Since its founding in 2006, Twitter has become a critical piece of our everyday communications infrastructure, nearly as ubiquitous as email or text messaging, but with an origin story worthy of a Hollywood film. New York Times technology writer Nick Bilton, using hundreds of hours of interviews with company insiders, provides a compelling narrative of the company's founding and early struggles, painting a picture of ambition, deceit, ego and dissolved friendships. The differing personalities of Twitter's founders, paterfamilias Ev Williams, the amiable Biz Stone, the egotistical Jack Dorsey and the tragically impulsive Noah Glass, drive the story forward, with Bilton offering a painstakingly recreated account of how the unlikely foursome went from podcast start-up Odeo to almost accidentally creating the social media phenomenon. Dorsey, often heralded as Twitter's inventor, comes out particularly badly in this telling, a schemer prone to jealousy and pettiness. It is an engrossing tale, with a recurring theme of loneliness running through it as the company stumbles from one chief executive to the next, one misfiring business plan to another, from acquisition talks to technological calamities, and as the relationships between the founders become ever more fraught and competitive. This exceptionally well-told story captures the Silicon Valley start-up culture in all its pioneering, hubristic glory.
