Initial Public Tweet: Twitter, Square Mull IPOs
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While neither Twitter nor Square consider an IPO their ultimate goal, it will be a "milestone" for each company, said entrepreneur Jack Dorsey.
"You can think of an IPO as an exit strategy. You can think about it as a goal or you can think about it as a milestone. And we think of it more as a milestone of something that is another fundraising event for the company, both companies," Dorsey told CNBC. "Really, right now, we are just getting into the discipline so that we can make the choice when we feel the company and the market is ready for that milestone."
Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter and the CEO of the payment company Square, said that both companies are seeking to create products that are "sustainable" and that will make "a deep impact on the world." Going public is just one step in this process, he said.
Twitter and Square, though, share more than just common business goals, Dorsey said.
"I think the common thread is simplicity. Twitter made it very, very simple to have a conversation with the world just by updating what's around you and sharing what you are seeing and experiencing," Dorsey said. "And Square really simplified getting into commerce..."
He said Square made it more simple for businesses to sell goods by offering them a flat rate for processing payments, but it also simplified the buyer's process as well because it enables them to pay with their phone.
While Dorsey didn't give specific details about an IPO timeline for Square or Twitter, he did share some personal information about his career and how he almost left the technology industry to become a massage therapist.
"I wanted to get away from computing a bit," he said.
Dorsey said he completed 1,000 hours of massage-therapy training in St. Louis, Missouri and then returned to San Francisco to practice his new career, only to realize competition in his new field was intense in the Bay area.
"I was in Missouri and completed my course and then moved back to San Francisco and realized that everyone was a massage therapist and I just didn't want to compete with that so I went back to programming," he said. "It worked out."
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