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CHAPTER 8Hit Refresh

But doth suffer a sea-change,

Into something rich and strange.

William Shakespeare, The Tempest

Introduction

In summer 2005, three great minds came together to launch a podcasting platform. They had set up a product that would convert a phone call into .mp3 format and host it on the internet. The firm was called Odeo, and they even got funded for their product from VC investors. However, within a few weeks of launching the product, the mighty Apple announced iTunes would be rolled out with their iPods.

The founders of Odeo knew they had to act because their product wasn't seeing much traction. They had to reinvent themselves to stay relevant. The organisation of 14 employees came together to brainstorm ideas on how they could get out of jail. One of the top employees of the firm, Jack Dorsey, came up with the idea of creating an app in which people could share their status. It took until February 2006 for the idea to resonate with the rest of the management team.

The idea was named Twttr initially and then ended up becoming Twitter. Although the idea came from Jack Dorsey, the efforts to make it happen were led by Noah Glass in the initial days. Jack Dorsey and Evan Williams were still involved in moving the project forward. By March 2006, Twitter's prototype was ready. Twitter's own employees found the product increasingly addictive. In summer 2006, when an earthquake hit San Francisco, it became the first major product validation moment because several ...