event to use Square : Business. Stltoday.com (September 29, 2010). Retrieved on January 14, 2014.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h Glaser, Mark (May 17, 2007). "Twitter Founders Thrive on Micro-Blogging Constraints". MediaShift. Retrieved November 5, 2008. 
  12. ^ Jack Dorsey, creador de twitter: 'En 140 caracteres la gente se siente más libre al escribir' | CIENCIA&TECNOLOGÍA. latercera.com. Retrieved on January 14, 2014.
  13. ^ The Virginian-Pilot Archives. Nl.newsbank.com (November 26, 2009). Retrieved on January 14, 2014.
  14. ^ Jack Dorsey Believes That Eating Purple Food Makes You Healthier. Vanity Fair (March 21, 2012). Retrieved on January 14, 2014.
  15. ^ Robehmed, Natalie (September 30, 2014). "The youngest billionaires on the Forbes 400: 11 under 40". Yahoo! Finance. Retrieved October 1, 2014. 
  16. ^ a b c d Barker, Tim (November 15, 2009). "Native son sets St. Louis atwitter". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Retrieved January 17, 2018. 
  17. ^ Dorsey, Jack [@jack] (September 3, 2013). "Me in my (very) short-lived days as a vintage clothing model: flic.kr/p/hG5x5" (Tweet) – via Twitter. 
  18. ^ Dorsey, Jack [@jack] (May 15, 2015). "@ScottLucas86 @LizFiandaca @jeremys did it include my modeling days? m.flickr.com/#/photos/jackd…" (Tweet) – via Twitter. 
  19. ^ Dorsey, Jack (July 13, 2006). "I read Gray's Anatomy". Flickr. 
  20. ^ Dorsey, Jack (July 13, 2006). "Noele took pictures of me". Flickr. 
  21. ^ Dorsey, Jack (July 13, 2006). "Who needs a nosering?". Flickr. 
  22. ^ Rampton, John (September 22, 2016). "12 of the most successful entrepreneurs who dropped out of college". Mashable. Retrieved January 16, 2018. 
  23. ^ Bussgang, Jeffrey (April 27, 2010). "When Jack Dorsey Met Fred Wilson, And Other Twitter Tales (Book Excerpt)". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 23, 2018. Jack ... moved to New York, transferred to NYU, and started writing dispatch software ... 'They're all reporting constantly where they are and what work they're doing ... I thought that abstraction was so cool that I wanted that same thing for my friends.' 
  24. ^ BusinessWeek (March 26, 2007). "Tech's Next Gen: The Best and Brightest". BusinessWeek. The McGraw-Hill Companies. Retrieved November 5, 2008. 
  25. ^ Dorsey, Jack (April 8, 2009). "To be clear: I didn't attend Cornell (and didn't invent Twitter there)". Twitter. Retrieved April 13, 2009. 
  26. ^ a b c Dorsey, Jack (March 24, 2006). "twttr sketch". Flickr. Yahoo!. Retrieved November 7, 2008. 
  27. ^ Hoge, Patrick (December 23, 2011). "Executive of the Year: Jack Dorsey". San Francisco Business Times. Retrieved April 30, 2017. 
  28. ^ Miller, Claire Cain (October 16, 2008). "Twitter Sidelines One Founder and Promotes Another". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved November 5, 2008. 
  29. ^ "The Approval Matrix". Entertainment. New York magazine. October 21, 2013. Retrieved April 30, 2017. 
  30. ^ Wagner, Mitch (June 24, 2008). "Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey: Improved Uptime Is Top Priority". InformationWeek. United Business ...Media. Retrieved November 5, 2008. 
  31. ^ a b c Wagner, Mitch (June 24, 2008). "Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Talks About Its Business Model". InformationWeek. United Business Media. Retrieved November 5, 2008. 
  32. ^ Miller, Claire Cain (October 20, 2008). "Popularity or Income? Two Sites Fight It Out". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved November 5, 2008. 
  33. ^ McCarthy, Caroline (October 16, 2008). "Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey steps down". CNET News. CBS Interactive. Retrieved November 5, 2008. 
  34. ^ "Jack Dorsey Tells David Kirkpatrick How It Felt to Be Ousted from Twitter and Discusses His Big New Idea: Square". Vanity Fair. March 3, 2011. Retrieved April 30, 2017. 
  35. ^ "Jack Dorsey Officially Returns to Twitter". Mashable. March 28, 2011. Retrieved April 30, 2017. 
  36. ^ Primack, Dan (June 11, 2015). "Twitter CEO Dick Costolo is Out, Jack Dorsey Back In". Retrieved April 30, 2017. 
  37. ^ Koh, Yoree (October 5, 2015). "Twitter Names Jack Dorsey CEO". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved October 5, 2015. 
  38. ^ "Jack on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved February 7, 2016. 
  39. ^ "Jack Dorsey is moving too slowly to save Twitter". Business Insider. Retrieved May 17, 2016. 
  40. ^ Seetherman, Deepa (November 22, 2016). "Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's Account Briefly Suspended". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved November 23, 2016. 
  41. ^ Russell, Jon (February 1, 2017). "Twitter staff donate $1.59M to the ACLU to fight Trump on immigration". TechCrunch. Retrieved April 11, 2017. 
  42. ^ Barron, Laignee (March 9, 2018). "Twitter Wants to Open Verification to All Users". Fortune. Retrieved March 9, 2018. 
  43. ^ Guynn, Jessica (March 8, 2018). "Jack Dorsey pledges Twitter will improve blue check mark verification system". USA Today. Retrieved March 9, 2018. 
  44. ^ Lucas, Amelia (2018-09-05). "Twitter shares fall 6% as CEO Jack Dorsey testifies before Senate". CNBC. Retrieved 2018-09-06. 
  45. ^ "Square". Square. Retrieved October 7, 2014. 
  46. ^ Hempel, Jessi (June 2, 2011). "Jack Dorsey: The man with two brains". Fortune. Retrieved 2018-03-12. 
  47. ^ Pollock, Jennifer (June 30, 2011). "CH+D Office Space: Square in San Francisco's Chronicle Building". California Home + Design. Retrieved September 19, 2011. 
  48. ^ "Square opens new headquarters in San Francisco, announces plans for expanded offices in New York and Kitchener-Waterloo" (Press release). Square, Inc. October 7, 2013. Archived from the original on April 13, 2014. Retrieved March 29, 2014. 
  49. ^ Shontell, Alyssa (October 3, 2012). "THE DIGITAL 100: The World's Most Valuable Private Tech Companies". Business Insider. Retrieved October 4, 2012. 
  50. ^ Strugatz, Rachel (January 16, 2014). "Jack Dorsey Looks to Simplify Commerce With Square". WWD. Retrieved January 16, 2014. 
  51. ^ Soper, Alex Barinka alexbarinka Spencer. "Square Files for IPO as CEO Dorsey Juggles Twitter Revamp". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved October 16, 2015. 
  52. ^ Rao, Leena (October 14, 2015). "Who owns what at Square". Fortune. Retrieved November 25, 2017. 
  53. ^ Lara Logan, correspondent. Tom Anderson, producer (March 17, 2013). The Innovator: Jack Dorsey (13:14 running time). 60 Minutes: CBS Interactive. Retrieved March 18, 2013. 
  54. ^ a b Tapper, Jake; Pham, Sherisse (March 21, 2013). "Jack Dorsey on his desire to be mayor of New York City, Steve Jobs, and being a bachelor". CNN. Turner Broadcasting. Retrieved March 25, 2013. 
  55. ^ "MAYOR BLOOMBERG ANNOUNCES WINNERS OF NYC BIGAPPS 2.0 COMPETITION". NYC.gov. March 31, 2011. Retrieved June 5, 2013. 
  56. ^ "Donor Lookup: Jack Dorsey". OpenSecrets.org. The Center for Responsive Politics. Retrieved December 3, 2016. 
  57. ^ Anthony Ha (December 24, 2013). "Jack Dorsey Joins Disney's Board Of Directors". TechCrunch. AOL Inc. Retrieved December 25, 2013. 
  58. ^ Palmeri, Christopher (January 12, 2018). "Sheryl Sandberg, Jack Dorsey to Leave Disney's Board". Bloomberg. Retrieved January 13, 2018. 
  59. ^ "Members of Governance Group". Berggruen Institute. Retrieved April 17, 2017. 
  60. ^ Ward, Vicky (May 11, 2016). "Why Nicolas Berggruen is Creating an Institute for Geniuses". Town & Country. Retrieved April 17, 2017. Another wing of the Berggruen Institute has technologists like Elon Musk and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, as well as former treasury secretary Larry Summers 
  61. ^ a b Swartz, Jon (August 10, 2018). "Jack Dorsey is a Double-Duty CEO for Twitter and Square. Here's How He Revived Them Both". Barron's. Retrieved August 15, 2018. 
  62. ^ Thomas, Owen (June 18, 2012). "We Hear Twitter Cofounder Jack Dorsey Now Lives In A $10 Million House". Business Insider. Retrieved August 15, 2018. 
  63. ^ "Jack Dorsey walks 5 miles to work every day—and he says it's the best investment he can make". CNBC. July 11, 2018. Retrieved August 14, 2018. 
  64. ^ "TR35 Young Innovator". Technology Review. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 2008. Retrieved November 5, 2008. 
  65. ^ "Innovator of the Year Awards". WSJ. Magazine. Dow Jones. 2012. Archived from the original on January 23, 2013. Retrieved March 18, 2013. 
  66. ^ "Columbia to host Square and Twitter Founder Jack Dorsey on September 16". Columbia College. Retrieved 2018-01-16. 
  67. ^ TV, TechCrunch. "Founder of the Year: Jack Dorsey (Square, Twitter)". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2018-01-16. 
  68. ^ Durgy, Edwin (March 6, 2013). "The World's 12 Most Eligible Billionaire Bachelors". Forbes. Retrieved April 13, 2018. 
  69. ^ Tobak, Steve (2016-12-21). "The Worst CEOs of 2016". Fox Business. Retrieved 2018-01-16. 
  70. ^ "20 Worst CEOs in America 2017". 247wallst.com. Retrieved 2018-01-16. 
  71. ^ Mirabella, Lorraine. "Under Armour founder Kevin Plank lands on a 'Worst CEOs' list". baltimoresun.com. Retrieved 2018-01-16. 
  72. ^ Katz, Lily; Surane, Jennifer (May 13, 2018). "Blockchain Week: Snoop Dogg, Dorsey Bring Crypto to the Masses". Bloomberg. Retrieved May 16, 2018. 

Further reading[edit]

  • Max, D. T. (October 21, 2013). "Two-hit wonder". Profiles. The New Yorker. 89 (33): 48–59. 

External links[edit]

Business positions
Preceded by
Company founded 		Twitter CEO
2006–2008 		Succeeded by
Evan Williams
Preceded by
Dick Costolo 		Twitter CEO
2015–present 		Succeeded by
incumbent
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jack_Dorsey&oldid=861393683"