Christopher Isaac "Biz" Stone (born March 10, 1974) is an American entrepreneur who is a co-founder of

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

, among other technology companies. Stone was the creative director at Xanga from 1999 to 2001. Stone co-founded Jelly, with Ben Finkel. Jelly was launched in 2014 and was a search engine driven by visual imagery and discovery. Stone was Jelly’s CEO until its acquisition by

Pinterest Pinterest is an American image sharing and social media service designed to enable saving and discovery of information (specifically "ideas") on the internet using images, and on a smaller scale, animated GIFs and videos, in the form of pinboard ...

in 2017. On May 16, 2017, Biz Stone announced he was returning to Twitter Inc.

Education

Stone graduated from Wellesley High School in

Wellesley, Massachusetts Wellesley () is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. Wellesley is part of Greater Boston. The population was 29,550 at the time of the 2020 census. Wellesley College, Babson College, and a campus of Massachusetts Bay Communit ...

. He attended Northeastern University and the

University of Massachusetts Boston The University of Massachusetts Boston (stylized as UMass Boston) is a public research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the only public research university in Boston and the third-largest campus in the five-campus University of Massa ...

, but did not graduate from either.

Career

Aside from Twitter, Stone is an angel investor and advisor in the startup community having backed companies in diverse industries such as

Square In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90- degree angles, π/2 radian angles, or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-length a ...

, Slack, Medium,

Nest A nest is a structure built for certain animals to hold eggs or young. Although nests are most closely associated with birds, members of all classes of vertebrates and some invertebrates construct nests. They may be composed of organic materi ...

, Beyond Meat,

, Intercom, and Faraday. Stone is a board director at Beyond Meat, Medium, Polaroid Swing, Workpop, and Jelly Industries. Stone is Chairman of Polaroid Swing. Stone made his directorial debut working alongside

Ron Howard Ronald William Howard (born March 1, 1954) is an American director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. He first came to prominence as a child actor, guest-starring in several television series, including an episode of ''The Twilight Zone''. He ...

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. Stone is also an advisor to Zoic Studios, and an Executive Producer of the documentary '' Eating Animals'' along with Natalie Portman. From 2003 to 2005, Stone held a senior leadership role at

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

. In May 2017, Stone announced his intention to return to

Awards and honors

Along with

Jack Dorsey Jack Patrick Dorsey (born November 19, 1976) is an American Internet entrepreneur and programmer who is a co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, Inc., as well as a co-founder and the CEO and chairperson of Block, Inc., the developer of the Squa ...

, Stone holds the patent for inventing Twitter. Stone has been honored with the

International Center for Journalists International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) is a non-profit, professional organization located in Washington, D.C., United States, that promotes journalism worldwide. Since 1984, the International Center for Journalists has worked directly with ...

Innovation Award, ''Inc.'' magazine named him Entrepreneur of the Decade, ''Time'' listed him as one of the

100 Most Influential People in the World ''Time'' 100 (often stylized as ''TIME'' 100) is an annual listicle of the 100 most influential people in the world, assembled by the American news magazine '' Time''. First published in 1999 as the result of a debate among American academics, ...

, and '' GQ'' named him Nerd of the Year, along with Evan Williams. In 2014, ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Eco ...

'' 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. Stone is a visiting fellow at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...

and a member of the Senior Common Room at

Exeter College, Oxford (Let Exeter Flourish) , old_names = ''Stapeldon Hall'' , named_for = Walter de Stapledon, Bishop of Exeter , established = , sister_college = Emmanuel College, Cambridge , rector = Sir Richard Trainor ...

. Upon delivering the 2011 commencement, Babson College awarded Stone their highest honorary degree, a Doctor of Laws. and is a Fellow at

. Stone is an Executive Fellow at

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

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), 9and ''Things A Little Bird Told Me'' (Grand Central, 2014). In addition to his long running personal

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order s ...

and Medium articles, Stone has published op-eds for ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'' and ''The Times''.

Personal life

Stone is an active philanthropist, and is involved in causes including

animal rights Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all Animal consciousness, sentient animals have moral worth that is independent of their Utilitarianism, utility for humans, and that their most basic interests—such as avoiding s ...

veganism Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal product—particularly in diet (nutrition), diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. An individual who follows the diet or philosophy is kn ...

environmentalism Environmentalism or environmental rights is a broad philosophy, ideology, and social movement regarding concerns for environmental protection and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks ...

, poverty,

health Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiza ...

and

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty ...

. Stone is an advisor and contributor to DonorsChoose, a nonprofit organization helping classrooms in need. Stone lives in Marin County, California, with his wife Livia and his son Jacob. He and his wife founded and operate the Biz and Livia Stone Foundation, which supports education and conservation in California.Schawbel, Dan. June 14, 2012
Biz Stone on His Biggest Challenges, Influences and the Future of Social Media
forbes.com

References

External links

*
Biz Stone interview with The Swellesley Report, about his growing up in Wellesley, MA

Biz Stone Q&A with Boston Globe Magazine

Biz Stone Responds to Malcolm Gladwell's Critique of Twitter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stone, Biz American bloggers American computer programmers Businesspeople from San Francisco Living people Place of birth missing (living people) 1974 births Twitter, Inc. people Businesspeople from Massachusetts American computer businesspeople Wellesley High School alumni American technology chief executives