CLASSIFIEDS Taake Said Recently
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OMAHA WORLD-HERALD MONEY WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 2014 • 3D Williams: Twitter co-founder’s entrepreneurial streak has its roots in Nebraska Continued from Page 1 Despite his “mental rebel- lion,” as one former teacher described it, Williams was an altogether polite and respectful kid. His parents describe him as the easiest of the four Williams kids to raise, mostly because he had a penchant for keeping himself entertained. Not surprisingly, Williams “didn’t really jive” with the people in Clarks, he wrote in a blog entry from December 2001. He sought stimulation and new influences, and that was espe- cially difficult to fi nd before the Internet era. “My sources were limited,” Williams wrote. “I often think how drastically dif- ferent my life would have been had I grown up with the Web.” Today, Wibbels still seems be- wildered that his friend mused 30 years ago about networking Atari consoles together. That same idea, in varying iterations, BLOOMBERG NEWS is now worth millions of dollars Evan Williams at Pyra Labs in San Francisco in 1999. Williams, then in his late 20s, helped found the Web startup. Evan Williams, left, with Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey on the fl oor of the to companies like Microsoft and The team at Pyra Labs then created the Blogger service, which eventually was sold to Google. New York Stock Exchange last fall during Twitter’s initial public offering. Sony. Of course, Williams’ ambitions Williams at “We knew that Evan would someday be rich. We mountain lion high on the wall the ambitious, smart people is at age 12 were less capitalistic. age 6. The boy faces a bear on its haunches and reason enough for me, business “He was like, ‘Man, I wish we was fascinated didn’t know he’d be this rich this soon, but we knew other mounts. advantages aside.” didn’t always have to ask our by Legos and Evan Williams was never into But Williams seems to harbor parents to sleep over and play puzzles and he was driven to the point of success.” farming or hunting, and has no contempt for his roots, still video games,’ ” Wibbels said. loved to draw been a vegetarian for about 20 evident by his tiny handprint in and paint. Monte Williams, Evan Williams’ father years. For these reasons and the concrete patio at his father’s *** others, Lincoln Williams ques- house. Born in Aurora on March 31, tions whether he had much of an He even impressed an unwit- 1972, Evan Clark Williams by in,” Monte Williams said. or programmer.” The platform influence on his younger brother. ting love for Husker football on all accounts always yearned for English for 29 years at Clarks features a simple-by-design in- “The biggest question was Hourihan in the Pyra days. Even something more. before fi nishing her teaching *** terface that focuses on reading always whether he could focus though it’s one of the lesser in- career at Columbus, agrees on one thing long enough, which As the third child of Monte Within three years, Bausch and writing and has a feed that terests of Ev and Paul, she said, Williams, a third-generation with those assessments. Evan uses computer modeling and he did with Blogger,” Lincoln “I learned all about Nebraska Williams, she said, simply pre- and Kohtz had accepted posi- farmer from Clarks, and Laurie human decisions to curate sug- Williams said. football coaches, I got the oral ferred to skew from the center tions with a Lincoln-based tech- Howe, a substitute teacher who gestions for new content. Both Lincoln Williams and history of important games, cer- of attention. He could have been nology fi rm, but Evan Williams Monte Williams recall a later had attended country school Questions linger over how tain plays under various coaches a straight-A student but wasn’t, remained cool to the prospect conversation at Evan’s bachelor near the Panhandle communi- Medium will be monetized, but and outrageous things that she said. of working for someone else. party in Las Vegas in 2007 that ty of Mitchell, Williams tele- a $25 million round of fi nanc- happened to deny them of their “He never needed to blow Monte Williams declined to concerned the potential sale of graphed his intelligence from an ing led by San Francisco Bay rightful bowl games,” Hourihan his own horn,” said Vyhlidal, fi nance any additional business Twitter. He told his guests the early age. Area investment fi rm Greylock said. “It was fun.” who taught him and his siblings attempts there and his youngest company had been offered more He quickly resolved a stutter Partners in January shows Williams has been “very gen- through their years at Clarks son moved back home to Clarks. than $70 million to sell out. that developed soon after he monied interests still have faith erous” to his entire family, said Public School. “They were all Then, in May 1997, with “no When asked about a fi gure he began speaking at about 2½ in self-publishing. Monte Williams, who is proud really, really nice kids and ev- degree or significant tangible would entertain, Evan Williams years old. His parents say he “Media is still in the midst that Evan has “always been eryone fi t in, but they didn’t care skills,” Williams blogged, he responded he wanted to grow would have talked sooner had of a massive shift from print to if they fi t in.” went west. He accepted a job the company to $1 billion. His respectful” to his Midwestern his brother, Lincoln Williams, digital,” Greylock partner Josh Where the elder Williams with O’Reilly and Associates of brother spit his drink out. upbringing. Though he lacked not appointed himself Evan’s Sebastopol, California, about Elman said. “It’s also been a brother was president of his Twitter’s market cap has fl uc- clear trajectory as an aspiring unofficial spokesman. one hour north of San Fran- fraternity at the University of challenge for readers to search tuated from a high of about $40 entrepreneur, he’s always been Once Evan Williams did start cisco, working as a marketing Nebraska-Lincoln and has taken for and discover things worth billion to about $19 billion today. driven to succeed — not at all talking, the sentences rolled out. coordinator for the company’s an ownership role in virtually reading.” He believes Medium is “Shows how much I know,” unlike his father or brother. Legos and puzzles fascinated software group. He was 25 and every job he’s worked in since a solution to that challenge. Lincoln Williams said. “Lincoln and I talked about him. He loved to draw and paint. it was his fi rst-ever professional graduating, Evan Williams Of course, it’s unlikely Evan this from the time we did busi- Williams’ parents divorced job. abandoned his college education *** Williams will ever return to the ness together,” Monte Williams during Evan’s senior year of Seven months later, Williams at UNL about two weeks before Back in Clarks, Lincoln Wil- Cornhusker State except for said. “We knew that Evan would high school and, following the quit the company, then was fi nals during his sophomore liams and his father still farm visits. He, his wife and two chil- someday be rich. We didn’t know split, his mother, now Laurie rehired as a contract intranet year. about 100 acres of land. They dren live in San Francisco. he’d be this rich this soon, but Taake, moved 30 miles away to developer. Thanks to better He told his father in spring travel to hunt wild game, includ- “I love it here,” he said of the we knew he was driven to the Columbus. Evan and his younger pay, fl exible hours and a chance 1992 he had a mentor in Key ing alligators and wild boar. In city in a November 2007 blog point of success.” sister, Allie, went with her. His encounter with a Massachusetts West, Florida, for whom he the foyer of Monte Williams’ entry. “Just being around the mother assumed her son would Web developer named Meg Hou- Contact the writer: could work writing direct mail home are trophies: A stuffed creative energy, the action, and 402-444-1534, [email protected] be “terrified” to resume his rihan, a fl edgling Web startup senior year in a significantly marketing copy, so Monte Williams cautiously gave his was born in 1999. larger school. Hourihan and Williams named With 17,300 residents, Colum- approval. It didn’t work out. Evan Williams returned to it Pyra Labs, and Paul Bausch bus “seemed like a metropolis,” joined the team early on. Williams said in a June 2013 Nebraska in 1994, where he fi nally began the entrepreneur- “I discovered he was really interview. But that didn’t deter ial streak he has often described into the Web and excited about him from seizing an opportunity as a “painful (but educational) all these possibilities,” Hourihan to broaden his horizons. “His mess.” said. “He was the fi rst person I actual words were, ‘Mom, if I One project led by his brother, ever met that felt the way I did. don’t move, I’m going to die,’ ” who now owns a business in My sense was he didn’t fi t in in CLASSIFIEDS Taake said recently. She now Lincoln that deals in water and Nebraska.” lives in Des Moines, where she wastewater management and The team would accidental- is retired. automation equipment, involved ly spawn Blogger, which was In Columbus, Evan Williams documenting the history of originally an internal diary to had an aura of being “kind of Antiques & Antiques & Cornhusker football on the support development of a Web- Dogs the weird, mysterious kid,” said CLASSIFIEDS Collectibles Collectibles then-popular CD-ROM format.