Jack Patrick Dorsey

Jack Patrick Dorsey
Born	Jack Patrick Dorsey 19 11, 1976
Birthplace	St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Technology entrepreneur, software developer
Known for	Co-founding Twitter, co-founding Block, Inc. (formerly Square)
Education	New York University (attended)

Jack Patrick Dorsey (born November 19, 1976) is an American technology entrepreneur, programmer, and philanthropist who co-founded two major technology companies: the social media platform Twitter and the financial services company Block, Inc., formerly known as Square. Dorsey's career has been defined by an unusual trajectory—he was removed as CEO of Twitter, the company he helped create, at the age of 31, only to return years later while simultaneously building Square into a major financial technology enterprise. His early fascination with the mechanics of urban infrastructure and real-time communication led him to conceive of a service that would allow individuals to broadcast short status updates to the world, an idea that fundamentally altered the landscape of global communication and public discourse. In more recent years, Dorsey has become one of the most prominent advocates for Bitcoin and decentralized technologies, channeling significant personal and corporate resources into cryptocurrency-related projects, including funding the development of Bluesky, an initiative aimed at creating an open and decentralized standard for social media. As of 2025, Dorsey continues to develop new technology products, including Bitchat, an offline messaging application built on Bitcoin's protocol.

Early Life

Jack Patrick Dorsey was born on November 19, 1976, in St. Louis, Missouri, in the United States. He grew up in the St. Louis metropolitan area, where he developed an early interest in computers and technology. As a child, Dorsey was fascinated by the logistics of urban transit systems—how buses, taxis, and emergency vehicles moved through city streets in real time. This interest in real-time dispatch and coordination would later inform the conceptual underpinnings of Twitter, which at its core is a system for broadcasting short messages in real time to a distributed audience.

Dorsey began programming as a teenager and by the age of 15 had written dispatch routing software that was used by some taxicab companies. His early aptitude for programming and his specific interest in the problems of real-time communication distinguished him from many of his peers in the technology field. He was drawn not simply to building software for its own sake but to solving particular problems related to how people and vehicles moved through space and communicated their positions and statuses.

Growing up in St. Louis, a city with a significant industrial and technological heritage but outside the orbit of Silicon Valley, Dorsey's path to the technology industry was less conventional than those of many of his contemporaries. His early work on dispatch software demonstrated both technical ability and an entrepreneurial instinct, as he sought to create practical tools that could be deployed in real-world business environments.

Education

Dorsey attended the Missouri University of Science and Technology (then known as the University of Missouri–Rolla) before transferring to New York University in Manhattan. He did not complete his degree, choosing instead to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities in the technology sector. His time in New York City exposed him to the fast-paced, interconnected nature of urban life, which further stimulated his thinking about real-time communication and status broadcasting. The decision to leave university without graduating placed Dorsey in the company of several other prominent technology entrepreneurs who followed a similar path, though Dorsey's route to entrepreneurial success was neither immediate nor straightforward.

Career

Founding of Twitter

The idea that would eventually become Twitter had its roots in Dorsey's longstanding interest in status updates and real-time communication. Dorsey envisioned a service that would allow users to share short updates about what they were doing—essentially applying the concept of dispatch messaging to personal communication. In 2006, while working at the podcasting company Odeo, Dorsey pitched his idea for a short message service (SMS)-based platform to his colleagues, including Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams. The concept resonated with the team, and development of the platform began.

Twitter launched publicly in July 2006. The platform allowed users to post messages of up to 140 characters, a constraint derived from the limitations of SMS technology. The brevity of the format proved to be one of Twitter's defining features, forcing users to distill their thoughts into concise statements. The platform grew rapidly, attracting attention from media, celebrities, politicians, and ordinary users around the world. Dorsey served as the company's first CEO, overseeing its early growth and development.

Twitter's rise was not without complications, however. As the platform scaled, it faced significant technical challenges, including frequent service outages that became symbolized by the "fail whale" image displayed when the site went down. Questions arose about Dorsey's management style and his ability to lead the company through its rapid growth phase.

Removal from Twitter

In October 2008, Dorsey was removed as CEO of Twitter by the company's board of directors. He was 31 years old at the time. The circumstances of his departure were contentious. According to multiple accounts, Dorsey looked around the boardroom table searching for an ally but found the decision had already been made. The board was reportedly concerned about internal management issues and the company's ability to navigate its growing infrastructure demands.

Dorsey was given the title of chairman of the board, a position that kept him connected to the company but removed him from day-to-day operational control. The experience of being ousted from the company he had co-founded was a defining moment in Dorsey's career, one that he would later draw upon in shaping his subsequent ventures.

Founding of Square (now Block, Inc.)

Following his removal from Twitter's CEO role, Dorsey channeled his energy into a new venture. He co-founded Square in 2009, a mobile payments company that aimed to make it easier for small businesses and individuals to accept credit card payments. Square's initial product was a small card reader that plugged into the headphone jack of a smartphone, enabling anyone with a mobile phone to process credit card transactions. The simplicity and accessibility of the product made it popular with small merchants, food trucks, market vendors, and other businesses that had previously found it difficult or expensive to accept card payments.

Square grew steadily throughout the 2010s, expanding its product line to include point-of-sale systems, small business lending (Square Capital), the Cash App peer-to-peer payment platform, and various other financial services tools. The company went public in November 2015.

During the process of rebuilding his career after his removal from Twitter, Dorsey discovered Bitcoin. This discovery would prove to be transformative for both Dorsey personally and for Square as a company. Dorsey became an outspoken advocate for Bitcoin and its underlying blockchain technology, viewing it as a means of creating a more open and decentralized financial system. Under his leadership, Square integrated Bitcoin buying and selling into the Cash App, making cryptocurrency accessible to millions of mainstream users.

In December 2021, Square changed its corporate name to Block, Inc., reflecting Dorsey's deepening commitment to blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies. The name change signaled that the company's ambitions extended well beyond its original mobile payments business.

Return to Twitter

In 2015, Dorsey returned to Twitter as CEO, a remarkable turn of events given the circumstances of his departure seven years earlier. He held the dual role of CEO at both Twitter and Square simultaneously, a situation that drew scrutiny from investors and analysts who questioned whether one individual could effectively lead two publicly traded technology companies at the same time.

During his second tenure as Twitter CEO, Dorsey oversaw several significant initiatives. He acknowledged publicly the challenges the platform faced regarding user safety and the real-world consequences of online discourse. In a 2019 interview, Dorsey admitted that there was a connection between activity on Twitter and physical danger to people in the real world. This acknowledgment came as Twitter faced increasing criticism over its role in facilitating harassment, misinformation, and political extremism.

In November 2019, Dorsey tweeted from the airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, that he intended to spend time in Africa, signaling an interest in the continent's growing technology ecosystem. However, this announcement drew criticism from observers who argued that Twitter had not adequately served African countries and their users. Critics pointed to the platform's insufficient content moderation resources for non-English languages, its slow response to government-ordered shutdowns in African nations, and its limited investment in the continent relative to other markets.

Bluesky Initiative

In December 2019, Dorsey announced that Twitter would fund a small independent team of up to five architects, engineers, and designers to develop an open-source and decentralized standard for social media. The project was named Bluesky. Dorsey described the initiative as an effort to create a standard that Twitter could eventually adopt, which would shift the platform from a centralized model to a decentralized one in which no single company controlled the infrastructure of social media discourse.

The Bluesky project reflected Dorsey's broader philosophical commitment to decentralization, a principle he also championed in the context of Bitcoin and blockchain technology. He argued that centralizing the control of social media in the hands of a few companies created inherent risks and limitations, and that an open protocol for social networking could address many of the moderation, censorship, and governance challenges facing the industry.

Bluesky eventually became an independent entity, separate from Twitter, and launched its own decentralized social media platform based on the AT Protocol. The project's development continued even after Dorsey's departure from Twitter.

Departure from Twitter and Focus on Block

Dorsey stepped down as CEO of Twitter in November 2021, handing the role to Parag Agrawal. His departure came amid growing investor pressure and questions about his divided attention between Twitter and Square (soon to be Block). Following his departure, Dorsey focused his efforts on Block and its various subsidiaries and initiatives, including the Cash App, the decentralized Bitcoin exchange tbDEX, and the company's Bitcoin mining hardware development.

In 2022, Twitter was acquired by Elon Musk, who subsequently rebranded the platform as X. Dorsey's relationship with the platform he co-founded thus entered a new chapter, as it came under entirely different ownership and management.

Bitcoin Advocacy and Recent Ventures

Dorsey's commitment to Bitcoin has been one of the most prominent aspects of his public persona in recent years. He has described Bitcoin as the "native currency of the internet" and has directed significant corporate and personal resources toward its development and adoption. Under his leadership, Block invested in Bitcoin mining operations and developed dedicated Bitcoin hardware.

Dorsey's belief in Bitcoin extended beyond financial investment. He articulated a vision in which Bitcoin and its underlying protocol could serve as the foundation for a more open, decentralized internet—one in which individuals had greater control over their data, their financial transactions, and their online communications.

As of 2025, Dorsey announced the development of Bitchat, an offline messaging application built on Bitcoin's protocol. The application is designed to enable messaging without relying on traditional internet connectivity, using Bitcoin's decentralized network infrastructure instead. The project drew attention from governments and regulators in various countries; Uganda's communications regulator, for example, claimed it had the capacity to block the application, to which Dorsey publicly responded.

The development of Bitchat reflects Dorsey's ongoing interest in building communication tools that operate outside the control of centralized platforms and governments, continuing the thematic thread that has run through his career from Twitter to Bluesky to his Bitcoin-related ventures.

Personal Life

Dorsey has been known for his interest in various wellness practices, including meditation, fasting, and cold exposure therapy. He has spoken publicly about his daily routines, which have at times drawn media attention and public commentary. Dorsey is unmarried and has maintained a relatively private personal life compared to some of his peers in the technology industry.

Dorsey has been involved in philanthropic efforts, including commitments to fund various charitable causes. In April 2020, he pledged $1 billion in Square equity—approximately 28% of his wealth at the time—to fund COVID-19 relief efforts, and subsequently to support girls' health and education, and universal basic income (UBI) experiments, through a fund called Start Small.

His public statements and activities have reflected a consistent interest in decentralization, individual empowerment, and the development of open-source technologies. He has traveled extensively and has expressed particular interest in the technology ecosystems of Africa and other developing regions, though his engagement with these areas has also drawn criticism regarding follow-through and substance.

Recognition

Dorsey has received significant recognition for his contributions to technology and entrepreneurship. He has been featured on Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world, and has been profiled extensively by major media outlets including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, WIRED, and CNBC, among others.

His dual role as CEO of two publicly traded companies—Twitter and Square—was itself a subject of considerable media and business analysis, with commentators debating both its feasibility and its implications for corporate governance. Dorsey's advocacy for Bitcoin and decentralized technologies has made him a central figure in the cryptocurrency community, where he is frequently invited to speak at conferences and industry events.

Twitter, the platform Dorsey co-founded, has been credited with reshaping global communication, providing a tool for political activism, journalism, celebrity culture, and public discourse. The platform played notable roles in events such as the Arab Spring, the 2016 United States presidential election, and various social justice movements, though it also faced criticism for enabling harassment and the spread of misinformation.

Square, now Block, has been recognized for democratizing access to financial services, particularly for small businesses and individuals who were previously underserved by traditional banking and payment processing infrastructure.

Legacy

Dorsey's legacy is intertwined with two companies that have had substantial effects on technology, communication, and finance. Twitter, which he co-conceived and co-founded, became one of the defining platforms of the social media era, used by hundreds of millions of people and playing a role in political communication, journalism, activism, and entertainment worldwide. The platform's 140-character constraint (later expanded to 280 characters) became iconic, and the term "tweet" entered common parlance. The platform's influence on public discourse has been the subject of extensive academic study and public debate.

Block, Inc. (formerly Square) transformed the payments industry by making it possible for small merchants to accept electronic payments with minimal infrastructure, and through the Cash App, brought peer-to-peer payments and cryptocurrency access to a mass audience. The company's evolution into a broader financial services and Bitcoin-focused enterprise under Dorsey's leadership reflected his shifting priorities and his growing conviction that decentralized technologies represented the future of finance.

Dorsey's career trajectory—from co-founding a transformative social media platform, to being removed from its leadership, to building a second major company, to returning as CEO, and ultimately to departing again to focus on Bitcoin and decentralization—has been characterized by both significant accomplishment and persistent controversy. His advocacy for open protocols, decentralized systems, and Bitcoin continues to shape discussions about the future of the internet and financial technology.

The development of projects like Bluesky and Bitchat suggests that Dorsey's influence on technology may extend beyond his two best-known companies, as he continues to pursue his vision of decentralized communication and financial infrastructure.