5 Fun Facts You Might Not Know About Jack Dorsey

Jack Dorsey is best known to investors as the co-Founder and CEO of Twitter TWTR and the founder and CEO of Square Inc SQ.

About Jack Dorsey: The entrepreneur has seen his wealth soar with the valuations of Square and Twitter climbing since going public.

Forbes lists Dorsey’s wealth at $11.7 billion and ranks him 90th in the world.

Idea For Twitter: Dorsey got the idea to create Twitter from being obsessed with police scanners as a kid. He listened to police scanners and turned it into an idea of people being able to update what they’re doing in real time.

“They’re always talking about where they’re going, what they’re doing and where they currently are, and that is where the idea for Twitter came,” Dorsey said in an interview with 60 Minutes.

Now Dorsey is addicted to Twitter, as it is the thing he checks every morning along with the weather. He heads to the search bar to see what is trending in the world.

Fired From Twitter: Similar to what people saw play out at Apple Inc AAPL years ago with Steve Jobs, Dorsey was fired from the company he created only to return in 2015 to lead the company.

Related Link: Stock Wars: Facebook Vs. Twitter

Almost Worked At Facebook: After being fired from Twitter, Dorsey had a conversation with Facebook Inc FB CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Zuckerberg wanted to hire Dorsey for Facebook as his company was also considering purchasing Twitter. Dorsey ultimately turned down the position due to the lack of a defined role.

College Drop Out: Like several technology entrepreneurs who hit it big, Dorsey is a college drop-out.

In 1995, Dorsey began attending the University of Missouri-Rolla. After two years there, Dorsey transferred to New York University. According to STLToday, Dorsey dropped out of New York University one semester shy of graduating.

Dorsey left school to move to the West Coast, which would lead to the creation of Twitter.

Almost A Fashion Designer: It’s hard to think about Twitter and Square never existing. That could’ve been the case if Dorsey pursued one of his other career interests: fashion design. Esquire reported that Dorsey went as far as enrolling in classes at Apparel Arts in San Francisco.

Jack Dorsey. Illustration by Joel Stralnic.