6 posts and columns on Odeo

Come See: Odeo Reunion and Reid Hoffman at Web 2.0 Expo

in Social on March 25, 2011 at 10:20 am PT

If you’re in San Francisco next week, come out to the Web 2.0 Expo, where I’ll be moderating a couple of sessions: a keynote interview with Reid Hoffman, and a reunion of early employees at Odeo (which birthed Twitter) who’ve all gone on to found their own companies.

Help Wanted: Twitter Seeks Product Direction

in Social on December 9, 2010 at 8:33 am PT

As Twitter verges on raising funding that would value it at $3.5 to $4 billion, the departure of Product VP Jason Goldman seems to underscore an issue that has plagued Twitter for a long time: Product development. Aside from its well-documented reliability problems, new products and major upgrades at Twitter are few and far between.

Twitter Founders: From "Stupid" Idea to Possible IPO

in News on October 26, 2009 at 10:06 am PT

It all started with a “stupid” idea and a message about pinot noir. Two of the founders of Twitter Inc., Evan Williams and Biz Stone, talked about how the micro-blogging service began, the challenges it faced and an eventual potential IPO, at Startup School, an event organized by Y Combinator held at the University of California-Berkeley on Saturday.

Twitter Guys: We’ll Still Be Running This Company in Five Years

in D7 on May 26, 2009 at 6:49 pm PT

Meet the Internet’s It Boys: Twitter co-founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone. A year ago, their “micromessaging” platform was unknown outside of a small circle of digerati. Now the service has broken through to the mainstream, or at least to the mainstream media (thanks, Oprah!). But while Twitter has no problem generating attention, it’s still unclear how the company will actually generate revenue. Or maybe it doesn’t need to do that: Last year, Facebook offered to buy Twitter for $500 million in cash and stock, and the service could presumably garner a much higher price today. Or at least that’s what its investors may be hoping for.
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Will the Twitter Twins Channel the "Zoolander" Duo at D7 Next Week?

in News on May 18, 2009 at 6:15 am PT

While getting ready for the spate of interviews at our seventh D: All Things Digital conference in just seven days, BoomTown has been doing a lot of research on the people taking the stage. Some interviews will be quite serious (Eve Ensler, talking about the dire situation in the Congo) and some possibly funny (Mark Cuban, who simply defies definition). But this picture that Twitter founder and CEO Evan Williams posted today on his Flickr page is easily the most unusual bit of research I have come across. It is aptly titled, “This doesn’t seem awkward at all.”
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When Twitter Met Facebook: The Acquisition Deal That Fail-Whaled

in News on November 24, 2008 at 12:45 am PT

About three weeks ago, Facebook and Twitter ended several weeks of serious talks, in which Facebook was offering to acquire Twitter for $500 million of its stock, which also included a cash component. While rumors of Facebook’s interest were brought up in an interview with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the Web 2.0 Summit a few weeks ago, some shot down the idea as silly. Quite incorrectly, as it turns out, since top execs at both Facebook and Twitter were right then at the tail end of discussions, which were initiated by the privately held Facebook in mid-October, about bringing the two together. Those talks, sources on both sides said, are now over. So why did the deal break down?