Skip to main content

Jack Dorsey tells Product Hunt how he runs two billion-dollar companies

Twitter Founder
Image used with permission by copyright holder
It’s hard to tell Jack Dorsey to stick to his day job — if you’re managing two multi-billion-dollar companies, it seems like all the hours of the day, month, and year, would really just start to blend together. When Dorsey, the man who co-founded both Twitter and Square, returned to the helm of the former while maintaining his position of power at the latter, it raised more than a few eyebrows in the tech and business sectors. But now, months later, it seems as though he’s given multitasking a whole new meaning, and garnered a new level of respect for this Jack of all trades.

Now, thanks to a question-and-answer session on Product Hunt, Dorsey has revealed just how he does the impossible, and how he manages “to keep from being overwhelmed.”

So what does an average day look like for the CEO of two different companies? By Dorsey’s own account, his day begins at 5 a.m., whereupon he meditates for half an hour. He then exercises for 20 minutes, makes coffee (shocking he has time to do even that) and then officially begins his workday (ostensibly around 6 a.m.). The first half of his day is spent at Twitter, and in the afternoon, he migrates to Square.

“I look to build a lot of consistent routine,” he revealed on Tuesday. “Same thing every day. Allows a steady state that enables me to be more effective when I do have to react to something out of band.” And to relax, he says, he turns to “Meditation, exercise, dinner with friends. Nothing too out of the ordinary.”

He manages to clock six hours of sleep every night, which isn’t quite as bad as you might expect for someone who seems to be the living and breathing definition of “overworked.”

Of course, the state of affairs at both Twitter and Square under Dorsey’s leadership haven’t been without issue. Square’s recent IPO was priced rather lower than price talks, and despite a nearly $6 billion valuation in 2014, its 2015 valuation was just half that at $2.9 billion. And of course, Twitter saw a string of layoffs and has yet to prove that its mettle with the rise in popularity of other social media platforms (led, of course, by Facebook).

Still, when it comes to Dorsey’s goals regarding Twitter, he says that what he cares about “is building daily utility … . Everything happening in the world is on Twitter, and I want to make sure everyone can participate!”

If you’re looking to channel your own inner Jack Dorsey, you may want to check out his favorite books, which include Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu, The Score Takes Care of Itself by Bill Walsh, Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz, and Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea.

So here’s a New Year’s resolution: Found (at least) two companies, run both, become Jack Dorsey.

Lulu Chang
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…
Bluesky barrels toward 1 million new sign-ups in a day
Bluesky social media app logo.

Social media app Bluesky has picked nearly a million new users just a day after exiting its invitation-only beta and opening to everyone.

In a post on its main rival -- X (formerly Twitter) -- Bluesky shared a chart showing a sudden boost in usage on the app, which can now be downloaded for free for iPhone and Android devices.

Read more
How to make a GIF from a YouTube video
woman sitting and using laptop

Sometimes, whether you're chatting with friends or posting on social media, words just aren't enough -- you need a GIF to fully convey your feelings. If there's a moment from a YouTube video that you want to snip into a GIF, the good news is that you don't need complex software to so it. There are now a bunch of ways to make a GIF from a YouTube video right in your browser.

If you want to use desktop software like Photoshop to make a GIF, then you'll need to download the YouTube video first before you can start making a GIF. However, if you don't want to go through that bother then there are several ways you can make a GIF right in your browser, without the need to download anything. That's ideal if you're working with a low-specced laptop or on a phone, as all the processing to make the GIF is done in the cloud rather than on your machine. With these options you can make quick and fun GIFs from YouTube videos in just a few minutes.
Use GIFs.com for great customization
Step 1: Find the YouTube video that you want to turn into a GIF (perhaps a NASA archive?) and copy its URL.

Read more
I paid Meta to ‘verify’ me — here’s what actually happened
An Instagram profile on an iPhone.

In the fall of 2023 I decided to do a little experiment in the height of the “blue check” hysteria. Twitter had shifted from verifying accounts based (more or less) on merit or importance and instead would let users pay for a blue checkmark. That obviously went (and still goes) badly. Meanwhile, Meta opened its own verification service earlier in the year, called Meta Verified.

Mostly aimed at “creators,” Meta Verified costs $15 a month and helps you “establish your account authenticity and help[s] your community know it’s the real us with a verified badge." It also gives you “proactive account protection” to help fight impersonation by (in part) requiring you to use two-factor authentication. You’ll also get direct account support “from a real person,” and exclusive features like stickers and stars.

Read more