Jack Dorsey facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jack Dorsey
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Dorsey in 2014
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Jack Patrick Dorsey
November 19, 1976 |
| Education | Missouri University of Science and Technology New York University (dropped out) |
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| Known for | Co-founding Twitter, Inc. and Block, Inc. |
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Jack Patrick Dorsey (born November 19, 1976) is an American businessman. He is famous for co-founding Twitter, Inc. He was the CEO of Twitter from 2007 to 2008 and again from 2015 to 2021. Jack Dorsey also co-founded Block, Inc., which created the Square payment platform. He also started Bluesky, a new social network.
As of May 2025, his wealth was estimated to be $3.8 billion by Forbes magazine.
Contents
Early Life and Ideas
Jack Dorsey was born and grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. His father worked with special scientific equipment. His mother was a homemaker. Jack was raised in the Catholic faith.
He went to Bishop DuBourg High School. When he was younger, he sometimes worked as a fashion model. By age 14, he became very interested in how things are delivered and routed. This is called dispatch routing.
Dorsey went to the University of Missouri–Rolla in 1995. He later moved to New York University in 1997. He left college two years later, just before finishing his degree. While studying in New York, he first thought of the idea that became Twitter.
How Twitter Began
Jack Dorsey moved to California and worked as a programmer. He focused on dispatching systems. In 2000, he started his own company in Oakland. This company helped dispatch couriers, taxis, and emergency services using the internet.
In July 2000, he had an idea for a new online service. It would let people share short messages about what they were doing in real-time. He was inspired by online journals and instant messaging programs.
He wondered if people's online status messages could be easily shared with friends. He talked to a company called Odeo. They were interested in text messaging. Dorsey and Biz Stone realized that SMS text messages were perfect for short status updates. They built a first version of Twitter in about two weeks. Many people at Odeo liked the idea. Evan Williams, a co-founder of Odeo, also invested in the project.
Career Highlights
Leading Twitter
Noah Glass, Evan Williams, and Biz Stone helped create Odeo. This company later became Obvious Corporation, which then started Twitter, Inc. Jack Dorsey became Twitter's first chief executive officer (CEO) in 2007.
As CEO, Dorsey helped Twitter get its first investments. As Twitter grew, he focused on keeping the service working well. He wanted to make sure Twitter was always available for users. He believed in making Twitter simple, focused, and well-made.
In 2008, Dorsey stepped down as CEO. This was partly because he had other interests, like yoga and fashion design. Evan Williams became the new CEO. Dorsey became the chairman of Twitter's board.
During this time, Dorsey traveled with U.S. government groups. In 2009, he went to Iraq. In November 2009, there were protests in Iran. Twitter was scheduled to shut down for maintenance. Dorsey helped delay this shutdown. This allowed Iranians to keep using Twitter to communicate during the protests.
In March 2011, Dorsey returned to Twitter as executive chairman. In July 2015, he became the interim CEO again. He was named the permanent CEO in October 2015.
In May 2016, Dorsey announced a change to Twitter's character limit. Photos and links would no longer count towards the 140-character limit. This gave users more space for their messages. This change aimed to attract new users to the platform.
On November 22, 2016, Dorsey's own Twitter account was briefly suspended. He had 3.9 million followers at the time. After his account was restored, he tweeted that it was an "internal mistake."
Twitter added new ways to show tweets in 2016. These systems suggest what users might want to see. Dorsey later said that Twitter's biggest mistake was focusing on tools for the company to manage conversations. He thought they should have built tools for users to manage their own conversations easily.
In February 2017, Dorsey and another executive donated money to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). They matched donations from Twitter employees. This brought the total donation to $1.59 million.
In March 2018, Dorsey announced plans for a better way to verify users on Twitter. The goal was to help people prove who they were. This would make it easier to confirm the identities of important people, like election candidates.
In September 2018, Dorsey spoke to the U.S. Senate. He talked about how social media was used by other countries in the 2016 presidential election.
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Dorsey met privately with U.S. President Donald Trump in April 2019. They talked about Trump's concerns that Twitter might have limited some of his followers. After the meeting, Dorsey tweeted that they discussed making Twitter "healthier and more civil."
On August 30, 2019, someone hacked Dorsey's personal Twitter account. The hackers posted inappropriate messages for almost an hour.
In October 2019, Twitter's stock price dropped. This was partly because of problems with showing ads. Dorsey had also decided to ban all political ads on Twitter. He announced that this ban would start on November 22, 2019. This policy applied to all political advertising worldwide.
In February 2020, there were reports that a company wanted to remove Dorsey as CEO. However, Dorsey reached an agreement and remained CEO.
In October 2020, Dorsey was asked to speak to the U.S. Senate. He and other tech CEOs talked about a law that protects online platforms from being responsible for user content.
Jack Dorsey announced he was stepping down as Twitter's CEO on November 29, 2021. Parag Agrawal, Twitter's chief technology officer, became the new CEO. Dorsey continued to lead Block, Inc.. In May 2022, Dorsey left Twitter's board of directors.
In October 2022, Elon Musk bought Twitter. Dorsey kept his 2.4% ownership in the company.
Building Block (Square)
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In 2010, Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey created a new company called Square. Square helps small businesses accept debit and credit card payments on a mobile device. The Square device is small and square-shaped. It connects to phones or tablets through the headphone jack. It works like a mini card reader. This allows people to swipe cards, choose an amount, and sign for confirmation.
Square also sends paperless receipts by text or email. It is available as a free app for phones. The company grew quickly. By September 2012, Square Inc. was valued at $3.2 billion. Jack Dorsey is the CEO of Square, Inc.
In October 2015, Square became a public company on the New York Stock Exchange. Dorsey owned 24.4 percent of the company at that time. In March 2020, Square was allowed to open its own bank.
In May 2020, Dorsey announced that Square employees could work from home permanently.
On December 1, 2021, CEO Jack Dorsey officially changed the company's name to Block, Inc. This new name better represents the company's different businesses. It also shows Dorsey's interest in blockchain technology. The stock symbol for Block, Inc. remained "SQ."
Bluesky and Digital Currency
In February 2022, Dorsey joined the board of directors for Bluesky. Bluesky is a project that came from Twitter. It is working on a new type of social network that is decentralized. This means it is not controlled by one main company. In May 2024, he announced he was no longer on the board. He said he now supports X, calling it "freedom technology." Dorsey explained that Bluesky's move towards a traditional company structure and more central control led him to leave.
Jack Dorsey is a strong supporter of Bitcoin, a digital currency. He has spoken at Bitcoin conferences. He has said that if he wasn't working on Twitter and Square, he would be working on Bitcoin. He also supports and has helped fund the Nostr social networking protocol. In 2023, Dorsey provided money to start OCEAN, a Bitcoin mining pool. This project aims to make Bitcoin mining more decentralized.
Other Interests
In 2013, Dorsey said he admired Michael Bloomberg. He even said he hoped to become mayor of New York City one day. He was a judge for a competition in New York City in 2011.
On December 24, 2013, Dorsey joined the board of directors for The Walt Disney Company. In January 2018, he decided not to seek re-election to Disney's board. This was due to conflicts of interest with his other work.
Dorsey is also a board member of the Berggruen Institute's Governance Center.
Personal Life
In 2012, Dorsey moved to the Sea Cliff area of San Francisco.
Meditation Practice
In 2015, Dorsey shared that he starts his mornings with meditation. In late 2017, he completed a ten-day meditation retreat. This type of meditation is called Vipassanā. In November 2018, Dorsey went on a Vipassanā meditation trip to Myanmar for his birthday.
Views on Politics
In 2019, Dorsey gave money to the campaigns of two 2020 presidential candidates. These were Tulsi Gabbard and Andrew Yang. In 2020, he donated $15 million to help 29 mayors. These mayors were trying out programs that give people a guaranteed basic income.
Until 2021, Twitter had special rules for world leaders. These rules allowed President Donald Trump to post things that might normally be removed. In May 2020, some of Trump's tweets received warning labels. After the U.S. Capitol was stormed on January 6, 2021, Twitter temporarily suspended Trump's account. His account was permanently suspended on January 8. This was because his posts violated Twitter's rules. Dorsey defended the ban but also said it "sets a precedent I feel is dangerous." In November 2022, Twitter brought Trump's account back after Elon Musk bought the platform.
In June 2023, Dorsey supported Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in his campaign for president.
In 2024, Dorsey tweeted in support of protests related to the Gaza war protests in the United States. He also supported protests against the Vietnam War and the Iraq war protests.
Giving Back
Jack Dorsey has made many donations to help others.
- In March 2016, he fully funded about 600 public school projects in Missouri. These projects were listed on a website called DonorsChoose.
- In October 2019, Dorsey donated $350,000 to #TeamTrees. This group aimed to plant 20 million trees by the end of 2019.
- On April 7, 2020, Dorsey announced a big donation. He would move about $1 billion of his money from Square, Inc. to a fund called Start Small, LLC. This money would go to help with the coronavirus. It would also support girls' education and health, and universal basic income. Dorsey has given $24 million to over 40 different groups for relief efforts.
- In August 2020, Dorsey donated $10 million to Boston University's Center for Antiracist Research.
- In May 2021, he donated $15 million to help with India's COVID-19 second wave. This money went to three aid organizations.
Awards and Recognition
- In 2008, he was named one of the top 35 innovators under 35 by MIT Technology Review.
- In 2012, The Wall Street Journal gave him the "Innovator of the Year Award" for technology.
- He was named "Founder of the Year" at the 5th Annual Crunchies Awards in 2012.
- In 2013, Forbes magazine called him the world's most eligible billionaire bachelor.
- In 2016, Fox Business ranked him as the No. 4 Worst CEO. They mentioned slow growth and falling stock prices for Twitter.
- In 2017, 24/7 Wall St. listed Dorsey among the 20 Worst CEOs in America.
Images for kids
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Dorsey in 2014
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Dorsey in 2008
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Dorsey and President Barack Obama at Twitter Town Hall in July 2011
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President Donald Trump with Dorsey in the Oval Office of the White House on April 23, 2019
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Dorsey in 2018
See also
In Spanish: Jack Dorsey para niños
