jack dorsey
Square; Twitter
yuri Milner
Digital Sky Technologies
It is a truth universally
acknowledged, in the
business world at least,
that if you can afford a
$100 million home, you’re
doing something right.
Russian venture capitalist
Yuri Milner has done a lot of
things right, namely found-
ing Mail.ru Group, the
largest Internet company in
the Russian-speaking
world, and then putting his
money behind U.S. up-and-
comers Zynga, Facebook,
and Groupon. Last January,
Milner entered into a joint
venture with SV Angel
called Start Fund; the
partners agreed to invest
$150,000 in every new Y
Combinator startup, with-
out necessarily knowing
what the company does.
The deal gives Milner
access to a stream of new
ideas for a very modest
investment. If the fledgling
entrepreneurs need incu-
bator space, perhaps they
could set up camp in Mil-
ner’s new 25,500-square-
foot Silicon Valley mansion,
believed to be one of the
most expensive American
homes ever.
“I’ve never
owned a car;
I’ve always
taken mass
transIt. I don’t
own a tv. I am
renewed by
runnIng, and I
love taI chI.”
The pre TernaTurally calm Jack
Dorsey now has two full-time jobs:
executive chairman of Twitter and
CEO of Square, his new service that
lets anybody accept credit-card pay-
ments with their iPhones. It’s a good
thing he believes in magic. “From a
product standpoint,” he says, referring
to Square, “we want every touch point
to feel magical. It inspires trust.” It
starts with data. Before Twitter and
Square, Dorsey developed dispatch
software that tracked ambulances and
taxis, revealing urban design flaws
that suggested new ways to streamline
city services. Square speaks to the
relationship between a buyer and a
seller, which can be similarly studied
and streamlined. “Payments are a
form of communication that could be
better designed, less burdensome,” he
says. “What customized information
could be on a receipt? We can do that.”
Dorsey sees the data that Square can
provide as an opportunity to give art-
ists, small-business owners, and ven-
dors new insights. With knowledge
comes better inventory control,
smarter customer-retention strate-
gies, growth, jobs, and happy commu-
nities. But it starts with the product.
“It’s about leading by design.”
