start as ant his improv comedian. one common he could not pay the bills, he moved back to coding. he took a chance on a start up getting intention -- an unusual amount of attention. they start up invented the tweet -. publicow a $30 billion company.

subject to the whims of wall street. dickng me is twitter ceo dick: costolo. twitter has 300 million users. 500 million tweets. hilarious, illuminating. dick: minor always hilarious. emily: some world changing. how do you deal with that on a daily basis. dick: i don't have to read them all. it doesn't affect me personally. thefascinating thing about platform is how it is used around the world. moments thatg surface on the platform you have never thought about have not even occurred to you. emily: the number of users has quadrupled since you became ceo. it is one of the most mainstream

companies in the world. dick: we have never been scrutinized. emily: did you ever think you would be here when you were growing up in detroit. not at all. of,s very much, i was kind i just took life as it happened. most of my family was in the automobile industry. fourd's dad worked chrysler. i only applied to university of michigan. i didn't go look at schools. when people say, what happened if you were in going to university of michigan, that implies i had some sort of strategy. emily: luckily you got in. ack: my dad did get me

radioshack computer. i learned to program in basic. by the time i went to michigan, i did know i'm going to study commuter science. i didn't know what to do beyond that. emily: when you got to university michigan, you took theater classes. eight arts like credits. i thought, what is the thing i can take that will be the least amount of homework so i can focus on why operating systems class? i figured acting. i will show up and say some lines. coincidently, my first semester, senior year, i started doing standup at the student union. year, itond, senior was like, i am having a lot of fun with this. i decided, i am not going to take a view programming jobs i have been offered. i'm going to try to go to second and study at

city. emily: you worked with steve carell. rachel dressed became a friend of mine. emily: why did you stop? i didn't get any of the things i auditioned for. i decided, i had to figure out how to make money. emily: i imagine people screaming at you. i wonder if improv is good training for wall street? dick: when you are improvising, people are yelling at the stage. i did this show. about three minutes in, these drunk australians started yelling, you suck. emily: you went into consulting. is 1993.s i remember a domain for anderson consulting. went off and started one of

the first web design and development shops. sold that. started working on what ended up based -- wely group did not call it blogging. and then started and alerts platform. we sold that in 2000. a one-year restriction on the stock and sale. my birthday is september 10. days,a weird set of thinking, in two days, the stock lockup expires. we are going to have this financial situation i have never been in before which will be great for us. the next morning was 9/11. by the time 912 rolled around, the stock markets were closed. that made a profound impact on me. i thought on my birthday, that is it. is great.

i don't have to work again. and then the next day, everybody's world changed. the next week, i remember thinking, everything that is possibly true can be changed in an instant. i really mean it when i say, since then, i have had the attitude of, who cares? i know everything can change in an instant. emily: you went on to start feed burner. dick: we sold out to google. that is where i got reconnected ev williamsliams -- who i've been talking to. we have -- emily: a cofounder of twitter. how did he get you to come to twitter? 2009? dick: i had left google and was

going to start another company. i got a private message on twitter from him. he said, i'm going to take a paternity leave. would you be willing to sort of help out here for a bit while i am off? with operational stuff? i said, sure. after that conversation started, he said, what if it was more permanent? what if you became coo? i felt like those opportunities don't come along very often. emily: it felt like a rocket ship. it didn't have any revenue. i think there were 50 people when i joined. emily: mark zuckerberg described car that felllone

into a gold mine. what was it like for you getting into that car? [laughter] dick: just because mark zuckerberg distracted that way doesn't mean that is what it is. emily: how would you describe it? dick: a remarkable simple idea that became the broadcast platform for the world. the great insight we had was instead of having ads or stuff let's make the monetization engine part of what everyone is already doing. that turned out to be something that frankly lots of other companies including facebook have taken from us and used to great success. spun thathe way i around? they are the copier. [applause] [laughter]

emily: i do want to ask you one question. williams stepped out in 2010. you became ceo. what actually happened? [laughter] i am not going to go into all the details, palace intrigue stuff. there's a lot that has been written about it. some you read and think, that is interesting. i don't remember that person even being in the same city we were in. what it is. here we are. we work well together now. are on the boards rib they run successful companies in their own right. -- are on the board. they run successful companies in

their own right. emily: how often do you talk to them? nightwe have dinner every at zuni café. emily: good chicken. dick: i am walking around doing chickens for zuni chicken right now. we talk regularly. we are trying to figure out when we can get dinner next week. emily: do you feel like you have their support? dick: the short answer is yes. jack thinks about the product, he has insights that come at it from a different angle. really firms this grounding in the user. that has gotten him where he is. running his third successful company.

you doing tore improve the core experience for the user? ♪

emily: tales of great founders and ceos all are boiled down to legend. the problem is, people create this mythology about people. the reality is, everybody has one or two superpowers. flaws.n lots of emily: what is your superpower? dick: i am president inside the company. anybody me company will feel like they can talk to me. don't tell him that. we do a good job of getting at the truth. ask, where is

twitter going? nobody said that about facebook. isk: the challenge we have the distance between awareness of twitter and engagement. people say, i don't get why i would use it so i do not get what it is for. i feel it is the best way to do connect in real-time was having in your world. ,hings like live, in the moment this is an amazing thing i am watching right now. live broadcasting, live video. those are the future of the platform. i think that is the future of the platform. insertedere used to be about how they would make money. now it is pre-good at it. in 2009, 2010, 2011, there is no way you will ever make it. just a concern.

a yeah, but it can't make money. we did a good job proving that drawn. emily: now the concern is about user growth and product innovation. what are you doing to improve the core user experience? k: you no longer have to find 80-90 accounts to get a great twitter experience. we deliver you an instant timeline based on where you are, the things you have said you are interested in. we'd to make it that simple, when you come to the platform, you see those right away. there are committees that do messaging only or video only. what makes you think twitter can be all of these. dick: this happens to me. i will see something that has been publicly broadcast and we want to have a private conversation. about,ng i am excited super extraordinarily excited

about, it is so easy. it will open up all these remarkable avenues for people to feel like they are teleporting into a moment across the world. the longform possibilities are limitless. the short form possibilities. occupybout ferguson, central, the plane in the dson as now being a live broadcast. it will be extraordinary, super fun, and develop new medias for performers, shows, content. i think it will change the entire media landscape. emily: by some measures, instagram is bigger than to what her. why should wall street believe this is not a plateau -- bigger then twitter? why should wall street believe this is not a plateau? dick: we at the company believe

in twitter. emily: why is it hard to find the right product? dick: it is important for me to be thinking about whether this is the right team for the company right now. isell my managers, your job to improve your team, not defend your team. one of the reasons i am excited about the team we have right now is because i believe it is the best possible team for the company at the moment. have made all the hard choices we needed to make to put them together. emily: how long is it going to last? dick: you can't ever say, this manye exact team for this months or years. you have to be evaluating things constantly. what you can do is leave the pitcher into long -- cannot do

is leave the pitcher in too long. emily: how does not being a founder affect your ability to lead? ♪

guys ine mentioned the the front row at improv comedy saying, you suck. was: keeping in mind that three minutes into a one hour show. emily: in one of the most high profile and scrutinized jobs in the world, some people say -- dick: you suck, get off. emily: how do you deal with that when people say that? i got invited to something a couple of years ago. my daughter said, you should go. i said, i don't think i will because i got invited because of

what i am, not who i am. i have always tried to make sure, i have never paid too much attention to the ceo of the year. the worst seat ego of the year stuff is right around the world. i don't get worked up or care too much when people say those things. i have had to make myself care a little bit about them only after i started realizing, it could affect recruiting if people start thinking, i want to go to is not but what if dick there and everything changes? i need to start paying attention to that. say, that is not the case. emily: how does not being a founder affect your ability to lead? jack dorsey can sit here and you can ask, what were you first thinking about when you invented twitter.

you can be a non-founder ceo and have thoughtful opinions and even certainty about where something needs to be taken that is helpful to the company. vine, lovedaw it and it knew it right away, we were both, we have to do this. just onhe same way when my team talked about periscope. like, wey, we were have to make it part of the company. my daughter said, i have had news and good news. there is an article that says, you are one of the worst five ceos of 2014. the good news is, you are number five. i hope that is a lesson i have taught them about how not to get carried away. emily: i hope you will tell me about beekeeping.

dick: the cool thing about the time i spend most of my watching them. the way the hive works. what is going on. the crazy stuff that happens as the seasons change. the way they build and everything is fascinating. emily: you bring honey to the office. to some people. there is not an infinite supply. dick: what is next for dick costolo? when i grew up in detroit, i'm taking life as it comes to me. i am a big proponent of living in the moment and not getting caught up in the past or thinking too much about where i'm going to be two years from now? i do not think that is a good way to live. sometimes, like in the case of

ev, making a decision to do that , i think that is a good and fun way to live. i tried to teach my kids the same way. as thea good way to be ceo of twitter. dick: education, we are always thinking, we have to do this to get into the school. you are being trained to meet and exceed expectations. then you go out in the world and there are no expectations, just like. try to teach my kids, life is not always about meeting and exceeding expectations. fors about being present yourselves and your friends. those end up being great people. ed miliband -- emily: thanks for joining us. it is great to have you. ♪

emily: live from pier three in san francisco, welcome to "bloomberg west." here is a check of top headlines. exit polls in the u.k. show a hung parliament with conservatives just short of a majority. the party of prime minister david cameron is forecast to win the most seats. labour is projected to win 239 seats. the senate has passed legislation to let congress review a u.s. nuclear deal with iran. the vote was 98-1 and now moves to the house.