Former Square Employees Rose Up Their Ranks To Become Start-up Founders And Entrepreneurs

Former workers of Square, now known as Block, have founded and run firms with a combined value of around $40 billion. Jack Dorsey, Square founder, and Keith Rabois, former COO, said that they were initially hiring people who aspired to build their own companies.

As Square expanded, the company implemented programs to teach employees how to be founders, and the startup’s top achievers partnered with external mentors to help them develop skills and learn more about establishing businesses.

Some claimed that Square provided a business model they might use as inspiration for their own enterprises. Others stated that they met their co-founders or early workers while working for the company.

Here are some of the ex-Square employees in their current endeavors:

Thomson Nguyen launched Nearside in 2019, which provided financial and software services to small-business owners before being acquired by Plastiq for $130mm in late 2022.

Tony Xu co-founded DoorDash in 2013 while in school, a food-delivery startup that went on to raise $2.5 billion in funding before going public in 2020.

Avlok Kohli founded Fastbite and was eventually recruited by AngelList as CEO

Mahima Chawla co-founded Cocoon, a startup that manages employee leave benefits by handling compliance and payroll.

There are many successful former employees that weren’t featured here. However, they acknowledged that the majority of them have carried over certain core values they gained from Square, particularly when it comes to how they handle consumers, their detail-oriented focus, and how they utilize tech to uplift businesses.