Here's The Moment That Twitter's Co-Founder Knew The Company Was Going To Work
In his book "Things A Little Bird Told Me," Twitter co-founder Biz Stone tells a lot of stories about the early days of the company. He highlights one day in particular, when he realized why his other startups had failed and why Twitter was going to work.
The service was still in the prototyping phase and he was living in a teeny-tiny house in Berkeley with his then-girlfriend, now-wife. They were in the middle of a heat wave and Stone was trying to rip out the wall-to-wall carpeting to expose what he thought would be beautiful hardwood floors underneath. He had already ruined the carpet when he discovered that there was no hardwood floor. Sweating, angry, and hunched over, ripping up nails, his phone buzzed and he read a tweet from co-founder Evan Williams: "Sipping pinot noir after a massage in Napa Valley."
His situation compared to Williams' made Stone laugh out loud, and he says that in that moment he realize why his other startups failed and why wouldn't: Twitter brought him joy.
Stone says that that moment proved to him his own emotional investment. Although that kind of investment doesn't guarantee success, failure is certain if you aren't emotionally invested, Stone writes. Although he had worked with much of the same team at Odeo, a podcasting startup, none of its founders felt the kind of passion they did there as they did for Twitter. Ultimately, he says, that passion and willingness to struggle through the crashes, bad reviews, and hard times, was what made Twitter work.