Contrary to a rumor going around, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo insists that founder Jack Dorsey is not difficult to work with, though we're not sure we believe him. He gave a flat out "no" when asked the question by Marketplace's Jeremy Hobson, who referenced last weekend's New York Times piece by Nick Bilton, which started this whole thing. Sources had told Bilton that Dorsey had been working less at the company because he didn't play well with others. The founder confirmed on his personal Tumblr he barely works at the company anymore and only comes in on Tuesday afternoons, but he didn't address his bedside manner. Costolo, however, has now rebuffed the bad reputation—or at least he tried.
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His full response, however, doesn't make Dorsey seem like the nicest guy either. Costolo went out of his way not to compare him outright to notorious jerk Steve Jobs, but he put them in the same category. "He's been an incredible help to me, and you know, people often ask me and they ask him, you know, 'is Jack the next Steve Jobs?' And my answer is always, 'He's the next Jack Dorsey.' He's going to go down as one of the great visionary entrepreneurs in American history," he said. Many people have argued that "great visionary entrepreneurs" are inherently assholes and that's how they get things done. Dorsey kind of sounds like he falls into the group of people who do things other people don't like in favor of the company. Dorsey has previously also been described as an adamant admirer of Jobs by Wired's Steven Levy. And this Quora thread on working at Square, his other company, confirms that he has the same priorities as Jobs as well. From an anonymous poster:
Jack is a curious CEO, though with little experience running a company. I mean, the guy got kicked out of Twitter. He also works two full time jobs, both as CEO of Square and whatever he does at Twitter nowadays. The company culture comes from top down. When your CEO works two full time jobs, lives within a 4 block radius of both of them, doesn't invest a lot of time in friends, family, or other non-work related relationships, everyone that gets hired below that is expected to do the same.