Jack Dorsey

Jack Dorsey
Born	Jack Patrick Dorsey 19 11, 1976
Birthplace	St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Technology executive, entrepreneur
Title	Co-founder and Chairman, Block, Inc.
Known for	Co-founding Twitter and Block, Inc. (Square)
Website	[https://squareup.com/ Official site]

Jack Patrick Dorsey (born November 19, 1976) is an American technology executive and entrepreneur who co-founded two major technology companies that reshaped how people communicate and conduct financial transactions. As the co-founder of Twitter, Dorsey helped create one of the most prominent social media platforms of the early 21st century, serving as its chief executive officer from 2007 to 2008 and again from 2015 to 2021. He is also the co-founder, principal executive officer, and chairman of Block, Inc., the parent company of the Square financial services platform, which processes mobile and electronic payments for businesses of all sizes. Beyond his work with Twitter and Block, Dorsey founded Bluesky, a decentralized social media protocol and platform. In recent years, Dorsey has become an outspoken proponent of Bitcoin and decentralized technologies, guiding Block's strategic focus toward cryptocurrency-related products and services.

Early Life

Jack Patrick Dorsey was born on November 19, 1976, in St. Louis, Missouri. Growing up in St. Louis, Dorsey developed an early interest in computers and urban infrastructure. As a teenager, he became fascinated with the logistics of dispatch routing — the systems used by taxicab companies, emergency services, and delivery couriers to coordinate vehicles across a city. This interest led him to begin programming dispatch software while still in his youth.

Dorsey's curiosity about real-time communication and the movement of people and vehicles through cities would later inform the conceptual foundations of both Twitter and Square. His early programming work demonstrated an aptitude for building systems that tracked and communicated status updates in real time, a concept that would become central to the microblogging platform he co-created years later.

Career

Twitter

Dorsey co-founded Twitter, Inc., a social networking and microblogging service that allowed users to post short messages, initially limited to 140 characters. The platform quickly grew into one of the most widely used social media services in the world, becoming a significant tool for public discourse, journalism, and political communication.

Dorsey served as the chief executive officer of Twitter from 2007 to 2008. During this early period, the company experienced rapid user growth but also faced organizational challenges typical of fast-scaling startups. In 2008, Dorsey transitioned out of the CEO role. Reporting from The New York Times in October 2008 documented the leadership transitions at Twitter during this period as the company grappled with scaling its technology and business operations. CNET also covered the leadership changes during this formative era of the company.

Dorsey returned to the role of CEO at Twitter in 2015, a period during which he simultaneously led Square (later Block, Inc.), making him one of a small number of executives to concurrently serve as CEO of two publicly traded companies. His dual leadership drew both admiration and scrutiny from investors and industry observers. He served as Twitter CEO until 2021, overseeing the platform through a period of significant cultural and political influence.

Square and Block, Inc.

In addition to his role at Twitter, Dorsey co-founded Square, a financial services and digital payments company. Square's initial product was a small card reader that could be plugged into a smartphone or tablet, enabling small businesses, independent vendors, and individuals to accept credit card payments without traditional point-of-sale hardware. The technology was considered a significant innovation in the payments industry, lowering the barriers to electronic commerce for small merchants.

Square established its headquarters in San Francisco, initially operating out of the historic Chronicle Building. In 2013, the company relocated to new headquarters in San Francisco as it continued to expand its operations and workforce.

The company's growth was rapid. By 2012, Business Insider included Square on its Digital 100 list, noting the company's significant valuation. Square expanded its product offerings beyond the card reader to include point-of-sale software, business analytics, payroll services, small business lending, and the Cash App consumer payments platform.

In October 2015, Square filed for an initial public offering while Dorsey was simultaneously managing his return as Twitter's CEO. The IPO filing attracted considerable attention given Dorsey's dual leadership roles and the ownership structure of the company.

Dorsey expanded Square's focus toward commerce and financial services more broadly. In a 2014 interview with Women's Wear Daily, he discussed his vision for simplifying commerce through Square's platform.

The company rebranded to Block, Inc. in late 2021, reflecting its broader ambitions beyond the original Square payment product. Under the Block umbrella, the company operates Square (merchant services), Cash App (consumer finance), Spiral (Bitcoin development), TIDAL (music streaming), and TBD (decentralized finance).

Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Focus

Under Dorsey's leadership, Block has increasingly oriented its business strategy around Bitcoin. Dorsey has publicly stated his belief in Bitcoin as a transformative technology and has directed company resources toward Bitcoin development and integration. Block's Spiral division focuses on open-source Bitcoin development, and the company has invested in Bitcoin mining hardware.

In early 2026, Block announced that small businesses using its Square platform could accept Bitcoin payments with zero transaction fees, a move aimed at increasing Bitcoin adoption among merchants.

Dorsey's personal association with Bitcoin has generated significant public speculation. At Block's Investor Day in November 2025, an inquiry was raised about whether Dorsey could be Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, a question that Dorsey's response further fueled into public debate.

2026 Layoffs and AI Mandates

In early 2026, Block, Inc. underwent significant workforce reductions under Dorsey's direction. In February 2026, Reuters reported that the company was cutting up to 10% of its staff during annual performance reviews. WIRED reported in detail on what it described as "rolling layoffs" at Block, with hundreds of workers laid off in early February 2026 and remaining employees expressing uncertainty about the company's direction.

Simultaneously, Dorsey mandated aggressive adoption of artificial intelligence tools within Block's operations. This mandate, combined with the layoffs, generated employee backlash. Inc. magazine reported that workers expressed frustration over the juxtaposition of mass layoffs and the directive to integrate AI into workflows, raising questions about whether AI was being positioned as a replacement for human workers. Futurism characterized the situation as the company "falling apart" amid the forced AI adoption, reporting on operational difficulties stemming from the rapid restructuring.

As of late February 2026, Block was preparing to release its fourth-quarter 2025 earnings, with analysts closely monitoring the company's financial performance amid the organizational upheaval.

Bluesky

Dorsey founded Bluesky, a project initially conceived within Twitter to develop a decentralized standard for social media. The effort was intended to create an open protocol — the AT Protocol — that would allow multiple social media platforms to interoperate, reducing the centralized control that any single company held over online discourse. Bluesky eventually launched as an independent social media application where users can post short messages of up to 300 characters, functioning as a microblogging platform.

Board Memberships and Other Activities

Dorsey served on the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company, joining in December 2013. He departed the Disney board in January 2018.

Dorsey has also served on the Berggruen Institute's Governance Center board.

In 2013, Dorsey publicly discussed an interest in politics, including a stated desire to potentially become mayor of New York City, during an interview with CNN.

Philanthropy

Dorsey participated in the #TeamTrees initiative in 2019, a collaborative fundraising effort organized by YouTube creator MrBeast and the Arbor Day Foundation that aimed to plant 20 million trees.

Personal Life

Dorsey is based in the San Francisco Bay Area, where Block, Inc. is headquartered. He has spoken publicly about his interest in urban design and city infrastructure, subjects that have influenced his approach to product development. In his 2013 CNN interview, Dorsey discussed aspects of his personal life, including his status as a bachelor at that time, alongside his professional interests and political ambitions.

Dorsey has attracted public attention for his personal wellness practices, which have included meditation and fasting regimens. He has been publicly associated with the Bitcoin community and has spoken frequently about his belief in decentralized financial systems as a means to expand economic access globally.

Recognition

In 2011, the San Francisco Business Times named Dorsey its "Executive of the Year," recognizing his leadership of both Twitter and Square during a period of significant growth for both companies.

Also in 2011, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg recognized Dorsey's contributions to technology and entrepreneurship.

Fortune magazine profiled Dorsey in a 2011 cover story titled "The Man with Two Brains," highlighting his unusual position leading two technology companies simultaneously and examining the management challenges and opportunities that arrangement presented.

Dorsey's role in co-founding Twitter placed him among a generation of technology entrepreneurs who reshaped global communication in the early 21st century. His concurrent leadership of Square (later Block) positioned him as a figure at the intersection of social media, fintech, and cryptocurrency.

Legacy

Dorsey's influence on the technology industry spans two distinct domains: social media and financial technology. Twitter, which he co-founded, became a central platform for real-time public communication, used by journalists, politicians, activists, and ordinary users to share information and commentary. The platform's 140-character format (later expanded to 280 characters) introduced a new form of public discourse that influenced how news was reported and consumed globally.

Square, the other company Dorsey co-founded, is credited with democratizing electronic payment processing by making it accessible to small businesses and individual sellers who previously lacked the infrastructure to accept card payments. The company's small, square-shaped card reader became an iconic piece of hardware in the payments industry.

Through Block's various subsidiaries and through Bluesky, Dorsey has continued to pursue themes of decentralization and open protocols. His advocacy for Bitcoin and decentralized technology has positioned Block as one of the most prominent publicly traded companies with a strategic focus on cryptocurrency.

As of 2026, Dorsey's legacy remains actively evolving, shaped both by his foundational contributions to social media and fintech and by the ongoing challenges and controversies at Block, including workforce reductions and the company's aggressive pivot toward AI integration.

References

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