Like the making of Facebook, there is some controversy in how Twitter was founded. Twitter’s owners and top executives tell the story of how Twitter was founded, but it leaves out a major role of the cofounder as well as a few scandals.
The Popular Story of Twitter
Evan Williams, a former Google employee, had a startup idea called Odeo. It was a podcasting platform, but Apple launched iTunes podcasting before Odeo caught on. Biz Stone, a friend and former employee of Google, and Jack Dorsey, an Odeo employee, decided to create Twitter instead.
The Real Story of Twitter
Noah Glass, an entrepreneur, started Odeo in his apartment. Odeo’s main purpose was to be able to call a phone number and it would turn that message into an MP3 hosted on the Internet. Noah brought on Charles River Ventures along with several other investors including Evan Williams, that recently sold Blogger to Google. Odeo moved to an office and hired a web designer, Jack Dorsey. In 2005, Apple announced iTunes and that it would include podcasts, and the Odeo team decided not to compete against Apple. Everyone in Odeo brainstormed ideas, and in February of 2006, Glass, Dorsey and a German contract developer presented an idea to the rest of the company. The idea was that people could send a text to one number and it would be broadcasted to all of your friends called Twttr. Popular belief is that it was Jack Dorsey’s idea because he has drawings of something that looks like Twitter, but it really was Noah Glass’s vision.
The Buyout
In a board meeting with investors, Noah Glass presented the idea of Twitter. The investors weren’t as excited about the idea as everyone else at Odeo. In September of 2006, Evan Williams wrote a letter to Odeo’s investors asking to buy the shares back because he felt like the company was going no where. The investors agreed to sell their shares, so Evan bought the company and Twitter. In 2011, the assets of Odeo were sold for roughly $5 million and are now worth $5 billion. It was a tough situation to switch from one idea to another one when investors are involved, but a lot of them feel cheated because they said they would have reinvested in Twitter if they were given the opportunity.
Still Growing
In June of 2009, Twitter is rumored to have e-commerce plans and opens firehose access to Google and Bing. In April 2010, promoted Tweets become popular and the company’s first advertising platform is introduced. The first promoted tweet was by Advertising Age. By June promoted trends launch and the first trend is Disney Pixar’s Toy Story 3. In October, promoted accounts go live based on suggestions with the first being @Xbox.
With money and fame comes obvious struggles. Who knows, maybe Twitter will have the next top selling movie about how it all got started.
sources: businessinsider.com, mashable.com