New pinned tweet… 15 years, 8 months, and 8 days after posting history’s first tweet, Twitter founder and CEO Jack Dorsey has stepped down. CNBC broke the news yesterday, and Dorsey confirmed via tweet. Twitter shares spiked after Twitter CTO Parag Agrawal was promoted to CEO, but closed down 3%.
Not so namaste… Dorsey and Twitter have had a #complicated relationship for years. In 2008, he was fired from his CEO-ship for spending too much time on extracurriculars (think: vipassana meditation retreats, fashion classes). Then, in 2015, Dorsey made a Jobs-ian return as chief exec. Last year, activist investor Elliott Management tried to pressure him to either step down or stop multitasking. Now, Dorsey is leaving at a transformational time for Twitter:
Sometimes it’s good for founders to get lost… In his resignation letter, Dorsey said companies must eventually ditch their founders to keep evolving. Some analysts argue that founder-led companies outperform competitors. But tech stars like Microsoft, Amazon, and Google have thrived without their parents. We’ll see if new Twitter boss Agrawal can guide the blue bird to a new era of growth.