Ev Williams: Co-founder of Twitter and Founder of Blogger and Medium

Ev Williams: Co-founder of Twitter and Founder of Blogger and Medium

Business Owner · Internet & Consumer Tech

San Francisco

Ev Williams grew up on a Nebraska farm, founded Blogger, co-founded Twitter and later created Medium and the venture firm Obvious Ventures.

About Ev Williams: Co-founder of Twitter and Founder of Blogger and Medium

Evan Clark Williams (born March 31, 1972) is an American internet entrepreneur, a co-founder of Twitter, its CEO from 2008 to 2010 and a member of its board from 2007 to 2019. He founded Blogger and Medium, and in 2014 co-founded the venture capital firm Obvious Ventures. As of May 2025 Forbes estimated his net worth at US$2 billion. Williams was born in Clarks, Nebraska, the third child of Laurie Howe and Monte Williams, and grew up on a farm, helping with crop irrigation in the summers. He attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for a year and a half, where he joined FarmHouse fraternity, then left to pursue his career. He took technology jobs and worked at start-ups in Key West, Florida, and in Dallas and Austin, Texas, before returning to the family farm. In 1996 he moved to Sebastopol, California, to work for the technology publisher O'Reilly Media, starting in marketing and later becoming an independent contractor writing code, which led to freelance work for companies such as Intel and Hewlett-Packard. While at O'Reilly he started a website, EvHead.com, where he first began blogging. He and Meg Hourihan then co-founded Pyra Labs, the company behind Blogger. Sources: English Wikipedia (Evan Williams (Internet entrepreneur), accessed September 2026).

Basic Information

Co-founder, Twitter; founder, Blogger and Medium; co-founder, Obvious Ventures

Company Details

Medium / Obvious Ventures

Blogging Platforms, Venture Capital