Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal by Nick Bilton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Having read several such books talking about how these companies had been founded, it’s important to read them with a grain of salt. Why? These books are written by the author following hours of interviews, accounts of numerous people and extensive research. Add to that, perception of those events will also vary depending on the individual’s bias towards or against different characters involved in the story. Now more than ever have I realized that when we refer to the press releases by any company which is supposed to be the ground zero of truth representing the company’s stance about something, it can be a huge farce and distant from what must have truly conspired in the boardroom or the offices of the company.
Having followed Nick Bilton and having heard his podcast for a while now, I know that he’s passionate in his dislike for Facebook (or Mark Zuckerberg - incidentally there’re still synonymous) and Trump. At least, from the time I’ve followed him I’ve not known his stance towards Twitter or its founders. His presence on Twitter or his podcast has not created a sub-conscious bias for me. And that’s been extremely helpful while reading this book. Precisely this fact strikes me the most about the book that despite his strong opinion elsewhere his assertive narration about the characters was absent from the book. It was more like narration of accounts of events than his opinion. Highly appreciated!
Overall this book is a nice and light read taking you into a whirlwind that Twitter has been and probably still is. It’s a force. From Evan William’s perspective of Twitter representing ‘What’s happening?’ to Jack Dorsey’s perspective of ‘What am I doing?’, Twitter has evolved to be more than anything that any of their founders - for the record there were four Noah Glass, Evan Williams, Biz Stone and Jack Dorsey - had ever envisaged.
I’ll be updating this post with the summary of key events that are narrated in the book by next Saturday.
As promised here’s the summary of events.
—————————– SPOILERS AHEAD —————————–
Odeo, founded by Noah Glass - Evan Williams (Ev) comes in as investor - Ev becomes CEO - Biz Stone follows Ev leaving Google - Jack Dorsey is hired to Odeo - Noah and Jack come up with idea for Twitter - Jack and Noah can’t get along - Ev fires Noah - Ev resigns as CEO to find investors for Twitter -Jack becomes CEO - Jack struggles to scale Twitter - Jack fired as CEO and made executive chairman - Ev becomes CEO - Ev scales Twitter - Biz has become the friendly face of the company - Ev hires Dick Costolo - Jack continues attending press events for Twitter and peddles his version of Twitter’s founding - Investors and Dick find Ev incapable of running Twitter and making it profitable - Ev is fired from CEO position - Ev’s removal is orchestrated by Jack - Dick becomes interim CEO - Jack becomes CEO - Ev and Biz eventually leaves Twitter.
Overall, it’s a very dramatic series of events. Again, it’s difficult to say how much of it is exaggerated and what’s really true.
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