Biz Stone, one of the co-founders of Twitter, recently announced that he’s back in the company he once helped start. About 6 years ago in 2011, Stone quit Twitter in search of greener pastures, not so much for the money as much as it was to pursue new projects. He had joined Obvious Corporation, where one of the team members was fellow Twitter co-founder Ev Williams.
Stone said that he will be known as a co-founder at Twitter although he seemed unsure of what else he will be known as. However, he sounded confident about his KRA at Twitter, which is to guide company culture and shaping its image externally. He did say that the “job description includes being Biz Stone.”
It is now clear from Stone’s explanation that his return was always a possibility after fellow co-founder and permanent CEO Jack Dorsey regained leadership of the struggling San Francisco based social site. Dorsey was expelled by the Twitter board in 2008 but came back strongly as permanent CEO in 2015. He clearly wanted his former partner and co-founder of Twitter, Biz Stone back in the organization and eventually, when the two met some time back, Dorsey asked Stone what he thought about getting back to Twitter. Stone did mention that in addition to Dorsey’s return as CEO, the decision to return to Twitter was also because he realized that the company was “the most important work” of his life.
Twitter’s well-wishers are quite happy with the new development because there are folks who believe that it’s time the social site touched base with its roots that made it such a unique platform. They feel there’s no better way to do it than having one of the co-founders back in company. There’s positive reaction from the market as well as Twitter’s stock went up by 2% immediately as the news of Stone’s return, began trending, reaching $19.62, which is the highest in that last three months. Twitter’s fundamental strengths can’t be overlooked; it is still the site where news breaks before trending. It not just needs to be that but go further with time.