He came up with the idea that eventually became Twitter while studying at NYU. Dorsey enrolled at the University of Missouri–Rolla in 1995 and attended for two-plus years before transferring to New York University in 1997, but he dropped out two years later, one semester short of graduating. Some of the open-source software he created in the area of dispatch logistics is still used by taxicab companies. By age 14, Dorsey had become interested in dispatch routing.
In his younger days, Dorsey worked occasionally as a fashion model. He was raised Catholic, and his uncle is a Catholic priest in Cincinnati. His father worked for a company that developed mass spectrometers and his mother was a homemaker.
He is of part Italian descent on his mother's side. Louis, Missouri, the son of Tim and Marcia (née Smith) Dorsey.
