Twilio’s Jeff Lawson: “Build or die”

The Times Tech Podcast

Will Morley

Business, Unknown, Technology

4.9 • 654 Ratings

🗓️ 22 October 2021

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent brings on Jeff Lawson, founder of Twilio, to talk about what the company does (3:15), starting out in 2008 (9:15), running an extreme sports retailer (11:40), tapping into the magic of software (16:00), why the Internet is just getting started (19:45), the Darwinian fight for survival (24:00), how Covid accelerated the digital shift (28:10), growing up in Detroit (31:40), creating a note-taking startup in university (35:45), riding the first dotcom wave (39:40), why he has stuck in San Francisco (42:10), the responsibility of companies (45:20), his very first business (51:25), his worst day of work (53:40), and the act of kindness he remembers (56:30).

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Yo, technology.
0:02.9	What is it all about?
0:04.4	We went from like, from nothing.
0:06.7	Like our company was worth nothing to worth like $25 million to worth $100 million to worth $1 million to worth $1 million to worth $1 million, all in the course of like 18 months.
0:15.6	It was a roller coaster.
0:17.3	And we were, you know, 20 years old, you know?
0:29.1	Yeah. coaster. And we were, you know, 20 years old, you know. Hello and welcome to Danny in the Valley. How are you all? I am on holiday this week,
0:35.8	but the pod, obviously, must go on.
0:38.9	And we have a very cool guest for you this week.
0:41.1	You're really going to like him.
0:42.1	He is Jeff Lawson.
0:45.5	He is the founder of Twilio.
0:48.1	And Twilio is one of those tech companies whose name you see around a lot, certainly out here.
0:52.8	But maybe you're not quite sure exactly what they do.
0:56.0	Okay, I'll speak to myself.
0:57.1	That was my view.
0:58.4	Now I know.
0:59.5	So Twilio is one of those classic picks and shovels type companies.
1:03.6	They offer cloud-based communications, automation services, too.
1:08.3	Companies big and small.
1:09.5	And so they basically make sure that, you know, the company you may have bought something
1:13.1	from, text you when your order is ready or has been shipped or your food's on the way
	...

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