Twitter’s Complicated Past: Hatching Twitter by Nick Bilton
Today, Twitter is seen as one of the biggest Social Media platforms in the world. It has worldwide implications, from areas such as politics and news. But, like many companies, Twitter’s ascent to fame was nowhere as clean it seemed on the surface.
This past month, I read Hatching Twitter, a book written by Nick Bilton which dives deep into Twitter’s dark early days. Throughout Twitter’s lifetime, the co-founders who were once close friends turned to enemies, most of whom faced betrayal, backstabbing, and even firing.
Early Days
Twitter was started by 4 main founders: Evan Williams, Noah Glass, Jack Dorsey, and Biz Stone. Twitter started off as a side-idea for Odeo Corp, which was a company that looked to revolutionize podcasting.
Prior to joining Odeo, Evan Williams created Blogger, a website that helped non-programmers create websites and share their ideas with the world. Evan Williams sold Blogger to Google, and he later used this money to fund Odeo, which was a podcasting company founded by his friend Noah Glass. Ev later took over as CEO of Odeo since he felt he was best suited to lead and because was the majority shareholder for the company.
Biz Stone, who used to work under Ev at Google, left his job in order to work with his old boss at Odeo. Finally, Jack Dorsey joined. He was seen as the team’s “main” programmer. Jack was seen as an odd and quiet man at the time, and people did not think he was leadership quality. However, he was very creative and pitched many new ideas.
The four originally were very good friends. They often went out to dinner and parties together. Sadly this would change over the next few years.
Early Odeo was a bit of a mess. Noah, who was the founder, and Ev, who was the CEO, could not agree on the direction of Odeo. They kept challenging each other for power, and over time, the tension kept increasing.
Eventually, Apple announced that they would be launching their own podcasting service. This severely undermined the relevance of Odeo, and the founders frantically began looking for other ideas. On one of their “hack days”, Jack came up with the idea of a status sharing app. Noah saw massive potential in it since it could be a way to bring people closer together, connect friends, and overall cure loneliness. Noah came up with a name for it, Twitter.
Noah was obsessed with Twitter, but Ev doubted his leadership for this “side project.” Ev tasked Jack with mainly working on Twitter since it was his idea. After a couple of months of programming, Jack was able to send his first tweet.
Firing Noah
The tension between Noah and Ev continued to rise. But when Noah accidentally told the public about Twitter before its official launch, that was the final straw. Ev fired Noah from the own company he started.
Noah was devastated after being fired. He felt betrayed by his closest friends. Noah left San Francisco and was nowhere to be seen for years after.
After Twitter’s official launch, Ev began focusing more on the Twitter side of Odeo. However, he and Jack had conflicting views on how Twitter should be used: Ev believed it should show “what’s happening,” while Jack felt it should show “what are you doing.” Similarly like with Noah, Jack and Ev’s relationship began deteriorating.
Some time passed by, and Twitter began getting some traction. It was awarded as Best Start-Up award at SXSW in March 2007. Ev was interested in pursuing other ventures, particularly his start-up incubator Obvious Corp. So, Ev made Jack CEO of Twitter despite Jack’s rather poor leadership skills at the time.
Firing Jack
After a year, Twitter began growing like crazy. More actors, politicians, and celebrities began using it, so unfortunately Twitter began running into scalability problems. The site was constantly crashing, but despite this, more people kept joining.
Ev felt Jack was doing a bad job managing Twitter, especially since Jack was focused on other things. Jack was still taking his fashion design classes every day. He was spending excessive amounts of Twitter’s money, but even still, he wasn’t able to address the website’s constant crashes.
Ev and Jack were still at odds, Ev began contesting him for leadership. Outsiders were not even sure who the real leader of the company was. After a while, Ev and the company’s other investors gave Jack an ultimatum; if he did not fix Twitter’s issues within 3 months, then he would have to step down from CEO.
Still, tension against Jack was rising. The board could not handle Jack much longer, and they wanted him out from CEO immediately. So without giving Jack his full 3 months, Ev fired him from CEO and made him a silent board member so the outside would not take the news badly. To the outside world, Jack’s firing seemed very peaceful and organized. However, this was far from the truth; tension between Jack and Ev was greater than ever.
Jack was furious when he was fired. He felt that Twitter was his idea, and he wanted to be a part of its success. He felt Ev was selfishly stopping him from doing so. But unlike Noah, Jack did not disappear; he was determined to make a return to the company.
Jack’s Return
In the meantime, Jack used his image as a board director (even though it was just an honorary title) to his advantage. He did lots of interviews with the media, so people still thought Jack was highly involved with the company, even though he had no real role. During this time, Twitter kept on growing, and more investors began joining the Twitter board.
Originally, most investors were on Ev’s side. But after a while, Jack got a very powerful investor named Peter Fenton on his side. Peter was surprised after he heard Jack’s firing story, and he felt Jack deserved better.
Jack’s media image kept becoming more powerful. His prevalence was becoming a conflict of interest for Twitter since Jack was talking about features he didn’t even know about. In 2009, Biz and Ev were invited to the annual “100 Most Influential People” conference, but Jack was allowed to tag along because of his fictitious power in the company.
After a few years of Ev running Twitter, employees began complaining about Ev’s leadership. Specifically, Mike Abbott, an employee, complained to Jack about Ev’s slow decision-making and habit of hiring friends. This was the spark of Jack’s return. Jack told Mike to complain to the Twitter board, and this helped Jack get other board members besides Fenton on his side.
Jack began planning secret meetings with his allies on how they should push Ev out of the company and bring Jack back. Eventually, they were able to make Dirk Costolo, the COO at the time, the company’s CEO instead of Ev. They also made Jack the executive chairman.
Soon Ev was pushed lower and lower down into the company. After a while, his ideas weren’t even being heard. The company was divided between supporting him or Jack, and this led to more frustration In 2011, Biz and Ev left Twitter.
Dick Costolo continued to serve as CEO. He was able to install a more professional culture, establish solid revenue, and fix the scalability issues that plagued the company. He was able to bring Twitter public with a valuation of $31 billion.
After a while, Twitter’s revenue began waning. Dick stepped down as CEO in 2015, and Jack became CEO once again.
My thoughts
The book Hatching Twitter really showed me the drama that goes on behind the scenes in companies. While Twitter might be a more extreme sample, it reminded me how there are many conflicts in the background of every seemingly perfect business.
I also saw how strong enemies can be. Ev made an enemy of Jack when fired him without giving him the full 3 months. As a result, Jack was extremely determined to kick Ev out of Twitter. I believe Ev could have avoided Jack’s wrath by giving Jack his full 3 months to fix the company.
I saw that people will have issues with what someone does, no matter how well they do it. This can notably be seen with Ev. I personally thought he was doing a great job running the company. Still, people found minor issues with his leadership style, and he was eventually pushed out because of this. I personally think he did not deserve this, and many of his co-workers agree as well.
Finally, my biggest takeaway was the importance of having a goal and fighting for what you want in order to make a difference. Noah did not really do this. After being fired from Twitter, he settled for an average life. Now, the other 3 founders are famous while he is known as the “forgotten founder.” In reality, Noah felt he deserved a role at Twitter, and if he fought for it back, he might be more relevant today. On the other hand, Jack fought for what he believed was right. He had a vision for Twitter, and he was willing to do what it took to executive it. So, he used his “silent board member” role to his advantage; he bolstered his public image until he was able to overthrow Ev. While you might not agree with how he fired Ev, his determination to fight for what he believed is what allowed him to become the tech superstar he is today.
Conclusion
I enjoyed reading about Twitter’s history. It was very intriguing, and it taught me many lessons along the way. Overall, I am glad I read it, and I recommend it to anyone considering reading it.
