Evan Williams is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
entrepreneurAn entrepreneur is a person who has possession of an enterprise, or venture, and assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks and the outcome. It is an ambitious leader who combines land, labor, and capital to often create and market new goods or services. ... The term is a loanword...
who has founded several Internet companies, including
Pyra LabsPyra Labs is the company that coined the word Blogger, and made the service a big success.The co-founders were Evan Williams and Meg Hourihan, and the company's first product, also named 'Pyra', was a web application which would combine a project manager, contact manager, and to-do list...
(creator of weblog-authoring software
BloggerBlogger is a blog publishing system. It was created by Pyra Labs, which was bought by Google in 2003.
The service itself is located at , and blogs that do not publish to their own websites are hosted by Google at subdomains of blogspot.com.- History :*On August 23,...
) and
TwitterTwitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers...
, of which he is currently CEO.
Early life and education
Williams born March 31, 1972 in
Clarks, NebraskaClarks is a village in Merrick County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 361 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Grand Island, Nebraska Micropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Clarks is located at ....
, grew up on a farm, where he assisted with crop irrigation in summers. He attended the University of Nebraska for a year and a half, leaving to pursue his career.
Early career
After leaving school, Williams worked at various technology jobs and
start-upStartup or start-up may refer to:* Booting, an initialization period that computers and electronics go through when first turned on;* Commissioning, the act of starting for the first time a technical installation;...
firms in
Key WestKey West is an island in the Straits of Florida on the North American continent at the southernmost tip of the Florida Keys.Key West is politically within the limits of the city of Key West, Monroe County, Florida, United States. The city also occupies nearby islands and portions of nearby...
, Dallas,
Austin, TexasAustin is the capital of the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 15th-largest in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in the nation...
and again on his family farm in Nebraska. In 1996 Williams moved to
Sebastopol, CaliforniaSebastopol is a town in Sonoma County, California, United States, approximately north of San Francisco. The population was 7,774 at the 2000 census, but its businesses also serve surrounding rural portions of Sonoma County, totaling about 50,000 people...
in Sonoma County to work for the technology publishing company
O'Reilly MediaO'Reilly Media is an American media company established by Tim O'Reilly that publishes books and web sites and produces conferences on computer technology topics...
. He started at O'Reilly in a marketing position but eventually became an independent contractor writing computer code, which led to freelance opportunities with companies including Intel and
Hewlett-PackardHewlett-Packard Company , commonly referred to as HP, is a technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, United States. HP has its United States offices at the former old Compaq Campus in unincorporated Harris County, Texas, Latin America offices in Miami-Dade County, Florida,...
.
Pyra Labs and Blogger
Evan Williams and
Meg HourihanMeg Hourihan is the cofounder of Pyra Labs, the company that launched the Blogger personal blogging software that was acquired by Google. She published weblogs at and...
co-founded
Pyra LabsPyra Labs is the company that coined the word Blogger, and made the service a big success.The co-founders were Evan Williams and Meg Hourihan, and the company's first product, also named 'Pyra', was a web application which would combine a project manager, contact manager, and to-do list...
to make project management software. A note-taking feature spun off as
BloggerBlogger is a blog publishing system. It was created by Pyra Labs, which was bought by Google in 2003.
The service itself is located at , and blogs that do not publish to their own websites are hosted by Google at subdomains of blogspot.com.- History :*On August 23,...
, one of the first web applications for creating and managing weblogs. Williams invented the term "blogger" and was instrumental in the popularization of the term "blog". Pyra survived the departure of Hourihan and other employees, and was eventually acquired by
GoogleGoogle Inc. is an American public corporation, earning revenue from advertising related to its Internet search, e-mail, online mapping, office productivity, social networking, and video sharing services as well as selling advertising-free versions of the same technologies. Google has also...
on February 13, 2003.
Williams was named one of
PC MagazinePC Magazine is an online computer magazine that was published monthly in the United States both in print and online until January 2009. In November 2008 it was announced that the of the magazine would be discontinued, but there would still be an online version. The magazine is published by Ziff...
s "People of the Year" in 2004, along Hourihan and Paul Bausch for their work on Blogger.
Odeo
Williams left Google in October 2004 to co-found
OdeoOdeo is a directory and search destination website for RSS syndicated audio & video. It used to contain tools that enabled users to create, record, and share podcasts with a simple Adobe Flash-based interface....
, a
podcastingA podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and downloaded through web syndication. The mode of delivery is what differentiates podcasts from other ways of accessing media files over the Internet, such as simple download or streamed webcasts: special client software...
company. In late 2006, Williams co-founded Obvious Corp. with
Biz StoneIsaac "Biz" Stone is a co-founder and Creative Director of Twitter, Inc and also helped to create and launch Xanga, Blogger, Odeo, and . He has published two books about blogging, Blogging: Genius Strategies for Instant Web Content and Who Let The Blogs Out? . Jack Dorsey and Stone wrote Twitter's...
and other former Odeo employees to acquire all previous properties from Odeo's former backers. In April 2007, Odeo was acquired by Sonic Mountain.
Twitter
Among Obvious Corp.'s projects was
TwitterTwitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers...
, a free social networking and micro-blogging service. Twitter itself was spun out into a new company in April 2007, with Williams as co-founder, board member and investor. In October 2008, Williams became CEO of Twitter, displacing
Jack DorseyJack Dorsey is an American software architect and businessperson best known as the creator of Twitter. BusinessWeek called him one of technology's "best and brightest". MIT's Technology Review named him in the TR35, an outstanding innovator under the age of 35.-Early years:Dorsey grew up in St....
who became chairman of the board. By February 2009, Compete.com ranked Twitter the third most-used social network based on their count of 6 million unique monthly visitors and 55 million monthly visits.
Personal life
Williams is a vegetarian. He lives in the
San Francisco Bay AreaThe San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, or the Yay Area, is a metropolitan region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses large cities such as San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and...
with his wife, Sara Morishige. They have one child.
External links
Speeches
Interviews