Christopher Isaac "Biz"Stone[1][2] (born March 10, 1974)[3] is an American entrepreneur who is a co-founder ofTwitter, among other tech companies. Stone was the creative director atXanga from 1999 to 2001.[4] Stone co-foundedJelly, 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 itsacquisition byPinterest in 2017.[5]
Stone started his career moving boxes atLittle, Brown and Company while at university in Boston. He was promoted as a book cover designer and left school to work full-time.[9][10]
From 1999 to 2001, Stone was creative director atXanga.[9][10]
He quit Xanga and got a job atWellesley College[9] for about a year before being invited to work for Google'sBlogger team.
From 2003 to 2005, Stone held a senior leadership role atGoogle.[11]
Stone co-founded the social networkTwitter in 2006 and left the company in 2011.[12]
Stone made hisdirectorial debut in 2012, working alongsideRon Howard andCanon USA to direct a short film, Evermore, as a part of Project Imaginat10n.[13] Stone is also an advisor to Zoic Studios, and an Executive Producer of the documentaryEating Animals along withNatalie Portman.[14]
In 2024, Stone joined the board of directors of social networkMastodon's US nonprofit entity.[17]
Aside from Twitter, Stone is anangel investor and advisor in the startup community having backed companies such asSquare,Slack,Medium,Nest,Beyond Meat,Pinterest,Intercom, and Faraday. Stone is a board director at Beyond Meat, Medium, Polaroid Swing, Workpop, and Jelly Industries. Stone is the Chairman of Polaroid Swing.[18]
In 2015, Stone's Twitter won anEmmy and Stone receivedCIPR's most prestigious accolade for leadership at the forefront of developing new forms of media.[22]
Stone lives inMarin County, California, with his wife Livia and his son Jacob.[35] He and his wife founded and operate the Biz and Livia Stone Foundation, which supports education and conservation in California.[36]
