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Jack Dorsey

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Jack Dorsey
Dorsey at a London cafe in November 2014
Born (1976-11-19) November 19, 1976 (age 48)[1]
St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Alma materUniversity of Missouri–Rolla (transferred)
New York University (dropped out)
Occupation(s)CEO of Square, Inc. and Twitter[2]
Board member of
Twitter[3]

Jack Patrick Dorsey[6] (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. [7]

Early life

Dorsey was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri,[8][9] the son of Marcia (née Smith) and Tim Dorsey.[10][11][12] He is of English, Irish and Italian descent.[13] His father worked for a company that developed mass spectrometers and his mother was a homemaker.[14] He was raised Catholic, and his uncle is a Catholic priest in Cincinnati.[15] He attended the Catholic Bishop DuBourg High School.

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.[10] Dorsey attended the University of Missouri–Rolla for two-plus years (1995–1997)[15] before transferring to New York University, but he dropped out in 1999,[16] one semester short of graduating.[15] He first came up with the idea that he developed as Twitter while studying at New York University.[17]

While working on dispatching as a programmer, Dorsey moved to California.[18][19]

In Oakland in 2000, Dorsey started his company to dispatch couriers, taxis, and emergency services from the Web.[20] His other projects and ideas at this time included networks of medical devices and a "frictionless service market".[20] In July 2000, building on dispatching[10] 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.[20]

When he first saw implementations of instant messaging, Dorsey wondered whether the software's user status output could be shared easily among friends.[10] He approached Odeo, which at the time happened to be interested in text messaging.[10] Dorsey and Biz Stone decided that SMS text suited the status-message idea, and built a prototype of Twitter in about two weeks.[10] The idea attracted many users at Odeo and investment from Evan Williams,[10] who had left Google after selling Pyra Labs and Blogger.

In his young days, he worked occasionally as a fashion model.[21][22][23][24][25]

Career

Twitter

Main article: Twitter
Dorsey in 2008
Man in his thirties smiling at left, man in his forties center using computer, large crystal chandelier, several people in audience
Dorsey at a Twitter Town Hall during 2011 alongside United States President Barack Obama

Williams, Stone and Noah Glass co-founded Obvious Corporation, which then spun off Twitter Inc., with Dorsey as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO).[10][26] As chief executive officer, Dorsey saw the startup through two rounds of funding by the venture capitalists who backed the company.[27] He reportedly lost his position for leaving work early to enjoy other pursuits, such as yoga and fashion design.[28]

As the service began to grow in popularity, Dorsey chose the improvement of uptime as top priority,[29] even over creating revenue – which, as of 2008, Twitter was not designed to earn.[30] Dorsey described the commercial use of Twitter and its API as two things that could lead to paid features.[30] He describes his three guiding principles, which he says are shared by the company, as simplicity, constraint and craftsmanship.[30]

On October 16, 2008,[31] Williams took over the role of CEO, while Dorsey became chairman of the board.[32][33] On March 28, 2011, Dorsey returned to Twitter as Executive Chairman after Dick Costolo replaced Williams as the CEO.[34] 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.[35] He was named permanent CEO of Twitter on October 5, 2015.[36] On the day after the controversy about Twitter's new algorithms for tweets, Dorsey responded to the trend, saying it was only a hoax.[37]

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.[38]

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".[39]

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.[40]

In March 2018, Jack 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.[41] The overhaul may be in place before the U.S midterm election of 2018 and help in verifying the identities of the candidates.[42]

Square, Inc.

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.[43][44] The company grew from 10 employees in December 2009[45] to over a hundred employees by June 2011. Square's office is located on Market Street in San Francisco.[46] In September 2012, Business Insider magazine valued Square Inc. at US$3.2 billion.[47] Dorsey is CEO of Square, Inc.[48] On October 14, 2015, Square filed for an IPO to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.[49] As of that date, Dorsey owned 24.4% of the company.[50]

Other projects

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.[51] 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.[52] Dorsey thinks becoming mayor of New York City is an aspiration that would raise the bar for him.[52] He served as a judge for New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's NYC BigApps competition in 2011.[53] Dorsey is an on-record donor to Democratic Party candidates.[54]

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."[55] 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.[56]

He is also a board member of the Berggruen Institute's Governance Center.[57][58]

Former Twitter CEO Dick Costello 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." [59]

Personal life

In 2012, Dorsey moved to the Sea Cliff neighorhood of San Francisco with sweeping views of the Golden Gate, Marin Headlands and Pacific Ocean.[60] He walks 5 miles to work each morning and calls it a "very clearing time".[61] 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.[59]

Recognition

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.[62] For 2012, The Wall Street Journal gave him the "Innovator of the Year Award" for technology.[63][64]

At the 5th Annual Crunchies Awards in 2012, hosted by TechCrunch, Dorsey was named Founder of the Year.[65]

Dorsey was ranked by Fox Business as the #4 Worst CEO of 2016.[66]

In 2017, 24/7 Wall St. listed Dorsey among the 2017 Worst CEOs in America.[67][68]

In 2013, he was considered by Forbes the world's most eligible bachelor.[69]

In May 2018, Dorsey spoke at Consensus 2018, a digital currency and blockchain technology conference.[70]

References

  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. ^ "Board of directors – About". Twitter. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
  4. ^ "About Square". Square. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
  5. ^ "Jack Dorsey". Forbes.
  6. ^ 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.
  7. ^ Strange, Adario (April 20, 2007). "Flickr Document Reveals Origin Of Twitter". Wired News. CondéNet. Retrieved November 5, 2008.
  8. ^ Profile Twitter founders: Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone and Evan Williams. Telegraph. Retrieved on January 14, 2014.
  9. ^ Taste of St. Louis first major event to use Square : Business. Stltoday.com (September 29, 2010). Retrieved on January 14, 2014.
  10. ^ 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.
  11. ^ 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.
  12. ^ The Virginian-Pilot Archives. Nl.newsbank.com (November 26, 2009). Retrieved on January 14, 2014.
  13. ^ Jack Dorsey Believes That Eating Purple Food Makes You Healthier. Vanity Fair (March 21, 2012). Retrieved on January 14, 2014.
  14. ^ Robehmed, Natalie (September 30, 2014). "The youngest billionaires on the Forbes 400: 11 under 40". Yahoo! Finance. Retrieved October 1, 2014. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  15. ^ a b c Barker, Tim (November 15, 2009). "Native son sets St. Louis atwitter". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Retrieved January 17, 2018.
  16. ^ Rampton, John (September 22, 2016). "12 of the most successful entrepreneurs who dropped out of college". Mashable. Retrieved January 16, 2018.
  17. ^ "Co-founder of Twitter receives key to St. Louis with 140 character proclamation". ksdk.com. KSDK. September 19, 2009. Retrieved September 29, 2009. After high school in St. Louis and some time at the University of Missouri–Rolla, Jack headed east to New York University.
  18. ^ BusinessWeek (March 26, 2007). "Tech's Next Gen: The Best and Brightest". BusinessWeek. The McGraw-Hill Companies. Retrieved November 5, 2008. {{cite news}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  19. ^ Dorsey, Jack (April 8, 2009). "To be clear: I didn't attend Cornell (and didn't invent Twitter there)". Twitter. Retrieved April 13, 2009.
  20. ^ a b c Dorsey, Jack (March 24, 2006). "twttr sketch". Flickr. Yahoo!. Retrieved November 7, 2008.
  21. ^ 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.
  22. ^ Dorsey, Jack [@jack] (May 15, 2015). "@ScottLucas86 @LizFiandaca @jeremys did it include my modeling days? m.flickr.com/#/photos/jackd…" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  23. ^ Dorsey, Jack (July 13, 2006). "I read Gray's Anatomy". Flickr.
  24. ^ Dorsey, Jack (July 13, 2006). "Noele took pictures of me". Flickr.
  25. ^ Dorsey, Jack (July 13, 2006). "Who needs a nosering?". Flickr.
  26. ^ Hoge, Patrick (December 23, 2011). "Executive of the Year: Jack Dorsey". San Francisco Business Times. Retrieved April 30, 2017.
  27. ^ 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.
  28. ^ "The Approval Matrix". Entertainment. New York magazine. October 21, 2013. Retrieved April 30, 2017. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  29. ^ Wagner, Mitch (June 24, 2008). "Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey: Improved Uptime Is Top Priority". InformationWeek. United Business ...Media. Retrieved November 5, 2008.
  30. ^ 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.
  31. ^ 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.
  32. ^ McCarthy, Caroline (October 16, 2008). "Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey steps down". CNET News. CBS Interactive. Retrieved November 5, 2008.
  33. ^ "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.
  34. ^ "Jack Dorsey Officially Returns to Twitter". Mashable. March 28, 2011. Retrieved April 30, 2017.
  35. ^ Primack, Dan (June 11, 2015). "Twitter CEO Dick Costolo is Out, Jack Dorsey Back In". Retrieved April 30, 2017. {{cite magazine}}: Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)
  36. ^ Koh, Yoree (October 5, 2015). "Twitter Names Jack Dorsey CEO". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved October 5, 2015.
  37. ^ "Jack on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved February 7, 2016.
  38. ^ "Jack Dorsey is moving too slowly to save Twitter". Business Insider. Retrieved May 17, 2016.
  39. ^ Seetherman, Deepa (November 22, 2016). "Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's Account Briefly Suspended". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved November 23, 2016.
  40. ^ Russell, Jon (February 1, 2017). "Twitter staff donate $1.59M to the ACLU to fight Trump on immigration". TechCrunch. Retrieved April 11, 2017.
  41. ^ Barron, Laignee (March 9, 2018). "Twitter Wants to Open Verification to All Users". Fortune. Retrieved March 9, 2018.
  42. ^ Guynn, Jessica (March 8, 2018). "Jack Dorsey pledges Twitter will improve blue check mark verification system". USA Today. Retrieved March 9, 2018.
  43. ^ "Square". Square. Retrieved October 7, 2014.
  44. ^ Hempel, Jessi (June 2, 2011). "Jack Dorsey: The man with two brains". Fortune. Retrieved March 12, 2018.
  45. ^ Pollock, Jennifer (June 30, 2011). "CH+D Office Space: Square in San Francisco's Chronicle Building". California Home + Design. Retrieved September 19, 2011.
  46. ^ "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. {{cite press release}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  47. ^ Shontell, Alyssa (October 3, 2012). "THE DIGITAL 100: The World's Most Valuable Private Tech Companies". Business Insider. Retrieved October 4, 2012.
  48. ^ Strugatz, Rachel (January 16, 2014). "Jack Dorsey Looks to Simplify Commerce With Square". WWD. Retrieved January 16, 2014.
  49. ^ Soper, Alex Barinka alexbarinka Spencer. "Square Files for IPO as CEO Dorsey Juggles Twitter Revamp". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved October 16, 2015.
  50. ^ Rao, Leena (October 14, 2015). "Who owns what at Square". Fortune. Retrieved November 25, 2017.
  51. ^ 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. {{cite AV media}}: |author= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  52. ^ 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.
  53. ^ "MAYOR BLOOMBERG ANNOUNCES WINNERS OF NYC BIGAPPS 2.0 COMPETITION". NYC.gov. March 31, 2011. Retrieved June 5, 2013.
  54. ^ "Donor Lookup: Jack Dorsey". OpenSecrets.org. The Center for Responsive Politics. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  55. ^ Anthony Ha (December 24, 2013). "Jack Dorsey Joins Disney's Board Of Directors". TechCrunch. AOL Inc. Retrieved December 25, 2013.
  56. ^ Palmeri, Christopher (January 12, 2018). "Sheryl Sandberg, Jack Dorsey to Leave Disney's Board". Bloomberg. Retrieved January 13, 2018.
  57. ^ "Members of Governance Group". Berggruen Institute. Retrieved April 17, 2017.
  58. ^ 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
  59. ^ 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.
  60. ^ Thomas, Owen (June 18, 2012). "We Hear Twitter Cofounder Jack Dorsey Now Lives In A $10 Million House". Business Insider.
  61. ^ "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.
  62. ^ "TR35 Young Innovator". Technology Review. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 2008. Retrieved November 5, 2008.
  63. ^ "Innovator of the Year Awards". WSJ. Magazine. Dow Jones. 2012. Archived from the original on January 23, 2013. Retrieved March 18, 2013. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  64. ^ "Columbia to host Square and Twitter Founder Jack Dorsey on September 16". Columbia College. Retrieved January 16, 2018.
  65. ^ TV, TechCrunch. "Founder of the Year: Jack Dorsey (Square, Twitter)". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 16, 2018.
  66. ^ Tobak, Steve (December 21, 2016). "The Worst CEOs of 2016". Fox Business. Retrieved January 16, 2018.
  67. ^ "20 Worst CEOs in America 2017". 247wallst.com. Retrieved January 16, 2018.
  68. ^ Mirabella, Lorraine. "Under Armour founder Kevin Plank lands on a 'Worst CEOs' list". baltimoresun.com. Retrieved January 16, 2018.
  69. ^ Durgy, Edwin (March 6, 2013). "The World's 12 Most Eligible Billionaire Bachelors". Forbes. Retrieved April 13, 2018.
  70. ^ Katz, Lily; Surane, Jennifer (May 13, 2018). "Blockchain Week: Snoop Dogg, Dorsey Bring Crypto to the Masses". Bloomberg. Retrieved May 16, 2018.

Further reading

  • Max, D. T. (October 21, 2013). "Two-hit wonder". Profiles. The New Yorker. 89 (33): 48–59. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |1= and |authormask= (help)
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jack Dorsey.
Business positions
Preceded by
Company founded
 Twitter CEO
2006–2008 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Twitter CEO
2015–present 		Succeeded by
incumbent
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