On November 29, 2021, Jack Dorsey stepped down as chief executive of Twitter after 16 years with the company. Jack also confirmed in a tweet that he resigned from the company. I resigned from Twitter and tweeted, Jack. I'm not sure if anyone has heard. There were speculations about what led to his resignation at the time.
A year later, a year later you're looking at it. We now have more details about why he left the company he co-founded 16 years ago. In a series of private exchanges between him and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Dorseys discussed his original belief that Twitter can't be a company. Dorsey writes to Musk:
Jack told Musk that Twitter started as a protocol. He went on to describe the mistake of Twitter becoming a company. It should have never been a company. Jack said that was the original sin.
In another exchange between the two friends, Dorsey revealed that he had tried to persuade Twitter to bring in Musk a year before news broke in March that Musk had acquired a 9% stake in the social media giant. The former Twitter CEO, Musk, texted back, "Cannt be happier you're doing this."
In another exchange, Dorsey told Musk he wanted him to join the board of directors of Twitter long before Musk acquired a large stake in the company.
When we had the activist come in, I tried my hardest to get you on our board and our board said no. That was about the time when I decided to leave, as hard as it was for me, according to Dorsey. I think the board is just super risk averse, and saw adding you as more risk, which I thought was stupid and backwards, but I only had one vote, and 3% of company, and no dual class shares. The text messages that shed new light on Musk's behind-the-scenes negotiations with Twitter's leadership were revealed on Thursday. There were private messages that showed tense exchanges between current Twitter Parag Agrawal and Musk on April 9th, when they confronted each other about an April 9th questioning if Twitter is dying. Agrawal told Musk:
It is my responsibility to tell you that it is not helping me make Twitter better in the current context. When we speak, I would like to give you a sic perspective on the level of internal distraction right now and how it hurts our ability to do work. I hope the AMA will help people get to know you, understand why you believe in Twitter, and to trust you and I d like the company to get to a place where we are more resilient and don't get distracted, but we aren't there right now. Musk responded less than a minute later. I am not joining the board. This is a waste of time. Will make an offer to take Twitter private.