City profile

Jack Dorsey

“Silicon Valley just got a little less weird,” said Io Dodds in The Independent. Jack Dorsey, the “raggedybearded, nose-ring-sporting” boss of Twitter has announced his resignation from the social network he co-founded 15 years ago. This is actually the second time Dorsey, a former botanical illustrator, has quit – he was fired from his own company in 2008 for, among other things, “doing too much yoga” and attending fashion evening courses. “You can either be a dressmaker or the CEO of Twitter, but you can’t be both,” co-founder Evan Williams told him. When Dorsey returned in 2015, critics wondered whether he could simultaneously run Square, the payment provider he founded after his firing.

Dorsey’s “simultaneous leadership” of a $38bn social media company and a fintech now valued at $98bn “was always a stretch”, said Lex in the FT. Twitter needs “more than a part-time chief”. And Dorsey’s personal interest in crypto “suggests his mind may have been more focused on Square”. Twitter’s “large cultural influence” has often overshadowed “its patchy financial performance”, said DealBook in The New York Times. In fact, the network has long “tested” the theory that founder-led companies perform best: it has lagged in terms of innovations, and appeared unable to clamp down on misinformation. Even so, the new man in charge, Parag Agrawal, has “big shoes to fill”. And who knows if it’s really the end for Dorsey? “Don’t worry,” tweeted The Daily Show. “Like everyone else who quits Twitter he’ll be back in three weeks.”