Get to Know The Inventor of Twitter: Social Media Mogul Jack Dorsey

You may know Jack Dorsey as the billionaire who’s worth over $7 billion today. He was able to amass such a massive fortune when he founded Twitter, the social networking website back in 2006. Since that time, he has served as Twitter’s CEO, executive chairman, and chairman of the board. Besides Twitter, Dorsey has other investments, including a successful online payment platform called Square, which he founded back in 2010.

Dorsey’s Life Before His Success with Twitter

Dorsey was born in St. Louis, Missouri back on the 19th of November, 1976. As we said, he’s best known for inventing Twitter, and this innovation didn’t come as a surprise as he has already shown interest in communications and computers since he was just a boy. With a clear goal in mind, Dorsey took up a degree in programming at an early age, and you could say he learned all the tools in order to turn his goal into fruition.

Some of Dorsey’s interests included the technological challenge of coordinating delivery vans, taxi drivers, and other vehicle fleets that required real-time communication with one another. At the age of 15 years old, he was already able to develop his own dispatch software, and it’s used by a good number of taxicab companies today.

The Idea of Twitter

After getting his degree at the Missouri University of Science and Technology, Dorsey shifted his attention to New York University. He dropped out of school before he completed his studies, and instead, he went to Oakland, California. There, Dorsey started a company that used his dispatch software through the Internet. Once he started his company, he brought up his idea for a social networking site which he would later call “Twitter.”

Dorsey aimed Twitter to join the industry for dispatch software by making instant messaging a tad bit easier. He eventually pitched the idea to Biz Stone, and it slowly became one of the most used social networking websites. In just a short span of time, Dorsey built a website where its users could post a short message with a 140-character limit. Subsequently, he called those short messages “tweets.”

As CEO of Twitter, Dorsey wrote his first tweet back on the 21st of March 2006. He wrote, “just setting up my Twitter.” Later, he became the chairman of the company, and Twitter’s co-founder Evan Williams replaced him as Twitter’s CEO.

Twitter’s Success

Initially, Twitter received criticisms, and it was called a tool for the shallow and self-centered to broadcast every minute of their lives. However, it gained traction as celebrities and CEOs started using the website, and began tweeting. By 2008, it became a platform for U.S. Presidential candidates to update their supporters while they were on their campaign trail.

Twitter then achieved international fame by 2009, and it became a key tool once again in the elections in Iran. It was also incredibly useful around the area since the Iranian government banned text messaging and foreign news satellite feeds at the time. Twitter even received credit for its role at a crucial time, and a U.S. State Department Official even told Dorsey to delay the website’s planned maintenance.

By 2010, this social networking site has increased up to 105 million users and there were 55 million tweets a day. Despite his success, Dorsey wanted to use his attention on other projects, and it resulted in a new social networking company called Foursquare. It also resulted in the creation of a new venture called Square, which gave people a new payment method with the use of their mobile phone or computer.

Dorsey’s Fortune

Twitter, along with his successful investments, enabled Dorsey to amass a massive fortune. By 2013, Twitter’s initial public offering increased, and it allowed Dorsey to become one of the wealthiest people in the world. At the time, Twitter’s stock had a starting share price of $26, and it quickly grew up to $45 in just its first day of trading. Today, he’s worth $7 billion, making him one of the wealthiest people in Silicon Valley.