I can be heckled in real time anywhere around the world, says Twitter's Dick Costolo

Less than a week after announcing his resignation as chief executive officer of Twitter, Dick Costolo took to the stage at the Bloomberg Technology Conference in San Francisco to discuss his departure. Excerpts from an interview:

On when he realised he was done

You make it sound like I'm dead. I'm not done. I started talking to the board, a couple members of the board. About the end of last year, I said, "Look, at the end of next year, it will be my sixth year with the company. I came in as the COO. The board asked me to do this in the fall of 2010. And it's time. Let's start thinking about the succession plan."

On co-founder Jack Dorsey's return as CEO

He has this fluency about the way he thinks about the product and the way he thinks about its potential that's almost remarkable. And I have gotten to know him extremely well over the last five years. We have dinner every Tuesday night. I'm just delighted that he is stepping into this role, and I think he knows the leadership team.

What the next CEO of Twitter can learn from his tenure

One of the things you want to do when you're running a big company, trying to develop a cadence and move quickly, is make sure that you're learning as fast as you can and that you don't hold on to dogmas too long that get in the way of changing or learning. So hopefully I can be helpful in that regard.

On what he plans to do next

I really honestly have no plans, and I always advise people who are going through these kinds of transitions to take some time off. So I'm going to try to do as I say.

On whether he would ever return to stand-up comedy

I don't think it would be a smart move for me to return to stand-up comedy. Look, I get heckled for free now. Why go travel to Des Moines, and go to the Laugh Track, and get heckled by people there? The beauty of the platform is I don't have to go do that to get heckled anymore. I can be heckled in real time anywhere around the world.