This was published 8 years ago
Jack Dorsey the hipster billionaire visits Australia for first time
By Cara Waters
At the age of 39 Jack Dorsey is already being lauded as one of the world's best entrepreneurs.
He's the chief executive and co-founder of social media network Twitter and payment technology business Square and is in Australia for the first time.
Dorsey has come straight off the plane to Five & Dime Bagel in Melbourne, a small business which has just installed Square's payment system.
The billionaire is hard to spot amongst the bagel store's other customers with his hipster beard and all black attire of leather jacket and undone biker boots.
Chief executive and co-founder of Square and Twitter Jack Dorsey poses at 5 & Dime Bagel.Credit: Luis Ascui
But he runs two of the world's biggest tech players with a combined market capitalisation of USD $16 billion.
The entrepreneurial edge
Dorsey says both his parents were entrepreneurs, running a pizza shop and a coffee store and he learnt from them.
"To me being an entrepreneur is just taking a risk, doing whatever is necessary to make it work," he says. "I've always had that edge I guess and that desire."
That desire translates to 15 to 18 hour work days for Dorsey as he juggles his role at the two companies.
Square founder Jack Dorsey demonstrates the company's reader, which is set to get a final tick of approval from global credit card companies. Credit: Luis Ascui
"I guess I focus my time on what is most meaningful, some weeks require a lot more than other weeks, some days require a lot more than other days," Dorsey says.
"The best use of my time is building a team and recruiting and making sure we get along as a team," he says. "We have ups and downs."
Twitter and Square's offices are across the street from each other in San Francisco and Dorsey spends his time running between the two, saying he thrives on the workload.
"I'll do whatever it takes to make these companies succeed and really reach the impact I think is possible from each of them," he says. "The reason why is I want to see that impact in my lifetime. I want to see great things from both companies."
That laser focus has paid off at Square with the fin tech company posting a 49 per cent increase in revenue in its first earnings report as a publicly listed company with sales rising to USD $374 million in the fourth quarter, ahead of analysts' expectations.
The minimalist billionaire
Despite this success Dorsey is known for leading a minimalist lifestyle. He claims to take the bus to work, buying tickets in bulk, on a monthly pass, to save money.
Last month Dorsey gave himself a pay cut to $2.75, reflecting the 2.75 per cent fee Square charges sellers in the United States (in Australia the fee is 1.9 per cent).
"It was kind of a silly thing" Dorsey admits. Publicity seems to be the goal given Dorsey's stake in Square and Twitter is worth over $1 billion.
Dorsey does volunteer that he's "sleeping in a tent tonight," although that tent is actually part of St Jerome's - The Hotel, a glamping experience billed as "where luxury accommodation meets the elemental outdoors."
"I do appreciate simplicity a lot," Dorsey maintains. "I like paying attention to detail. I love art, I love music and how creative people can be and seeing things a different way."
With Square, Dorsey says his aim is to make the payments space simpler.
The business is driven by the Square Reader, a three-centimetre square piece of plastic that plugs into any smartphone or tablet and turns it into a credit card processor.
"The biggest part is speed, how quickly someone can start accepting credit cards, how quickly someone can start growing their business."
"We're solving a real problem," Dorsey says.
The "sexy" space of payments
Dorsey has previously described payments as "magical" but today settles on "sexy".
"It all comes back eventually to a payment if you are buying art, you are buying music, you are buying food," he says. "It enables a bunch of different activities that people want to do. It's fundamental."
In the future Dorsey envisages payments will occupy less and less time for both consumers and businesses.
"You see the trends we are moving away from paper," he says. "Paper cash, paper receipts and paper cheques are diminishing. Everything is going more and more digital. There is a lot more built into something you are carrying around everywhere and using all the time."
Dorsey says he is "super excited" about Android Pay and Apple Pay.
"Technology just enables people ideally to focus on things that are more meaningful like giving them time back and I think payment becomes a thing that disappears a whole lot more and you don't notice it as much."
Square has driven further growth by expanding into invoicing and cash advances.
"We are looking to provide a suite of tools to the seller so they have anything they need to run their business," Dorsey says.
The Australian attraction
He hopes to replicate Square's growth in the United States in Australia and is undeterred by competition from the incumbent banks and home grown payment providers like Tyro.
"We are focused on providing the best experience and our experience is better because it is cohesive," he says. "It"s not just one part of the system. It's everything a business needs to start running."
Dorsey won't reveal the market share Square is aiming for in Australia.
"I don't believe it is important to be the first in the market, I believe it is important to be the best," he says. "We want to continue winning the hearts of small business here."
He says there are a lot of parallels between Australia and the United States.
"It's a very entrepreneurial nation, very early adopters of technology," he says. "It's a market that was very exciting to us because of so many small businesses and so many people willing to give it a go and start. That's our customer base."