During a break at TechCrunch50, Jason Calacanis and Michael Arrington drilled new Twitter COO Dick Costolo on his new job, why he took the position and what he’s working on. Costolo, who is an early Twitter investor, said he was thinking of maybe starting his own new company, but decided instead to join Twitter because of its incredible momentum:
“My first reaction was, you don’t get a chance to work on potentially one of the pivotal companies. And the more I thought about it, no matter how successful you’ve been in the past there is a low chance of success.”
Twitter’s definitely growing fast. When Michael asked him “If you were forced to trade off between growth and stability, what would you choose?” he dodged:
“I am having a harder and harder time hearing your questions, and I think it is psychological.”
Costolo was tight lipped about what he’s going to actually be working on, saying:
“I know where the bathroom is and I just found my desk, so we’ll go from there.”
Costolo, who joined Twitter after working at Google and founded RSS service Feedburner, sold the company to Google for $100 million in 2007 and recently left Google for greener pastures.
If Costolo wants challenge, he’s come to the right place. As we wrote in our post reporting on his move, Costolo is someone who has actual experience building scalable infrastructures, which Twitter needs. The company hasn’t launched any memorable new features, while fellow social network Facebook continues to innovate. And there’s the ongoing revenue challenge that Twitter faces. Perhaps once he figures out his dental plan and fills out his tax forms, Costolo will look to launch a few features and perhaps help Twitter figure out their downtime problem.
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