Evan Williams and Biz Stone

Once rivals…, now tweeting friends

Year: 2006

Company: Twitter

Partnership: Evan Williams had been working at Blogger when it was sold to Google.  Under Google's new reign, Williams hired Stone. The pair was approached by Jack Dorsey, an Odeo engineer with an idea. This discussion developed into Twitter.

How it worked: Having both spent a decade in the blogging business, Stone and Williams are equally knowledgeable about the platform.  Williams realized Twitter's potential and entrusted Biz with the micro-blogging site as a side project.  Mutual respect, camaraderie and ambition have encouraged the two to stick together and tweet their business success.