Twitter Icon -- mediabistro.com |
I found a great article from The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) that I would like to share because it covers all the angles I was looking to find. Below you will find a guest post written by Yoree Koh and Shira Ovide, both reporters for WSJ.
Twitter’s Founders: Where Are They Now?
By: Yoree Koh and Shira Ovide
Before Twitter became a social media phenomenon, it was just an idea. Here’s brief look at Twitter’s quartet of founders:
Evan Williams / @Ev: The laid back founder
Evan Williams -- Associated Press |
What Is He Doing Now? Williams was pushed out as CEO and replaced with Dick Costolo in 2010. With Biz Stone (see below), Williams created Medium, a Web-publishing platform that has grown popular with the digerati.
Fun Fact: Williams has said he grew up on a Nebraska farm, “90 miles and an eternity” from Lincoln.
Biz Stone / @Biz: The creative founder
Biz Stone -- Associated Press |
What is He Doing Now: In 2012, he teamed up with his old pal Williams to co-found Medium, a publishing platform. He has also been an active investor, putting money into various startups including Dorsey’s Square.
Fun fact: He has been known to hit up the conference circuit, charging an average $75,000 per speaking engagement.
Jack Dorsey / @Jack: The superstar founder
Jack Dorsey -- AFP / Getty |
Dorsey in 2000 was working at LiveJournal, an early collection of blogs, and had an idea to let regular people do quick status updates as cab drivers and dispatches did. He refined the concept for years and finally got a chance to put the idea to the test when he worked for Odeo.
Dorsey’s claim to fame is he sent the world’s first tweet: “just setting up my twttr,” he posted on March 21, 2006. (The company was originally called “twttr” — in part because the Web address Twitter.com was already taken, co-founder Biz Stone told The Wall Street Journal recently.)
What Is He Doing Now: Dorsey is the chairman of Twitter’s board, and he founded and runs hot mobile-payments startup Square. He also remains very active with Twitter. Last year, he found a digital-video startup called Vine and convinced Twitter to buy it. At one point, Dorsey said he was spending eight hours a day working on Square, and eight hours on Twitter. Yes, that is a 16-hour workday.
Fun Facts: Dorsey is the coolest dresser in Silicon Valley — no contest. He’s so cool that he has become known for a signature reverse collar shirt. Esquire has a “Jack Dorsey Style Scale” to rate tech moguls’ sartorial style compared to Dorsey’s. He also may be the world’s biggest proponent of “selfies” — photos or videos of yourself, shot on a smartphone.
Noah Glass / @Noah: The founder of mystery
Noah Glass -- Twitter Profile |
The problem is, most people don’t remember him. That’s mostly due to the fact he was pushed out of the company before it exploded into the social sharing beast that it is today, then largely left out of the company’s historical narrative.
“I felt betrayed by my friends, by my company, by these people around me I trusted and that I had worked hard to create something with,” said Glass in an interview with Business Insider.
He left in 2006, following disagreements with Williams over the direction of the company, including who should lead it. (Glass reportedly wanted to be CEO, but the honor went to Williams.)
Dorsey gave Glass proper credit for the company’s name in 2011–fittingly, in a series of tweets.
What is He Doing Now: We’ll let you know when he resurfaces. Unlike the other three founders, who have all been extensively profiled in the media, little is known about what Glass is up to these days.
According to the Business Insider interview, after his unceremonious exit from Twitter he dabbled in games before moving to Los Angeles to work on an “alternative energy system.” He later moved to San Francisco.
But he’s largely fallen off the digital map since 2011. He only tweeted three times in 2013 and before that was silent since 2011. His blog hasn’t been updated since May 2009.
Fun Fact: Another Noah Glass on Twitter makes clear in his profile he’s not THAT Noah Glass.
The Big Idea
Twttr Sketch by Jack Dorsey -- Flickr |
I found another great article that from Los Angeles Times that talked about Twitter's "founding document" to read the full article click here: Twitter creater Jack Dorsey illuminates the site's founding document. Part I.
Basically, the big idea of Twitter started with just a simple sketch. In the article, Jack Dorsey explains that Twitter has been his life's work in many senses because it started with his fascination in how cities work. There are all these vehicles with different purposes roaming about and it was his idea to bring that together, but with people.
As mentioned in the article above, Dorsey was able to make this sketch real life after working for the company, Odeo.
Originally, they didn't have a name for Twitter. The name was "Status," but after searching through a dictionary, they came across the word Twitter and the meaning just, fit! In the article, Dorsey mentioned the meaning is, "a short burst of inconsequential information, and chirps from birds." It stuck and Twitter has become a place most of us know and love.
While on this Twitter kick, my next blog post will be about hashtags, so if Twitter is your thing, be ready! It's definitely my thing, if you haven't already, follow me on Twitter.
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