Twitter's Jack Dorsey Defends CEO Dick Costolo in Massive Tweetstorm 'There isn't a single person who has been thinking longer about Twitter than @dickc.'
By Laura Entis
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
In order to defend Twitter, the company he co-founded back in 2006, Jack Dorsey fittingly took to the platform today to reinforce his support of its strategy and leadership .
In a long, detailed tweetstorm, Dorsey championed Twitter's adaptability, its strength as a vehicle for real-time conversation, and its ability to raise global awareness ("The Twitter bird has come to stand for empowerment and a positive force in civil society," he tweeted).
Related: Investors Unnerved: Is Twitter Too Difficult to Use?
He also showed his support for CEO Dick Costolo, pointing out that no one has been thinking about the company's future, or has had a greater hand in shaping it into a global cultural force, than its current CEO. Costolo has come under intense scrutiny as of late for the company's recent slowdown in user growth and has been faulted for failing to define a mission and business strategy for the platform going forward. Twitter shares are down more than 40 percent from a year ago.
Dorsey emphasizes that Twitter's strength lies in this mutability, a quality that has allowed the company to become "the closest thing we have to a global consciousness."
Check out Dorsey's full tweetstorm below:
1/Is this thing on?
— Jack (@jack) January 29, 2015
2/I have some things I'd like to say. To start…the tweetstorm!
— Jack (@jack) January 29, 2015
3/The folks using Twitter daily created the @username, the #hashtag, and the retweet, all within the constraint of 140 characters.
— Jack (@jack) January 29, 2015
4/The @, #, and RT have become cultural movements and have influenced every social and communications service since. Even offline.
— Jack (@jack) January 29, 2015
5/The "tweetstorm" and #/tweet syntax is a (clever) way around the 140 character constraint. Once again created by people using the service!
— Jack (@jack) January 29, 2015
6/I think it beautifully showcases Twitter's real strength: simple and engaging live conversation. From anywhere about anything!
— Jack (@jack) January 29, 2015
7/A service that enables the people using it to create new cultural practices is a service that is evergreen. Twitter is that service.
— Jack (@jack) January 29, 2015
8/And now, the team at Twitter. The team today is excellent in every way and is having a tangible positive impact on our pace and execution.
— Jack (@jack) January 29, 2015
9/We saw that Tuesday with a string of amazing launches that are making Twitter even better: https://t.co/5XWnxpNmQN
— Jack (@jack) January 29, 2015
10/As for @dickc, our cofounder @ev rightly pointed out there isn't a single person who has been thinking longer about Twitter than @dickc.
— Jack (@jack) January 29, 2015
11/@dickc was one of our first angel investors, our advisor, our COO, the creator of our revenue engine, and our CEO who assembled the team.
— Jack (@jack) January 29, 2015
12/And finally, the company. I don't know of many companies that also represent a movement. Twitter does.
— Jack (@jack) January 29, 2015
13/Twitter has more global awareness than most century old companies, and yet the brand actually stands for something.
— Jack (@jack) January 29, 2015
14/The Twitter bird has come to stand for empowerment and a positive force in civil society.
— Jack (@jack) January 29, 2015
15/The company constantly shows this spirit in action, especially in policy. And it's built a great business to enable that to flourish!
— Jack (@jack) January 29, 2015
16/I think Twitter is the closest thing we have to a global consciousness. And I believe the world needs that right now.
— Jack (@jack) January 29, 2015
17/That's all. Have a great day!
— Jack (@jack) January 29, 2015