InvestigationThe co-founder of the social network celebrates the 15th anniversary of his first tweet on Sunday. Brilliant visionary, introverted ex-punk, turned billionaire ascetic and “part-time CEO”, he is not free from ambiguity, as his laxity on the conflict between pro and anti-Trump has shown.
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Jack Dorsey likes to do “Wild experiences” on himself. « I’m super super weird “, He confessed on November 27, 2019, to a group of Ethiopian entrepreneurs. The Twitter founder was in Addis Ababa, the last stop on a tour that had taken him to Nigeria – he loved the “Whirlwind of activity” -, in Ghana and South Africa for his Vipassana cure, an extreme form of meditation: ten days of total silence, a punishment – or redemption – for the CEO of the social network with 500 million daily messages. “It’s the most trying thing I’ve done this year, he confided. And probably the best. “
Jack Dorsey, 44, had come to scout as part of his obsession with fintech, the technological disruption of the financial sector. The boss of Twitter is also (and even above all: it is from there that he derives three quarters of his fortune) that of the electronic payment company Square, founded in 2009 when he had been dispossessed of his invention by his co-founders. Square is now valued twice as much as Twitter. « Dorsey is a visionary in product design, describes a former employee who prefers not to be identified. It enjoys the respect accorded to dual founders in Silicon Valley. “ In fifteen years, the entrepreneur has revolutionized the communication sector and that of electronic payment. Her fortune is estimated at $ 12.9 billion (€ 10.8 billion).
Mastery of Zen
In front of his audience, brought together by the Ethiopian platform Mella, the American entrepreneur announced that he had decided to settle for six months on the African continent. The audience was dazzled. « L‘Africa will define the future, he tweeted from the airport. In particular that of bitcoin. ” On the other side of the world, the project was taken as a desertion. Shareholders in hedge fund Elliott Management, who have been trying for years to oust what they call “Part-time CEO”, strangled: social networks were criticized urbi et orbi, Donald Trump played arsonists on Twitter and Jack Dorsey claimed to be going to perfect his mastery of Zen in nine time zones of San Francisco?
The founder of Twitter, we suspect, did not materialize. Rather than settling in Lagos, he remained confined to his villa on the heights of China Beach, in San Francisco, with a view of the Golden Gate Bridge, the 1937 bridge he praises. “Audacity” and “Elegance” when he shows it to new recruits. As the presidential election approached, he was summoned twice by Congress, where his druid beard made his eyes roll. He was summoned to position himself, to arbitrate the conflict between the pro-Trump and the anti, the former accusing him of censoring them on the platform, the others there. “Let the Nazis proliferate”.
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