How to build a $65b company, with Twilio Co-Founder and CEO Jeff Lawson

Secret Leaders with Dan Murray-Serter

English - July 19, 2021 23:05 - 48 minutes - ★★★★★ - 20 ratings
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Previous Episode: Fighting P Diddy, managing Gwen Stefani & Nas, what Roger Moore said in Monaco, and turning the music industry on its head, with Steve Stoute, Founder and CEO of United Masters

Next Episode: The American fixing the race problem in UK venture capital - Eric Collins, star of Channel 4’s The Money Maker and CEO of Impact X

Today’s guest is at the helm of probably the biggest company we’ve ever had on Secret Leaders. Jeff Lawson is the Co-Founder and CEO of Twilio, a cloud communication platform that helps businesses use everything from text to video calls in their sites and apps.
Since its founding in 2008, Twilio has grown to 4,500 employees, annual revenue of $1.74 billion, and is valued at $65 billion. Yup, $65 billion. Woof.

All this despite investors not being interested at the beginning which forced Jeff and his team to make a decision.
“When choosing between listening to investors and customers, we're gonna choose customers. And we're gonna let customers guide our actions. And if that works, then investors will follow suit. And sure enough, they did.”
But how did Jeff actually do it? How do you build a company like Twilio?
We chat about:

Learning how to start companies

How big companies work

How to reinvent yourself if you want to stay CEO

How to have difficult conversations

IPOing on the day of the Brexit vote

Since its founding in 2008, Twilio has grown to 4,500 employees, annual revenue of $1.74 billion, and is valued at $65 billion. Yup, $65 billion. Woof.

All this despite investors not being interested at the beginning which forced Jeff and his team to make a decision.

“When choosing between listening to investors and customers, we're gonna choose customers. And we're gonna let customers guide our actions. And if that works, then investors will follow suit. And sure enough, they did.”

But how did Jeff actually do it? How do you build a company like Twilio?

We chat about:

Learning how to start companies
How big companies work
How to reinvent yourself if you want to stay CEO
How to have difficult conversations
IPOing on the day of the Brexit vote