Biz Stone
Christopher Isaac "Biz" Stone[1][2] (born March 10, 1974)[3] is an American entrepreneur who is the co-founder of Twitter, among other Internet-based services. Biz was the creative director at Xanga from 1999–2001.[4] Stone co-founded Jelly, with Ben Finkel. Jelly was launched in 2014 and is described as a new kind of search engine with the core assumption that for every question there is a person with the answer. Stone was Jelly’s CEO until its acquisition by Pinterest in 2017.[5] On May 16, 2017, Biz Stone announced he was returning to Twitter Inc. in an unannounced role.
Biz Stone | |
---|---|
Stone in 2007 | |
Born | Christopher Isaac Stone March 10, 1974 |
Nationality | American |
Citizenship | United States |
Occupation | Creative director, software engineer, businessperson |
Known for | co-founder of Twitter, Jelly |
Net worth | |
Spouse(s) | Livia Stone (Wife) |
Education
Stone graduated from Wellesley High School in Wellesley, Massachusetts.[6] He attended both Northeastern University and the University of Massachusetts Boston, but did not graduate from either.[7]
Career
Aside from Twitter, Stone is an angel investor and advisor in the startup community having backed companies in a diversity of industries such as Square, Slack, Medium, Nest, Beyond Meat, Pinterest, Intercom, and Faraday. Stone is a board director at Beyond Meat, Medium, Polaroid Swing, Workpop,[8] and Jelly Industries. Stone is Chairman of Polaroid Swing.
Stone made his directorial debut working alongside Ron Howard and Canon USA to direct a short film, Evermore, as a part of Project Imaginat10n. Stone described the opportunity as a chance to scratch a long-time creative itch.[9] Stone is also an advisor to Zoic Studios, and an Executive Producer of the documentary, Eating Animals, along with Natalie Portman.[10]
From 2003 to 2005, Stone was employed by Google.[11]
In May 2017, Stone announced his intention to return to Twitter.[12]
Awards and honors
Along with Jack Dorsey, Stone holds the patent for inventing Twitter.[13]
Stone has been honored with the International Center for Journalists Innovation Award, Inc. magazine named him Entrepreneur of the Decade, Time listed him as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World,[14] and GQ named him Nerd of the Year, along with Evan Williams.[15] In 2014, The Economist recognized Stone with an Innovation Award.
In 2015, Stone’s Twitter won an Emmy and Stone received CIPR's most prestigious accolade for leadership at the forefront of developing new forms of media.[16]
Stone is a Visiting Fellow at Oxford University and a member of the Senior Common Room at Exeter College, Oxford. Upon delivering the 2011 commencement, Babson College awarded Stone their highest honorary degree, a Doctor of Laws.[17] and is a Fellow[18] at Oxford University.[19] Stone is an Executive Fellow at University of California, Berkeley.[20]
Published works
Stone has published three books, Blogging: Genius Strategies for Instant Web Content (New Riders, 2002), Who Let The Blogs Out? (St Martins, 2004),[19] and Things A Little Bird Told Me (Grand Central, 2014).[21][22] In addition to his long running personal blog and Medium articles, Stone has published op-eds for The Atlantic,[23] and The Times of London.
Personal life
Stone is an active philanthropist, and is involved in causes including animal rights, veganism,[24] environmentalism, poverty, health and education.[25] Stone is an advisor and contributor to DonorsChoose, a nonprofit organization helping classrooms in need.[26]
Stone lives in Marin County, California with his wife Livia and his son Jacob.[27] He and his wife founded and operate the Biz and Livia Stone Foundation, which supports education and conservation in California.[28]
See also
References
- "How I Got My Name". Archived from the original on 2012-01-22. Retrieved 6 February 2012.
- Biz Stone (2000-04-12). "Biz Stone:No Emails Today". Archived from the original on 2010-02-13. Retrieved 2009-02-15.
- Biz Stone [@biz] (10 March 2010). "Today is my birthday—I'm in my 30's!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- Biz, Stone. "Biz Stone (LinkedIn)". LinkedIn.
- Stone, Biz (2017-03-08). "Big News—Pinterest Acquires Jelly!". AskJelly.com News. Retrieved 2019-01-23.
- "Who should be the 2009 Bostonian of the Year?". The Boston Globe. December 14, 2009.
- "Twitter's Biz Stone To Be Executive Fellow At UC Berkeley's Haas School". The Huffington Post. September 21, 2011.
- Temple, James. August 29, 2012. Twitter's Biz Stone to direct short film
- Eating Animals, Full Cast and Crew
- Jay Yarow (November 2, 2013). "Biz Stone Walked Away From $2 Million In Google Stock When He Decided To Join The Struggling Startup That Eventually Became Twitter". Business Insider.
- "What's Happening with Me". Biz Stone. 2017-05-16. Retrieved 2017-05-16.
- Google Patents
- Kutcher, Ashton (April 30, 2009). "The Twitter Guys". Time.
- <2009 GQ Men of the Year> Archived September 6, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- BIZ STONE AWARDED CIPR PRESIDENT’S MEDAL
- <Biz Stone Ugrad Commencement Speaker>
- <Biz Stone>
- Malone, Michael (April 19, 2009). "The Twitter Revolution". WSJ.
- Efrati, Melissa Korn And Amir (2011-09-01). "Master of 'Biz' Returns to School". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2020-06-10.
- Stone, Biz. "About bizstone". Flickr. Yahoo!. Retrieved 2008-11-07.
- Heilpern, John (April 2014)"Out to Lunch with Biz Stone", Vanity Fair. Retrieved May 19, 2014.
- Stone, Biz (October 19, 2012). "Exclusive: Biz Stone on Twitter and Activism". The Atlantic.
- Mishler, Jennifer (November 15, 2011). "Watch: Biz Stone on His Love for Turkeys and Farm Sanctuary". Ecorazzi.
- Evangelista, Benny (May 2, 2010). "Twitter's Ben Stone supports social causes". SFGate.
- Donors Choose, Meet the Team
- Towle, Mimi (August 2010). "Biz Stone". Marin Magazine. Archived from the original on 2012-01-24. Retrieved 2011-09-24.
- Schawbel, Dan. June 14, 2012. Biz Stone on His Biggest Challenges, Influences and the Future of Social Media forbes.com
External links
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