Jack Dorsey, co-founder of both Twitter and Square, has received a lot of praise over the years, but investor Chris Sacca has given him the biggest vote of confidence: namely, suggesting that he can successfully be the CEO of both companies at the same time.
On Friday, Sacca took to Twitter to proclaim his picks for the company’s new leadership. In June, then-CEO Dick Costolo announced he’d be stepping down and Dorsey, a former Twitter CEO, has been leading the company as interim chief since then, while also remaining CEO of Square, his mobile-payment provider.
Twitter’s been looking to find a permanent CEO over the past couple of months, and whether Dorsey would take on the role permanently — and whether he would leave or stay at Square — has been a big question. Square confidentially filed to go public recently, putting even more pressure on Dorsey. Twitter has said that it will only consider CEO candidates who can devote themselves fully to the position.
Sacca, however, believes Dorsey can do both. In his Friday morning tweets, the investor said Dorsey should be supported by Adam Bain, currently heading global revenue and partnerships and a contender for the CEO title, as the company’s president and COO, and by Ev Williams, another Twitter co-founder, as executive chairman. Twitter needs “product vision,” and Dorsey undisputedly has it, according to Sacca.
As for Square, the rest of its leadership is strong enough to afford only having part of Dorsey’s attention, according to Sacca. In the last few years, the company has noticeably beefed up its top management, splitting former COO Keith Rabois’s duties between CFO Sarah Friar and former Googler Françoise Brougher who joined in 2013, among others.
Sacca posted his tweets shortly after a report from Bloomberg said that Square’s bankers are working on a backup plan in case Dorsey does leave the company to lead Twitter. It’s not clear how likely that is, however.
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