THE POWER OF CURIOSITY AND

INSPIRATION
Jack Dorsey
Co-Founder - Square and Twitter
Origin of Twitter
◦ He developed early version of Twitter in early 2000, but shelved it – “Wrong time, good idea, put it on the
shelf”.

◦ In 2005 tried it again – ” ..was given two weeks and one other programmer in Biz Stone to write the
software.

◦ “So, that’s how that sort of visualization and early desire to see the world led into Twitter” … And we did
it”, and the rest of course is …
Origin of Square
◦ 2008 market crash – an opportunity to start something new

◦ Saw an opening for an online payments solution

◦ Builds a prototype in a month

◦ Presents it to Visa, MasterCard..

Additional insights
◦ Curiosity and Inspiration

◦ Power of a working product

◦ “The thing that really inspires people is a working product. When you’re pitching someone, the best thing you can
do is show them something that works.”

◦ Payment is a form of communication

◦ Focusing on the user experience of money rather than the mechanics of transferring the value
◦ Instrument Everything
◦ Log, measure and test your infrastructure.
◦ “You have to instrument everything. For the first two years of Twitter’s life, we were flying blind. We had no idea
what was going on with the network….”

◦ The importance of getting an idea out of one’s head & the cycle it follows –
◦ ” … you need to get it out of your head. The reason you have to get it out of your head is you need to be able
to see it on a surface that is not in your mind.”
◦ ” Once you can see it and once you can step back from it, then you can also decide to share it with others
◦ the idea either gathers momentum
◦ or you can decide to shelve it
Thank you..