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)
Awards	Innovator of the Year (The Wall Street Journal, 2012)

Jack Patrick Dorsey (born November 19, 1976) is an American technology entrepreneur, programmer, and philanthropist who co-founded two prominent technology companies: the social media platform Twitter and the financial services company Block, Inc. (formerly known as Square). Dorsey conceived the original idea for Twitter — a platform that would allow users to share short status updates — and posted the first-ever tweet on March 21, 2006. He served as Twitter's chief executive officer from its founding until 2008, when he was removed from the role by the company's board of directors, and then returned as CEO from 2015 to 2021. Concurrently, he co-founded Square in 2009, a mobile payments company that grew into a major financial technology firm and was later renamed Block, Inc. in 2021 to reflect its broader focus, including investments in Bitcoin and blockchain technology. Dorsey has become one of the most recognizable figures in the technology industry, and his career has been defined by an interest in the intersection of communication, commerce, and decentralized technology. In more recent years, he has turned his attention to Bitcoin-related projects and new ventures in decentralized communication, including the development of an offline messaging application called Bitchat.

Early Life

Jack Patrick Dorsey was born on November 19, 1976, in St. Louis, Missouri. He grew up in the St. Louis metropolitan area and developed an early interest in computers and programming. As a teenager, Dorsey became fascinated with the logistics of urban transportation, particularly the movement of taxis, ambulances, and delivery vehicles across city grids. This interest in real-time dispatch and routing would later serve as a foundational influence on his conception of Twitter, which he initially envisioned as a system for sharing short status updates about one's location and activities — not unlike a dispatch system for individuals.

Dorsey's early exposure to programming led him to develop open-source software for dispatch routing while still a teenager. His work in this area attracted the attention of professionals in the dispatch industry, and he eventually moved to New York City to pursue opportunities in technology and software development. Dorsey's formative years in St. Louis, a mid-sized American city with a strong industrial heritage, informed his perspective on building technology that could serve ordinary people in practical ways — a philosophy that would later manifest in both Twitter's emphasis on public, real-time communication and Square's focus on making payment processing accessible to small businesses and individual merchants.

Education

Dorsey attended the Missouri University of Science and Technology (formerly the University of Missouri–Rolla) before transferring to New York University. He did not complete a degree at either institution, choosing instead to pursue his entrepreneurial interests directly. While at NYU, Dorsey was exposed to the vibrant technology and media scenes of New York City in the late 1990s, a period of rapid internet expansion. His decision to leave formal education and enter the technology industry directly was characteristic of a broader pattern among Silicon Valley entrepreneurs of his generation who prioritized hands-on experience and startup culture over traditional academic credentials.

Career

Founding of Twitter

In 2005, Dorsey was working at a podcasting company called Odeo, based in San Francisco. When Apple's iTunes began integrating podcasting features, Odeo's core business model was undermined, prompting the company's leadership — including co-founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone — to explore new product ideas. Dorsey pitched a concept he had been contemplating for years: a platform that would allow users to send short text-based status updates, similar to SMS messages, to a group of followers. The idea drew on Dorsey's longstanding interest in dispatch systems and real-time communication.

The resulting service, initially called "twttr" (inspired by the five-character format of Flickr), launched internally at Odeo in early 2006. Dorsey sent the first-ever tweet on March 21, 2006, with the message "just setting up my twttr." Twitter was formally incorporated as a separate company later that year, with Dorsey serving as its first chief executive officer. The platform quickly gained traction among technology enthusiasts, journalists, and public figures for its simplicity and immediacy. Twitter's 140-character message limit (later expanded to 280 characters) became a defining feature that encouraged concise, real-time public discourse.

Under Dorsey's initial leadership, Twitter grew rapidly but also faced significant operational challenges, including frequent service outages (symbolized by the platform's "fail whale" error page) and difficulties in articulating a clear revenue model. Despite the platform's growing cultural influence, internal tensions arose regarding the company's direction and management.

Removal as Twitter CEO (2008)

In October 2008, Twitter's board of directors made the decision to remove Dorsey from the role of CEO. The boardroom meeting was described as a tense affair, with Dorsey looking around the table for an ally among the board members as the decision was delivered. At the time of his ouster, Dorsey was 31 years old. The removal was attributed to concerns about his management style and the company's operational difficulties during a period of rapid growth. Dorsey was given the title of chairman of the board, a role that kept him associated with the company but removed him from day-to-day operational control.

The experience of being removed from the company he had co-founded was a defining moment in Dorsey's career. In interviews and public statements in the years that followed, he reflected on the lessons he drew from the experience, including the importance of operational discipline and clear communication with boards and investors.

Founding of Square

Following his departure from Twitter's executive leadership, Dorsey turned his attention to a new venture. During the process of rebuilding his career after being ousted from Twitter, Dorsey co-founded Square in 2009 with Jim McKelvey, a friend and fellow St. Louis native. Square was conceived as a mobile payments company that would allow small businesses and individual merchants to accept credit card payments using a small card reader attached to a smartphone or tablet. The company addressed a significant gap in the payments market: many small businesses, street vendors, and independent contractors had previously been unable to afford or qualify for traditional credit card processing systems.

Square's initial product — a small, white, square-shaped card reader that plugged into a mobile device's headphone jack — became iconic in the financial technology industry. The company expanded its product offerings over time to include point-of-sale systems, business analytics tools, payroll services, and consumer-facing products such as the Cash App, a peer-to-peer payment application that grew to become one of the most popular financial apps in the United States.

Square went public in November 2015 with an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange. The company's growth trajectory continued in subsequent years, driven in part by the increasing adoption of mobile and digital payments. In December 2021, Square officially changed its corporate name to Block, Inc., reflecting an expanded focus that included blockchain technology and Bitcoin-related initiatives.

Return to Twitter as CEO (2015–2021)

In 2015, Dorsey returned to Twitter as chief executive officer, a notable reversal from his 2008 removal. His return came during a period of stagnation for the platform, which was struggling with slowing user growth, persistent challenges in content moderation, and difficulty competing with rivals such as Facebook and Instagram. Dorsey's dual role as CEO of both Twitter and Square was unusual in the technology industry and drew scrutiny from investors and analysts who questioned whether he could effectively lead two major public companies simultaneously.

During his second tenure as Twitter CEO, Dorsey oversaw several significant developments. The platform expanded its character limit from 140 to 280 characters, introduced new features such as threaded conversations and audio-based Spaces, and made efforts to address the spread of misinformation and harmful content. In a February 2019 interview, Dorsey acknowledged that there was a link between activity on Twitter and real-life physical danger to people, signaling a growing awareness within the company of its responsibilities regarding user safety and content moderation.

In December 2019, Dorsey announced the creation of Bluesky, a Twitter-funded initiative to develop an open-source and decentralized standard for social media. The project was conceived as a small team of up to five architects, engineers, and designers who would work on creating a protocol that could serve as the foundation for decentralized social networking. The Bluesky initiative reflected Dorsey's growing interest in decentralization as a principle for internet platforms, a theme that would become increasingly central to his public statements and business decisions.

In November 2019, Dorsey tweeted from the airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, announcing that he planned to move to "Africa" for an extended period, citing the continent's potential as a hub for technological innovation. However, this plan did not fully materialize, and Dorsey's engagement with Africa drew criticism. A 2021 report in Wired argued that Twitter under Dorsey's leadership had failed African countries, noting that the platform had not adequately addressed issues of content moderation, misinformation, and government censorship in African markets despite Dorsey's expressed interest in the continent.

Dorsey stepped down as CEO of Twitter on November 29, 2021, handing the role to Parag Agrawal, the company's chief technology officer. In his resignation announcement, Dorsey expressed his belief that Twitter needed to move beyond its founders and that the company should not be led by them indefinitely. Twitter was subsequently acquired by Elon Musk in October 2022 and rebranded as X.

Block, Inc. and Bitcoin Advocacy

After departing Twitter, Dorsey focused his attention on Block, Inc. and its Bitcoin-related initiatives. During the process of rebuilding his career following his first removal from Twitter in 2008, Dorsey had discovered Bitcoin, and the cryptocurrency became a central element of his business philosophy and public advocacy. Under Dorsey's leadership, Block, Inc. invested significant resources in Bitcoin development, including the creation of a hardware wallet for Bitcoin storage and the integration of Bitcoin purchasing and trading features into the Cash App.

Dorsey became one of the most prominent advocates for Bitcoin in the technology industry, frequently describing it as a transformative technology with the potential to create a more open and decentralized financial system. His belief in Bitcoin was described as a driving force behind his decision to rename Square to Block, Inc. in 2021, with the new name referencing both the blockchain technology underlying Bitcoin and the building-block metaphor for the company's expanding suite of products.

Block, Inc. under Dorsey's leadership also pursued initiatives in Bitcoin mining, decentralized identity, and open-source Bitcoin development through its subsidiary TBD (formerly known as Square Crypto), which funded open-source contributors working on Bitcoin's core protocol and related technologies.

Bitchat and Recent Ventures

In 2025, Dorsey announced the development of Bitchat, an offline messaging application designed to facilitate communication without reliance on traditional internet infrastructure. The application was described as representing Dorsey's continued interest in decentralized and resilient communication technologies. The app drew attention from governments and regulators in various countries; Uganda's communications regulator, for instance, claimed it had the capacity to block the application, to which Dorsey publicly responded.

The development of Bitchat was consistent with Dorsey's broader trajectory toward decentralized technology platforms, building on his earlier support for the Bluesky decentralized social media protocol and his advocacy for Bitcoin as an alternative financial system.

Personal Life

Dorsey is known for maintaining a distinctive personal lifestyle that has drawn public attention. He has spoken publicly about his wellness routines, which have at various times included extended fasting, meditation, and ice baths. His personal style — often characterized by a full beard and casual attire — has been a subject of media commentary throughout his career.

Dorsey has been a vocal advocate for various social causes. He made significant philanthropic commitments during the COVID-19 pandemic, pledging $1 billion in equity from his Square holdings (approximately 28% of his wealth at the time) to fund COVID-19 relief, girls' health and education, and universal basic income initiatives through a fund called Start Small.

Dorsey's personal interest in Bitcoin extends beyond his business activities; he has described Bitcoin as a tool for financial empowerment and has expressed a belief in its potential to address economic inequality on a global scale. His advocacy for decentralized technologies has been a consistent theme in both his professional and personal life.

Recognition

Dorsey has received recognition from multiple organizations for his contributions to technology and entrepreneurship. In 2012, The Wall Street Journal named him Innovator of the Year. He has appeared on Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world, reflecting his role in shaping global communication through Twitter.

His work with Square (now Block, Inc.) has been recognized within the financial technology industry, with the company credited as a pioneer in mobile payments and financial services for small businesses. Dorsey's dual role as CEO of two publicly traded companies — Twitter and Square — was unusual in the technology sector and drew both admiration and skepticism from business commentators.

Dorsey's advocacy for Bitcoin and decentralized technology has also positioned him as a prominent figure within the cryptocurrency community. He has spoken at major Bitcoin conferences and has been recognized by cryptocurrency-focused publications and organizations for his contributions to the adoption and development of Bitcoin-related technologies.

Legacy

Jack Dorsey's career spans two of the most significant technology platforms to emerge in the early 21st century. Twitter fundamentally altered the nature of public discourse, creating a new medium for real-time communication that was adopted by journalists, politicians, activists, and ordinary citizens worldwide. The platform played a role in major global events, including the Arab Spring, various political campaigns, and the dissemination of breaking news. While Dorsey was not solely responsible for Twitter's evolution — the platform was shaped by multiple co-founders, executives, and millions of users — his original conception of the service as a short-message status update system laid the groundwork for its development.

Square (now Block, Inc.) addressed a fundamental challenge in financial services by making payment processing accessible to small businesses and individuals who had previously been excluded from the credit card ecosystem. The Cash App became a major consumer financial product, and the company's expansion into Bitcoin and blockchain technology positioned it at the forefront of the cryptocurrency industry.

Dorsey's journey from being removed as Twitter CEO at age 31 to rebuilding his career and building a second major technology company has been described as a significant narrative in the history of Silicon Valley entrepreneurship. His later career pivot toward Bitcoin and decentralized technologies represents a departure from the centralized platform model that defined his earlier work, reflecting a broader shift in the technology industry toward decentralization and user sovereignty.

His ongoing projects, including Bitchat and continued Bitcoin development through Block, Inc., suggest that Dorsey's influence on the technology industry continues to evolve, with an increasing emphasis on decentralized communication and financial systems.