Jack Dorsey has a message for you — he’s not going anywhere.
The multitasking executive has not only founded two of the largest tech companies in Silicon Valley, but is also at the helm of both Twitter and Square. And that’s how things are going to stay.
In a conference call earlier this week concerning Twitter’s fourth-quarter earning results, Dorsey told investors that he would persevere as dual-CEO despite significant challenges facing his social media company. “This focus, and this team, allows me and gives me a lot of confidence I can continue to focus on the meaningful things at both companies and we have the right prioritization in front of us,” he said.
These statements come at a time when Twitter’s growth seems nearly nonexistent, and investors continue to worry about the future of the company.
Twitter’s stock price has continued to decline since Dorsey first returned to the CEO position in 2015. And while Dorsey insists that the company has a strong executive team that can help him right what seems to be a sinking ship, many of the company’s leaders have left in recent months. As TechCrunch pointed out, both Twitter’s CTO and VP of product left the company late last year.
But Dorsey remains optimistic. “2016 was a transformative year for us,” he said on the conference call. “Transformations are difficult, and this one was especially challenging. While we may not be meeting everyone’s growth expectations, there’s one thing that continues to grow and outpace our peers: Twitter’s influence and impact. You don’t go a day without hearing about Twitter.”
While this may be true, the things we’re hearing aren’t so great. Twitter missed Wall Street’s revenue targets, posting just 1 percent year-over-year growth. Its advertising business dropped, and following the earnings call, Twitter’s stock price plummeted 10 percent. But Dorsey says he has a plan.
“Late last year, we really flattened the org … so I could be closer to the product,” Dorsey said. “Now we’ve spent a year going through and making sure we reset the foundation on what we’re executing and what our priorities are, we have a lot more confidence that we can move a lot faster on bigger things.”
