Month: July 2015

Today Dick Costolo is stepping down as CEO of Twitter.

It’s hard to put into words just how important Dick has been at Twitter. He took over five years ago with tremendous challenges in front of him.

I try to imagine if someone had told me then what what we would have today: a company that solved its technical debt, built an awesome senior team, a global brand and operations with hundreds of millions of users, a product that has positively impacted the world again and again, established a business that generates billions of dollars in revenue with a native ad platform, a continued respect for users and user rights while maintaining a positive culture the founders initiated.

I would have said that would have felt like a dream come true.

Well it happened and continues to happen every day at Twitter. And that is because of Dick’s amazing work and love as the leader of Twitter.

I’ll end this post with one story which says so much about Dick.

Shortly after Dick became CEO we had a compensation committee meeting. I was on that committee and we decided to give Dick additional shares in the company as recognition of his accomplishments and expanded responsibilities. When we presented the idea he immediately responded with “thanks but I would rather you give that equity to the team”. I will never forget that moment.

There was no prior art to lead a company like Twitter during the past five years. Literally there has never been a job like it before and very likely there never will be again.

I am beyond grateful. Thank you so much, Dick.