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Jeff Lawson steps down as CEO of Twilio

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Re: Jeff Lawson steps down as CEO of Twilio

#141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm somewhat on top of the stock, here's my not financial advice take: 1. Growth rate slowed such that valuations had to come down (went from inevitable overtaking of Salesforce in size, to decades of growth required) 2. Environment -- Cashflow negative meaning another raise was required without fiscal controls and in a high interest environment that's really tough. A return to office end of covid anxiety meant the C…

> Environment -- Cashflow negative meaning another raise was required without fiscal controls The company was founded almost 20 years ago, and went public in 2016..and they are still needing to raise money? I mean, this isn't a capital intensive space, right? What's the deal?

They spent a ton of money buying other companies. That’s always capital intense.

Software isn’t capital intensive the way a large industrial factory would be, but it still has unfavorable financial conditions that require raising. You can’t sell software until you’ve built it, so you have to incur a large employee/R&D expense for years until the product is ready. And of course none of that is IP that you can just get a loan against (unlike say, building a factory).

Re: Jeff Lawson steps down as CEO of Twilio

#143
post #38

I worked at Twilio for nearly 10 years and it's hard to overstate what a gift it was to work there and see Jeff operate as CEO up-close. He created an environment where (at our best) we could have fun doing work that had a real impact, and we could it with people we enjoyed doing the work with. He pushed us to be creative to authentically empower and inspire developers. Wanna build a video game that teaches developer…

> Wanna build a video game that teaches developers how to code and use Twilio? Let's try it! Wanna build an AI application with Tony Hawk and have Tony Hawk debug the code live on stage? Sure!

These are the strange effects of ZIRP and infinite QE. Many companies never had to care at all about profit and could just do things "for fun", and still see valuations skyrocket as long as they hired more people. What a time.

Re: Jeff Lawson steps down as CEO of Twilio

#144
post #38

I worked at Twilio for nearly 10 years and it's hard to overstate what a gift it was to work there and see Jeff operate as CEO up-close. He created an environment where (at our best) we could have fun doing work that had a real impact, and we could it with people we enjoyed doing the work with. He pushed us to be creative to authentically empower and inspire developers. Wanna build a video game that teaches developer…

My question is what these activist investors think the fix is.

In my experience they’ll bring someone in to try to apply aggressive sales strategies to a dev tools company & it never goes well.

Re: Jeff Lawson steps down as CEO of Twilio

#145
post #112

I had the "pleasure" working for Twilio for over 4 years. I cannot tell how much this showed me how you can fake it til you make it in SF. Twilio tried to expand into Europe and failed miserably. Customers (especially German ones) wanted exact locations of data, exact routes of packet transportation, wanted features Twilio promised on Slides but never delivered. I was part of at least 4 customer meetings (the biggest…

One year into it you knew the company was going to fail yet you stayed on for 3 more years? What happened there?

Being an employee isn’t the same as being an investor. Some jobs are good even at bad companies.

Re: Jeff Lawson steps down as CEO of Twilio

#146
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not OP, but their approach to devrel was by itself a huge differentiator early on. We’ve become so accustomed to developer-oriented marketing and programs that it’s easy to forget that Twilio was really at the cutting edge of this movement and should be credited (or at least acknowledged) for the easy on-ramps most developer programs now provide. Twilio also pushed the envelope in terms of what it means to talk to th…

Hi. Greg here. :heart: Good job taking the steps to get help!

Congratulations, Greg! You've come a long way from Mr. Shadiow's CS class

Re: Jeff Lawson steps down as CEO of Twilio

#147
post #33
post #26

The new CEO: > Shipchandler has over 25 years of experience growing businesses and driving financial performance across global, public organizations. Prior to Twilio, Khozema spent over two decades at GE where he drove operating excellence in GE’s high tech aviation division, plus accelerated growth in the Middle East region. I wouldn't be too enthused about him running a software-focused company. His experience yell…

Yeah definitely not a good sign for Twilio - the tried and true playbook will now get executed once again. Fire a bunch of people, especially those that are most tenured and have the highest salaries. Raise prices each quarter to achieve revenue growth with the assumption that customers are more inelastic than suspected and won't leave. Doubtful that any smart acquisitions will occur, given that requires an actual un…

> Fire a bunch of people, especially those that are most tenured and have the highest salaries.

That's already done

Re: Jeff Lawson steps down as CEO of Twilio

#148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm somewhat on top of the stock, here's my not financial advice take: 1. Growth rate slowed such that valuations had to come down (went from inevitable overtaking of Salesforce in size, to decades of growth required) 2. Environment -- Cashflow negative meaning another raise was required without fiscal controls and in a high interest environment that's really tough. A return to office end of covid anxiety meant the C…

A few other things that could contribute to a slowing growth rate: 1. People build software differently now. There's not as much reliance on text messages (fewer phone apps build built, 2fa via phone is considered dangerous, etc) 2. Gig economy is stabilizing. There was a huge increase in new companies for years, but at this point it feels like we've stalled on new innovations in that space (while a lot of VC-subsidi…

Semi-related to your third point, I do not trust a text message from a company that does not use the shortened phone number system that was popularized by Twilio. It's the easiest way to detect phishing attempts because scammers don't use those.

Re: Jeff Lawson steps down as CEO of Twilio

#150
I met Jeff back in 2011 when I was considering moving to SF. Although I didn't end up at Twilio, I distinctly remember thinking I'd be happy to work for him. His original Twilio demos were a big part in convincing me to make the move to working at a proper startup.
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