Book review: Hatching Twitter resulted in wounded birds
On the cusp of Twitter's first day of trading Thursday comes Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal, a fast-paced book by Nick Bilton, a columnist and reporter for The New York Times.
With a cinematic approach befitting its eclectic cast of characters, the perceptive read recounts the origins of the microblogging service that's poised to be valued at $17 billion in its IPO.
The story behind the most richly anticipated tech IPO since Facebook in May 2012 is rife with Byzantine-like intrigue, character clashes and broken dreams.
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It's hard at times to keep track of who's in and who's out. Co-founder Evan Williams, who financed Twitter with the millions he made from selling Blogger to Google, is jettisoned as CEO. Co-founder Jack Dorsey is CEO — until he isn't. Even current CEO Dick Costolo was deposed — albeit before taking the top job — as chief operating officer in 2010. (He became CEO when Williams was toppled later that year.)
What emerges is a tale not unlike that of Facebook. Co-founder Noah Glass is eventually shoved to the corporate curb by Dorsey — the equivalent of Eduardo Saverin to Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook.
Silicon Valley golden boy Dorsey is portrayed as a tarnished figure, guilty of hubris and Machiavellian impulses, in Bilton's page turner. Known as "Jack" in the Valley, he is an ambitious sort who patterns himself after Steve Jobs, down to his fascination with The Beatles, according to the book.
In his zeal to emulate Jobs, however, Dorsey evidently picked up his worst habits. This includes, Bilton asserts, Dorsey's insistence that he alone created Twitter. (The product arose from a failed podcasting enterprise called Odeo.)
A fourth co-founder, Biz Stone, is the convivial member of the quartet, which is dubbed a "modern-day Beatles" by Bilton.
And, like the Fab Four, there is plenty of in-fighting -- especially between Dorsey and Williams. Dorsey orchestrates Williams' ouster as CEO, and forces Glass out of the picture altogether. Stone, the peacekeeper, eventually explodes when Costolo balks at giving Williams a title following the latter's demotion. Foreshadowing hints at a power struggle between Costolo and Dorsey to this day.
At its core, the book attempts to peel back the layers of what remains a key question as Twitter hurtles toward an IPO: What exactly is it, and how can it possibly justify its lofty market valuation?
Dorsey, a computer programmer from St. Louis who is Twitter's chairman, considers Twitter a "status updater, a way to say where he was and what he was doing. A place to display yourself, your ego."
Computer-obsessed Nebraska farm boy Williams, known as "Ev," has a different opinion. Twitter is a way to learn "where other people were and what other peoplewere doing."
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