Jack Dorsey is a successful American entrepreneur. He is a big shareholder in two well-known companies – Twitter and Block (previously called Square). Despite his busy schedule and being involved in two major companies, Dorsey takes time to meditate. His interest in programming at a young age led to his entrepreneurial efforts in the tech arena.
Things about Jack Dorsey
1. Jack Dorsey was born in Missouri and spent most of his youth there
Jack Dorsey has strong ties to Missouri. He was born in St. Louis. His sad Tim worked for a company that build mass spectrometers and his mom was a homemaker. When he was young, Dorsey worked occasionally in fashion.
2. He never finished college but he came close
He attended University of Missouri–Rolla for two years. He then transferred to New York University but dropped out when he was close to finishing the courses required for graduation.
3. He was interested in dispatch software at a young age
Dorsey wrote software for dispatch routing when he was 14. The open source software he wrote is still being used today by taxi companies.
His interest in building dispatch software led him to an idea for a web-based short communication service. He reached out to a company called Odeo, which had shown an interest in text messaging. He was able to build a Twitter prototype in two weeks with Biz Stone. The idea instantly took off and attracted investment from Evan Williams, who had worked at Google. Williams is the founder of Blogger and Medium.
4. Dorsey had a wild ride as CEO of Twitter
Twitter was a spin-off from Obvious Corporation which was founded by Evan Williams, Biz Stone, and Noah Glass. Jack Dorsey was the company’s CEO. In its early days, Dorsey focused on making the product more useful rather than making money. Dick Costolo took over as CEO between 2011 and 2015 but Dorsey returned as CEO again. In 2019, he resigned as Twitter’s CEO and was replaced by the company’s CTO Parag Agrawal. In May 2022, he left Twitter’s board after the company agreed to sell itself to Elon Musk.
During his tenure as CEO, Dorsey testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee about meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
5. He founded Block (previously called Square)
In 2010, Dorsey along with Jim McKelvey developed a platform to accept debit and credit card transactions on a mobile device. It was targeted at small businesses to allow them to accept payments. The company, called Square, released a square-shaped device that can be attached to a mobile phone or tablet. This device allowed users to swipe their credit cards and transfer payments to the recipient. In 2015, Square filed for an IPO. Dorsey was the CEO of Square and Twitter at the same time which caused investors to raise questions about his priorities. In 2021, Square was renamed Block.
6. He is a big supporter of Bitcoin
Dorsey has been a supporter of Bitcoin for many years. In fact, he has said that if he wasn’t busy with Twitter and Block, he would be working on something related to Bitcoin.
7. Dorsey meditates every day and takes goes on long meditation retreats
Dorsey starts each day with meditation because it gives him the focus he needs. He is a follower of meditation guru S. N. Goenka and has attended his Vipassanā course, a 10-day event solely focused on meditation and silence.
8. Controversy around banning Donald Trump’s Twitter account
Until 2021, Donald Trump was allowed posts on Twitter that violated the company’s terms. Trump was given the “world leader” exemption. Twitter had slapped warning labels on some of Trump’s posts but allowed him to post. But after the riots on January 6, 2021, Twitter permanently suspended Trump’s account. Though Dorsey defended the decision, he admitted that the decision set a dangerous precedent.
9. He is a philanthropist
Dorsey has contributed money to many worthy causes. In 2020, he promised to give $1 billion through stock of Block to charitable causes. He also gave away a third of his Twitter shares to the companies’ employees.
