Image via WikipediaI am a huge fan of Twitter, an avid user, and I have blogged extensively about the service at this blog. I joined the service the same day Demi Moore did. Coincidence. And I understand the media thing Biz Stone is alluding to here. The media likes drama. They report of fights where there are no fights. Friction sells better than peace.
But I do believe Twitter does have real issues.
Twitter does not have that Gladiator Steve Jobs, or the Knight In Shining Armor Mark Zuckerberg. But that lone warrior Founder CEO is not the only formula for grand success. Maybe greatness can also arise out of collective leadership.
This is tricky for me. Fred Wilson is my favorite solo blogger. I know the guy - one of the perks of living in New York City. Blogger continues to be my favorite social media platform, and that is an ode to Evan Williams. But I have been openly vocal at this blog about having wanted to see Jack Dorsey as the Founder CEO for Twitter.
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Founder CEOs are not gifted by other team members or by VCs. Founder CEOs don't depend on outside parties for their power. They keep the power they started with. Larry Ellison, my favorite character in tech, comes to mind. You need some raw street smarts, some bare knuckles fire in the belly to swim with the sharks.
The Founder CEO is an extremely rare animal. But it is my favorite animal. And I have been open in my fantasy of wanting to have seen Jack Dorsey be that to Twitter. Did the Board mess up? Did Ev mess up? I don't know the details. The cast of characters involved lead me to give them the benefit of doubt. But I love Twitter enough that I do wish it had had that Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook has pivoted relentlessly. Facebook used to have a wall as the primary feature. It learned the stream from Twitter.
I do believe Twitter has real issues as of today. I am hoping Jack Dorsey can pull a rabbit out of the hat in his second coming.
Related articles
Image by The DEMO Conference via Flickr- Twitter Founders' Tweets Give Insight Into Twitter's Past (fastcompany.com)
- Real history of Twitter isn't short and sweet (msnbc.msn.com)
- Ev Williams tweets about Twitter's "forgotten founder" (venturebeat.com)
- The Real History Of Twitter (businessinsider.com)
- Is Noah Glass Twitter's Long Lost Winklevoss? (fastcompany.com)
- The Vision Thing: What Twitter Needs to Learn From Apple (gigaom.com)
- Twitter's Biz Stone Calls Out Fortune Magazine (webpronews.com)
- Twitter: Too many cooks could spoil this bird (news.cnet.com)
- Trouble @Twitter (tech.fortune.cnn.com)
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