Ev Williams Hints At Life After Twitter


Twitter co-founder Ev Williams broke a long silence about his role at the social media company Tuesday. In a blog post, Williams confirmed that Twitter is no longer my day job and that he would be launching a new venture.

Im not ready to talk about what I have planned next, wrote Williams. But its time to pick up a whiteboard marker and think fresh. There are other problems/opportunities in the world that need attention, and there are other individuals Id love to get the opportunity to work with and learn from.

Williams, 38, is one of the Bay Areas best-known entrepreneurs! . His fi rst company, Pyra Labs, created the prototypical blogging tool, Blogger, which sold to Google in 2003. He then founded a podcasting venture, Odeo, followed by a kind of mini-incubator called Obvious Corp. It was in 2006 that Obvious Corp created the service known as Twitter, which incorporated as its own company the following year.

It is no secret that Williams has had a contentious relationship with Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, whom he displaced as CEO in 2008. Williams himself stepped down as Twitter CEO in 2010 to make way for Dick Costolo. At the time, it was said that Williams was stepping down to focus on product strategy. But little came of that move, and yesterday Twitter confirmed that Dorsey still Chairman of the company would be taking a more hands-on role in product strategy. In the blog post, Williams admits that my mind started to wander.

According to the New York Times, Williams has been spending a lot of time at Lake Tahoe mulling his next role. Todays blog post is the first hint at what that might be and it is extremely short on details. Theres a lot of praise and nostalgia for his colleagues at Twitter, and a prediction that the service will become bigger and better in the future. Williams also promises he wont be abandoning the company altogether. I remain on the board of directors and will frequently meet with many folks there to help in any way I can, he wrote.

I doubt Ill get so lucky a third time, Williams mused. As for what hell be trying his hand at: details to come lets see what happens.

More About: ev, evan williams, founder, twitter! , williams

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