Twitter's 51st Employee Reveals What Life Was Like In The Early Years At The Company

Claire Diaz-Ortiz, Twitter's head of social innovation, who famously live-tweeted her birth back in April, spoke to Lance Ulanoff at Mashable about her time at the social platform.

After eight years at the company Diaz-Ortiz resigned yesterday.

She started using Twitter in 2006, and joined the company in 2008 as an intern.

Here are some highlights from the interview:

• For many years Twitter did not distribute business cards to their employees. "It was like a thing," she says.
• Evan Williams would hold meetings wearing only socks on his feet.
• Biz "was a riot to work with. Non-stop laughs," says Diaz-Ortiz.
• One time Ev Williams brought his first child to the office during a Friday teatime. "Jason Goldman said he was jealous of the baby's Lululemon sweatpants. An engineer, I forget who, looked around at the motley crew and the empty beer bottles and the sagging couches and said to the baby, 'One day, all this will be yours.'"
• On the morning of their IPO, Twitter maintained their unflashy atmosphere. "There were cupcakes, and people in the office super early that day, but it was pretty low-key," she says.
• The biggest misconception about life at the company is that employees spend a lot of time debating how they can compete with Facebook.
• "There was a 'Senior Citizens' group at Twitter where early employees could swap old timer stories on Friday nights. "It got harder and harder to find someone to organize, because the early generation is moving on to other stuff. It happens," says Diaz-Ortiz.

Go read the whole thing at Mashable >