Given that Jack Dorsey helped found Twitter, you’d expect him to have an integral role in running the company. There’s a reason that current CEO Dick Costolo brought him back into the fold after a two and half-year hiatus. Except it’s not that simple.
Costolo has, in fact, had to scale back Dorsey’s responsibilities. That’s because Twitter employees find him “difficult to work with” and are frustrated by the fact that he constantly changes his mind about the direction a project should take.
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According to a profile on Costolo by the New York Times, Dorsey has effectively been shut out of the day-to-day operations of the company: “He no longer has anyone directly reporting to him, although he is still involved in strategic decisions”.
Dorsey’s role seems to have been scaled back to that of a sounding board for Costolo. He’s there, apparently, to ensure that any new features the company decides to roll out, still have a “Twittery” feel to them.
According to Michael Sippey, director of consumer product at Twitter “Dick does a good job of saying ‘Jack, what do you think?’”.
For his part, Dorsey refused to comment on his working relationship with anyone else at Twitter. Despite the fact that Costolo wasn’t there with Dorsey, Ev Williams, and Biz Stone from the very beginning of Twitter, Dorsey says he considers him a founder. “He’s had a dramatic impact on the company and the culture,” Dorsey said. “He’s questioned everything we started with and made it better.”
If being kept out of some aspects of Twitter has given Dorsey free time, he could always spend it on mobile payments company Square, which he also helped found. Right now however, it’s probably a good idea to keep him around, even if his role is limited. He’s always been good at product and was one of the driving forces behind the “new new” Twitter, which launched late last year.
The article also cites an insider who says that Twitter is aiming to go public in 2014. Costolo has repeatedly said that an IPO is not currently an option for the social network, which is starting to accelerate financially. “We’re an entire quarter ahead of our projected goals,” one executive says.
Incidentally 2014 is also the year that the company’s revenues are expected to reach US$1-billion.
Update: Dorsey has responded to questions about his role at Twitter.
