Within the league of legends of Silicon Valley, Jack Dorsey — the co-founder of Twitter who stepped down as CEO a yr ago this month — has long had a status because the cool hippie with the beard who likes to go off and meditate in between dating models and fasting.
Now, barely per week since his fellow billionaire businessman Elon Musk snapped up Twitter for $44 billion, Dorsey, 46, is launching a social media company called Bluesky: a recent form of decentralized platform that guarantees to offer users and developers more autonomy. Greater than 30,000 subscribers have already signed up, the corporate tweeted on Oct. 20.
Bluesky, which is within the beta testing phase, was commissioned by Dorsey as a solution to a few of the problems he saw at Twitter.
While some doubt there’s real interest in one more social media company, those that know the never-married and childless Dorsey say he has sharp elbows along with brains, and that his life and profession post-Twitter mustn’t be underestimated. He’s currently value slightly lower than $4 billion.
“When [Dorsey] left this last time he blamed the issues at Twitter on other people. Though he was on the board and was the CEO!” said writer Nick Bilton of Dorsey’s 2021 resignation. AFP via Getty Images
In an apparent show of confidence in Musk’s takeover, Dorsey, who also founded the monetary-payment company Block, selected to roll over his $1 billion stake — 18 million shares — in Twitter moderately than cashing out.
But, sources said, there may be resentment amongst Twitter employees — half of whom are reportedly expected to lose their jobs under Musk.
“Jack is hated at Twitter,” a source conversant in the situation told The Post. “They blame what happened with Elon taking up the corporate on Jack. Parag [Agrawal, the recently-ousted head of Twitter] and the board think he is that this really bad character.
“Just have a look at the stock price before Elon bought it. It was about $37 and had been flat for about ten years. The corporate hadn’t grown because Jack was gallivanting around on his jet with these models,” the source said. “But no person wrote about what a disaster the corporate was because everyone idolizes Dorsey and thinks he’s the following Steve Jobs.”
In accordance with a source, Twitter employees “blame what happened with Elon [Musk] taking up the corporate on Jack.” Twitter account of Elon Musk/AFP
Dorsey’s reps at Square and Bluesky didn’t reply to requests for comment.
Dorsey might not be a lightning rod for controversy like Musk, Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates, or be perceived as socially awkward like Mark Zuckerberg, but it surely’s a mistake to think he’s any less Machiavellian or megalomaniacal than the remainder of them, several sources who know Dorsey told The Post.
“He was at one point the bottom person within the room at Twitter after which, because he desired to be a very powerful person within the room, he was — and he ended up being CEO,” said writer Nick Bilton, who hung out with Dorsey for “Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power Friendship and Betrayal,” his 2014 book.
“He had three co-founders who’ve kind of been erased from the history of Twitter, each publicly and financially. When he left this last time he blamed the issues at Twitter on other people. Though he was on the board and was the CEO! He’s incredibly adept at boardroom politics and keeping off coups against him.”
Dorsey has develop into known for dating models, corresponding to Flora Carter.Pichichipixx.com / SplashNews.co
And he has plenty of individuals in his corner who foresee a glowing post-Twitter profession in his future.
“Jack’s not hot-headed or hot-blooded,” said Nik Yakovenko, who worked at Twitter under Dorsey from 2015 to 2017. “He’s a peaceful person. Quite a lot of [Silicon Valley bosses] aren’t calm. He is a little more cerebral. He’s also loads more sincere than you’d think. He’s not that excited by money. He loves nature and the outside and he’s very into doing blockchain stuff. It stays to be seen what happens with Bluesky. It’s about decentralizing social media networks in the longer term to offer users more autonomy.”
Like lots of the big tech bros, Dorsey didn’t stand out during his childhood, where he suffered with a stutter and had geeky hobbies like studying maps and trains and listening to police scanners.
The tech titan reportedly bought model Raven Lyn Corneil an $8 million Hollywood Hills home before they broke up.Neil Rasmus/BFA.com
“I loved couriers,” he once said. “You had this transfer of physical information happening throughout town and the world. Someone picking up the package, putting it in a bag, going somewhere, taking it out of the bag, giving it to another person. I assumed that was so cool. I desired to map it, to see that flow on an enormous screen.”
He grew up in modest circumstances in St. Louis, Mo. where his father, Tim, was a medical equipment engineer and his mother, Marcia, a homemaker. The family recently renovated Marcia Dorsey’s childhood home.
Her Twitter bio reads: “Mother of @jack… Does that make me the grandmother of Twitter?”
Dorsey is launching a recent Twitter competitor, Bluesky.AP
Despite dropping out of school, Dorsey’s early foray into creating dispatch software for taxi firms led him to plan for microblogging his status to his friends in real time — an concept that served because the eventual constructing block for Twitter, formed in 2006.
Along the best way Dorsey briefly became a licensed massage therapist and dabbled in modeling and fashion design.
In 2019, he detailed 11 of his “wellness habits” which include morning ice baths and saunas, eating only one meal a day and infrequently fasting on weekends, two hours of meditation day by day and a day by day five-mile walk to work.
After co-founding Twitter in 2006 with Biz Stone, Evan Williams and Noah Glass, “Jack doesn’t seek advice from any of [his] Twitter co-founders anymore,” an insider said.Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
“Dorsey is a rarity in Silicon Valley,” Bilton said. “Jack’s more charismatic than most of them. Having a conversation with Mark Zuckerberg is talking to a chatbot. Most are odd and you’re thinking that, did someone make them in a lab and did they then escape and develop into CEOs. But with Jack you sense there could also be an actual human being in there somewhere.”
Dorsey’s charisma — and large checking account — could also be why he’s been linked to swimsuit models Flora Carter and Raven Lyn Corneil, yoga instructor Kate Greer, fashion model Lilly Cole and “Boss Bitch” writer Nicole Lapin.
However the relationships haven’t lasted.
“He bought Raven Lyn an $8 million house within the Hollywood Hills in 2019 but she still broke up with him,” an insider told The Post. “It was like he was too weird to place up with despite his money.”
“He doesn’t take part in the social circuit or the galas. He stays away and sticks along with his dude pack,” one Silicon Valley insider said of Dorsey, above (right) with Sean Penn.MEGA
One Silicon Valley insider said Dorsey keeps a low profile. He first bought a $10 million home overlooking San Francisco Bay within the Seacliff area of town in 2012 after which bought the property round the corner for $21 million in late 2018.
“Jack all the time appears to be the harbinger of things to come back,” the insider told The Post. “His weight loss program, biohacking, the fasting — he’s all the time certainly one of the primary ones to do stuff. What he does that seems weird shall be seen as trendy and funky three years later … But he doesn’t take part in the social circuit or the galas. He stays away and sticks along with his dude pack.”
His current dude pack, nevertheless, could be well advised, to observe their pal like a hawk.
“Jack doesn’t seek advice from any of [his three] Twitter co-founders anymore,” said one other insider of Dorsey’s old friends Biz Stone, Evan Williams and Noah Glass. “You may ensure they don’t buy into the BS public narrative that Dorsey is a few benign monk CEO walking the earth. He’s like all the remainder of them, just attempting to screw everyone else over for his own good.”
The Post has reached out to Stone, Williams and Glass.
