Jack Dorsey
Square
Square
Jack Dorsey is the CEO of Square, a service that enables anyone to accept credit cards anywhere. Dorsey is also the creator, co-founder, and Chairman of Twitter. He was recognized as one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people and was named an "outstanding innovator under the age of 35" by MIT's Technology Review.
Related Links: https://squareup.com/ http://twitter.com/
Last Updated: Thu, Jan 27, 2011
Page: 1
Square and Twitter Co-Founder Jack Dorsey is an entrepreneur driven by an innate curiosity to create amazing products and services. In this insightful lecture, Dorsey describes his early background and inspirations, the current focuses he keeps as a CEO, and his desire to create memorable experiences and solve problems.
Square and Twitter Co-Founder Jack Dorsey shares his childhood experience of falling in love with maps, while growing up in St. Louis, Missouri. Dorsey taught himself to program computers because he wanted to design maps, an activity that led to his deeper exploration of dispatch software development. Dorsey describes his early exposure to data visualization as, the "most beautiful thing that I could visualize, a city living and breathing." 
Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Square and Twitter, explains his decision to study computer programming in college, rather than political science. Dorsey saw many parallels between writing government policy and computer programming, with the only difference being the time-scale it takes to see the impact of your work.
Square and Twitter Co-Founder Jack Dorsey describes the experience of having the right idea, but at the wrong time. In 2000, Dorsey had early ideas on how individuals could share updates across networks. He shares a humorous story of first trying out his idea on the original Blackberry device, while visiting San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.
In this clip, Square and Twitter Co-Founder Jack Dorsey shares how Twitter came into existence, while he was working at Odeo, a consumer podcasting company. Dorsey joined Odeo to gain a greater understanding of the consumer Internet market, but eventually learned that few people at the company, including him, were interested in podcasting. Dorsey says the Twitter project began at Odeo, when at the company's urging for new ideas, he suggested the concept that would become Twitter.
"A recession is a great time to start a company," says Square CEO and Twitter Co-Founder Jack Dorsey. Dorsey explains the numerous reasons why this idea is true, and how the idea for Square came about over the last few years. Dorsey describes the idea jumping to life when he reconnected with an old colleague, who was struggling to accept credit card payments.
Square and Twitter Co-Founder Jack Dorsey urges all entrepreneurs to show investors a working version of their product or service. Dorsey explains how this was done with Twitter, and how it made the telling of the product's story easier. He also shares the amusing (and money-making) technique he used when presenting Square to investors. 
Square and Twitter Co-Founder Jack Dorsey views payments not only as an exchange of value, but also as a form of communication. Although everyone can relate to money, says Dorsey, very little thought has gone into design and user experience for payment transactions. Dorsey shares his desire to build a cohesive point-of-sale system that is far more useful for merchants and customers.
In this clip, Square and Twitter Co-Founder Jack Dorsey articulates his passion to measure and instrument everything for the collection of data. Based on his experience of having to "fly blind" at Twitter, when it came to early systems and data, the first thing Dorsey programmed at Square was the system administration dashboard. 
Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Square and Twitter, explains the value in writing a story from the user's perspective. He discusses Square's vital use of narratives to understand what customers truly experience when using the product. According to Dorsey, all of a company's other strategies and tactics should grow naturally out of these powerful user narratives.
As CEO of Square, Jack Dorsey sees himself as a "Chief Editor," charged with addressing the flood of inputs and ideas that come into the company. In this capacity, Dorsey focuses on three major areas: 1) Team Dynamics, 2) Internal and External Communication, and 3) Financial Management. Dorsey also shares his belief that you can be successful if you make every detail perfect, and limit the number of details.
In this short clip, Square and Twitter Co-Founder Jack Dorsey shares a wise and insightful idea that speaks to the core of the entrepreneur's experience: "Expect the unexpected. And whenever possible, be the unexpected."
Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Square and Twitter, speaks to the marketing value that Square sees in finding the key influencers in merchant areas, and then turning them into distribution points. To elaborate on this strategy of surfacing the product with customers, Dorsey uses examples from widely varying businesses, from independent accountants to popular taco trucks.
Square and Twitter Co-Founder Jack Dorsey explains some important steps to becoming a better storyteller. According to Dorsey, the first step is to get ideas out of your head, whether you do it by writing or coding. Once the ideas can be reviewed outside your head, you can then decide whether to share them, or put them on the shelf for later use. Dorsey also explains his admiration for Apple's ability to tell epic stories.
Square CEO Jack Dorsey recognizes that his company is doing many things at one time, including hardware development, software creation, support, fraud protection, and a number of other major activities. Here he explains why he views his company as one startup with many other startups inside.
Square and Twitter Co-Founder Jack Dorsey is an entrepreneur driven by an innate curiosity to create amazing products and services. In this insightful lecture, Dorsey describes his early background and inspirations, the current focuses he keeps as a CEO, and his desire to create memorable experiences and solve problems.