Podcast appearances and mentions of Jeff Lawson

Last year, after pressure from activist investors, Jeff Lawson stepped down from his perch as CEO from Twilio, the cloud communications company he co-founded. But he didn't spend any time twiddling his thumbs — that same spring, he bought the satirical news organization The Onion, and by the end of the year, they'd tried to buy Alex Jones' Infowars at a bankruptcy auction.  Jeff also stayed busy on the political front, continuing his work on DemocracyFirst, a political action committee he co-founded, in 2022, to support candidates committed to democracy.  So there was plenty to chew on when Kara interviewed Jeff last week at Democracy's Information Dilemma, a symposium hosted by the University of Michigan's Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. They discuss the tech founder mindset; how Jeff is remaking The Onion; why political satire is more necessary than ever; why DEI — which Jeff championed as a CEO — can sometimes do more harm than good; and how to fight for democracy during Trump 2.0. Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on Instagram, TikTok, and Bluesky @onwithkaraswisher. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode, David Betts, leader of Twilio's developer platform team, shares how Twilio leverages developer sentiment data to drive platform engineering initiatives, optimize Kubernetes adoption, and demonstrate ROI for leadership. David details Twilio's journey from traditional metrics to sentiment-driven insights, the innovative tools his teams have built to streamline CI/CD workflows, and the strategies they use to align platform investments with organizational goals.Mentions and links:Find David on LinkedInMeasuring developer productivity with the DX Core 4Ask Your Developer by Jeff Lawson, former CEO of TwilioDiscussion points:(0:00) Introduction(0:49) Twilio's developer platform team(2:03) Twilio's approach to release engineering and CD(4:10) How they use sentiment data and telemetry metrics(7:27) Comparing sentiment data and telemetry metrics(10:25) How to take action on sentiment data(13:16) What resonates with execs(15:44) Proving DX value: sentiment, efficiency, and ROI(19:15) Balancing quarterly and real-time developer feedback

En este episodio conversamos con Mat Jovanovic, Director de Estrategia de Cloud Corporativo en MAPFRE. Abordamos la importancia de la automatización en una empresa global como Mapfre, explorando cómo se transforman los procesos internos, se impulsa la colaboración entre equipos y se abordan los desafíos técnicos. Mat nos revela las estrategias para cambiar la cultura corporativa y cómo están utilizando la automatización no solo para reducir tiempos, sino también para generar valor de negocio.Este es el episodio 15 de la temporada 5.Tabla de Contenidos01:31 - Quién es Mat Jovanovic02:42 - ¿Por qué la automatización es crítica?04:50 - Cambiando la mentalidad interna06:06 - Primeros pasos: Automatizando la provisión en AWS09:34 - ROI y enfrentando la resistencia al cambio13:45 - Convenciendo a Seguridad: Cómo ganar su apoyo14:16 - Equipos multidisciplinares: La clave del éxito15:52 - Automatizando los CABs: Desbloqueando la agilidad19:00 - Estandarización de herramientas para desarrolladores20:08 - De Comunidades a Catálogos de Automatización21:15 - Desafíos globales: Gestionando stacks entre países23:35 - IA Playground: Un espacio para fallar y aprender25:48 - Mentalidad de ‘Fail Fast, Fail Cheap'25:51 - Lecciones aprendidas en proyectos de IA29:34 - Estandarizando IaC para acelerar el desarrollo32:47 - El trade-off de la estandarización34:32 - Platform Engineering: La nueva estrategia35:38 - Arquitectura base y servicios core de AWS38:57 - Buenas prácticas con Arquitecturas de Referencia39:34 - Priorización de funcionalidades en un entorno cambiante41:40 - Estrategias de control de costes en la nube46:07 - Evitando las ‘alucinaciones' en modelos de IA48:41 - Tendencias emergentes en automatización50:53 - Recomendaciones finales de MatEventos:- AWS Cloud Experience Day Lisboa: https://aws.amazon.com/pt/events/cloud-days/portugal/ - AWS re:Invent: https://reinvent.awsevents.com/Redes Sociales Invitado:- LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matejajovanovic/- Twitter: @MatJovanovic- Blog: matscloud.com Links mencionados en este episodio:- AWS re:Invent 2023 - Building serverless-first applications with MAPFRE [Spanish] https://youtu.be/hlVXZwknZNc?si=EPVtHx3zeflM7M7c - Canal de Marcia: https://www.youtube.com/@marcia_/videos- Jops de Mapfre: https://jobs.mapfre.com/- Ask Your Developer, Jeff Lawson: https://amzn.eu/d/0UCW2Vb- Phoenix Project, Gene Kim: https://amzn.eu/d/8Y49g4o- Unicorn Project, Gene Kim: https://amzn.eu/d/238n8xR- Wiring the Winning Organization, Gene Kim, Steven Spear: https://amzn.eu/d/6evSKob✉️ Si quieren escribirnos pueden hacerlo a este correo: podcast-aws-espanol@amazon.comPodes encontrar el podcast en este link: https://aws-espanol.buzzsprout.com/O en tu plataforma de podcast favoritaMás información y tutoriales en el canal de youtube de Charlas Técnicas☆☆ NUESTRAS REDES SOCIALES ☆☆

Ep 311- This week we are joined by comedian Jeff Lawson. After having two bombs dropped on him in the same day, one in the form of a lightning bolt, the other in the form of his wife's secret, Jeff began to change his life and take on new adventures. Prepare for some laughs, amazing … Continue reading "Ep 311- “Playing for My Life” with Jeff Lawson"

Jason Lemkin is one of the OG SaaS investors with all of his first five investments turning into unicorns with Pipedrive, Algolia, Talkdesk, Salesloft and RevenueCat all in his portfolio. SaaStr is the largest global community in SaaS and he has taught a generation the fundamentals of SaaS on saastr.com. In Our First Ever Episode of This Week in SaaS 1. PluralSight Goes to Zero: WTF happened to PluralSight? How did it go from $3.5BN to $0? Will this have a wider impact on the willingness of PE to buy tech companies? Who are the next contenders to go from hero to zero? Zendesk? Anaplan? Will this generation of PE funds be let off by their LPs for a poor vintage? 2. Salesforce's Worst Stock Market Drop Since 2004 + Mongo Takes a 23% Hit: Why did Salesforce lose $50BN of market cap in a single day? Is the same true for MongoDB taking a 23% hit in one day? What does it mean when the new normal is these once hyper-growth companies now growing only 6% per annum? 3. The Settlers into Slow Growth: Why does Jason believe that Dropbox and Box have both settled into a world of slow growth? What happens to Twilio from here in a world post Jeff Lawson? What happens to Retool from this point on? Would Jason be a buyer of Notion at $10BN? 4. Venture Capital is Broken: Why does Jason believe that we need to see a relation of public multiples for the math in venture capital to work again? Why does Jason believe that the way we mark portfolios with TVPI leads to corrupt and bad behaviour? How does Jason think we will solve the problem of liquidity with IPOs being shut, M&A being out of the window and now PE being a doubt as the source of buyers?

TikTok Ban, Intel's Struggles, Google's Ensh*ttification 'Thunder Run': Behind Lawmakers' Secretive Push to Pass the TikTok Bill A Chinese Firm Is America's Favorite Drone Maker. Except in Washington. The panel taks about AI With YouTube Booming, Podcast Creators Get Camera-Ready A new California bill would restrict line-skipping service 'Clear' at airports in the name of equity The Man Who Killed Google Search Google search boss Raghavan warns employees of 'new operating reality' Oracle is moving its world HQ to Nashville Google delays third-party cookie demise yet again Alphabet Leaps Into $2 Trillion Club as Results Show AI Strength U.S. chipmaker Intel was once dominant, now struggles to stay relevant Twilio Founder Jeff Lawson Has Some Serious Plans for The Onion Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Amy Webb and Kevin Rose Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: zscaler.com/zerotrustAI NetSuite.com/TWIT wix.com/studio mylio.com/TWIT25 canary.tools/twit - use code: TWIT

TikTok Ban, Intel's Struggles, Google's Ensh*ttification 'Thunder Run': Behind Lawmakers' Secretive Push to Pass the TikTok Bill A Chinese Firm Is America's Favorite Drone Maker. Except in Washington. The panel taks about AI With YouTube Booming, Podcast Creators Get Camera-Ready A new California bill would restrict line-skipping service 'Clear' at airports in the name of equity The Man Who Killed Google Search Google search boss Raghavan warns employees of 'new operating reality' Oracle is moving its world HQ to Nashville Google delays third-party cookie demise yet again Alphabet Leaps Into $2 Trillion Club as Results Show AI Strength U.S. chipmaker Intel was once dominant, now struggles to stay relevant Twilio Founder Jeff Lawson Has Some Serious Plans for The Onion Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Amy Webb and Kevin Rose Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: zscaler.com/zerotrustAI NetSuite.com/TWIT wix.com/studio mylio.com/TWIT25 canary.tools/twit - use code: TWIT

TikTok Ban, Intel's Struggles, Google's Ensh*ttification 'Thunder Run': Behind Lawmakers' Secretive Push to Pass the TikTok Bill A Chinese Firm Is America's Favorite Drone Maker. Except in Washington. The panel taks about AI With YouTube Booming, Podcast Creators Get Camera-Ready A new California bill would restrict line-skipping service 'Clear' at airports in the name of equity The Man Who Killed Google Search Google search boss Raghavan warns employees of 'new operating reality' Oracle is moving its world HQ to Nashville Google delays third-party cookie demise yet again Alphabet Leaps Into $2 Trillion Club as Results Show AI Strength U.S. chipmaker Intel was once dominant, now struggles to stay relevant Twilio Founder Jeff Lawson Has Some Serious Plans for The Onion Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Amy Webb and Kevin Rose Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: zscaler.com/zerotrustAI NetSuite.com/TWIT wix.com/studio mylio.com/TWIT25 canary.tools/twit - use code: TWIT

TikTok Ban, Intel's Struggles, Google's Ensh*ttification 'Thunder Run': Behind Lawmakers' Secretive Push to Pass the TikTok Bill A Chinese Firm Is America's Favorite Drone Maker. Except in Washington. The panel taks about AI With YouTube Booming, Podcast Creators Get Camera-Ready A new California bill would restrict line-skipping service 'Clear' at airports in the name of equity The Man Who Killed Google Search Google search boss Raghavan warns employees of 'new operating reality' Oracle is moving its world HQ to Nashville Google delays third-party cookie demise yet again Alphabet Leaps Into $2 Trillion Club as Results Show AI Strength U.S. chipmaker Intel was once dominant, now struggles to stay relevant Twilio Founder Jeff Lawson Has Some Serious Plans for The Onion Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Amy Webb and Kevin Rose Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: zscaler.com/zerotrustAI NetSuite.com/TWIT wix.com/studio mylio.com/TWIT25 canary.tools/twit - use code: TWIT

TikTok Ban, Intel's Struggles, Google's Ensh*ttification 'Thunder Run': Behind Lawmakers' Secretive Push to Pass the TikTok Bill A Chinese Firm Is America's Favorite Drone Maker. Except in Washington. The panel taks about AI With YouTube Booming, Podcast Creators Get Camera-Ready A new California bill would restrict line-skipping service 'Clear' at airports in the name of equity The Man Who Killed Google Search Google search boss Raghavan warns employees of 'new operating reality' Oracle is moving its world HQ to Nashville Google delays third-party cookie demise yet again Alphabet Leaps Into $2 Trillion Club as Results Show AI Strength U.S. chipmaker Intel was once dominant, now struggles to stay relevant Twilio Founder Jeff Lawson Has Some Serious Plans for The Onion Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Amy Webb and Kevin Rose Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: zscaler.com/zerotrustAI NetSuite.com/TWIT wix.com/studio mylio.com/TWIT25 canary.tools/twit - use code: TWIT

TikTok Ban, Intel's Struggles, Google's Ensh*ttification 'Thunder Run': Behind Lawmakers' Secretive Push to Pass the TikTok Bill A Chinese Firm Is America's Favorite Drone Maker. Except in Washington. The panel taks about AI With YouTube Booming, Podcast Creators Get Camera-Ready A new California bill would restrict line-skipping service 'Clear' at airports in the name of equity The Man Who Killed Google Search Google search boss Raghavan warns employees of 'new operating reality' Oracle is moving its world HQ to Nashville Google delays third-party cookie demise yet again Alphabet Leaps Into $2 Trillion Club as Results Show AI Strength U.S. chipmaker Intel was once dominant, now struggles to stay relevant Twilio Founder Jeff Lawson Has Some Serious Plans for The Onion Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Amy Webb and Kevin Rose Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: zscaler.com/zerotrustAI NetSuite.com/TWIT wix.com/studio mylio.com/TWIT25 canary.tools/twit - use code: TWIT

Elon Musk's AI startup xAI is close to securing a massive $6 billion investment that values the company at $18 billion. Key investors include Sequoia Capital, Future Ventures, Valor Equity Partners, and Gigafund. The funds will be used to further develop xAI's chatbot Grok, which aims to leverage data from Musk's companies like Tesla, SpaceX, and Neuralink to enhance its capabilities. This interconnected AI ecosystem could provide a competitive edge against rivals OpenAI and Anthropic as Musk seeks to create a networked system benefiting all his ventures.The U.S. government has formed a new Artificial Intelligence Safety and Security Board under the Department of Homeland Security. This 22-member board includes tech CEOs from OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Nvidia and representatives from major companies. Notably absent are social media giants Meta and Twitter. The board will advise on protecting critical infrastructure from potential AI disruptions and help stakeholders use AI responsibly, as emphasized by DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Its formation is part of the Biden administration's efforts to regulate AI.In the digital media space, Jeff Lawson, co-founder of Twilio, has acquired the satirical news outlet The Onion through his company Global Tetrahedron. Plans include shifting to a subscription model, enhancing social media presence, and reviving projects like The Onion News Network. The acquisition aims to preserve The Onion's editorial voice while potentially increasing writer compensation. Separately, the AI-powered startup Curio has developed an AI news anchor called Rio that provides personalized audio news briefings from trusted sources like The Wall Street Journal through an interactive chatbot interface. Rio is currently in early access with plans for a public launch later this year.From Perplexity's Discover feedMusk's xAI fundraising nears $6 billionhttps://www.perplexity.ai/search/Musks-xAI-fundraising-SHKPouRdTaSpgOqRpDgm0gAltman, Nadella join AI safety boardhttps://www.perplexity.ai/search/Altman-Nadella-join-B_0hHsNtSsusVFsmGoDJtQTwilio cofounder buys the Onionhttps://www.perplexity.ai/search/Twilio-cofounder-buys-.Y1DJm8TTL.wjpeh6BRAAQDesigning a quantum internethttps://www.perplexity.ai/search/Designing-a-quantum-VUPU7AuhTyOyUqCkEhCYMQCurio's AI news anchorhttps://www.perplexity.ai/search/Curios-AI-news-SCD1OvB6S2aO6JvkoEjt9QPerplexity is the fastest and most powerful way to search the web. Perplexity crawls the web and curates the most relevant and up-to-date sources (from academic papers to Reddit threads) to create the perfect response to any question or topic you're interested in. Take the world's knowledge with you anywhere. Available on iOS and Android Join our growing Discord community for the latest updates and exclusive content. Follow us on: Instagram Threads X (Twitter) YouTube Linkedin

Jeff Lawson just bought The Onion.This is one of my favorite episodes of their NPR podcast parody of Serial.https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/a-very-fatal-murder/episode-5-part-1-did-my-tJbSp9yP2wU/

On today's program,  Timothy Zue, chief financial officer, for the Boston Red Sox talks about the business of baseball. Doug Banks, executive editor of the Boston business Journal talks about the New England revolution possibly building a stadium in Everett, Massachusetts. Jeff Lawson, the Director of hello Burlington, Vermont talks about the business impacts from Monday's solar eclipse. Anthony Lamacchia of Lamacchia Realty talks about the impact of rising interest rates on the real estate market. Stephen Hanjack of the Massachusetts, golf Association joins us to discuss the business of golf as we move into spring. Jon Chesto, business reporter with The Boston Globe closes out the program talking about the health of downtown Boston.

Jason Lemkin created and runs SaaStr, the world's largest community for B2B/SaaS founders, and is the managing director of SaaStr Fund, a $90 million venture capital firm specializing in early-stage enterprise investments. He is also the mastermind behind two major tech conferences each year—one in the Bay Area, drawing in over 15,000 people, and another in Europe, with a crowd of more than 3,000 SaaS executives, founders, and entrepreneurs. Before SaaStr, Jason wore many hats: CEO and co-founder of EchoSign (later bought by Adobe), vice president at Adobe Systems, co-founder and president of NanoGram Devices Corp., vice president of NeoPhotonics, and a senior director at BabyCenter. In our conversation, we discuss:• How far you should go without a salesperson• Signs it's time to hire salespeople• Why you need to hire two salespeople• How to compensate your salespeople• How to interview salespeople• When to hire a VP of Sales• How to prevent their flaming out• How to scale your sales org• How to improve the relationship between your sales and product teams• Much more—Brought to you by:• CommandBar—AI-powered user assistance for modern products and impatient users• Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security.• LinkedIn Ads—Reach professionals and drive results for your business—Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/building-a-world-class-sales-org-jason-lemkin-saastr/—Where to find Jason Lemkin:• X: https://twitter.com/jasonlk• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonmlemkin/• Website: https://www.saastr.com/—Where to find Lenny:• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/—In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Jason's background(06:18) The importance of sales in B2B businesses(11:23) Signs that you should start hiring salespeople(14:19) Attributes to look for in early sales reps(19:08) Hiring a VP of Sales(26:43) The role of a VP of Sales(30:06) Interviewing salespeople(45:16) Determining sales compensation and quota(53:34) Transitioning from 100% commission to a smaller percentage(56:58) Indicators of a hard-to-sell product(59:39) Scaling the sales organization(01:05:26) Understanding sales roles and titles(01:10:02) Product involvement in sales, and vice versa(01:20:32) Thoughts on product teams taking on P&L responsibilities(01:27:23) One thing founders can do to become better at sales(01:31:02) The ideal trial length for a free trial sales team(01:39:50) Closing thoughts(01:41:43) Lightning round—Referenced:• Marc Benioff on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcbenioff/• Snowflake: https://www.snowflake.com/en/• Yamini Rangan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yaminirangan/• Salesforce: https://www.salesforce.com/• HubSpot: https://www.hubspot.com/• Twilio: https://www.twilio.com/• Cloudflare: https://www.cloudflare.com/• GitHub: https://github.com/• Columbo: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1466074/• What is Davos and why is it important? Your guide to the World Economic Forum's annual meeting: https://www.euronews.com/next/2024/01/15/what-is-davos-and-why-is-it-important-your-guide-to-the-world-economic-forums-annual-meeti• Adobe: https://www.adobe.com/• Satya Nadella on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/satyanadella/• Glengarry Glen Ross on Prime Video: https://www.amazon.com/Glengarry-Glen-Ross-James-Foley/dp/B002NN5F7A• The Wolf of Wall Street on Prime Video: https://www.amazon.com/Wolf-Wall-Street-Leonardo-DiCaprio/dp/B00IIU9FQY• A step-by-step guide to crafting a sales pitch that wins | April Dunford (author of Obviously Awesome and Sales Pitch): https://www.lennyspodcast.com/a-step-by-step-guide-to-crafting-a-sales-pitch-that-wins-april-dunford-author-of-obviously-awesom/• Pipedrive: https://www.pipedrive.com/• Sam Blond on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-blond-791026b/• Gong: https://www.gong.io/• Zendesk: https://www.zendesk.com/• ZoomInfo: https://www.zoominfo.com/• Apollo: https://www.apollo.io/• Daniel Chait on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dhchait/• SAP: https://www.sap.com/• Lessons on building product sense, navigating AI, optimizing the first mile, and making it through the messy middle | Scott Belsky (Adobe, Behance): https://www.lennyspodcast.com/lessons-on-building-product-sense-navigating-ai-optimizing-the-first-mile-and-making-it-through-t/• VistaPrint: https://www.vistaprint.com/• Procore: https://www.procore.com/• Matt Mullenweg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattm/• Wordpress: https://wordpress.com/• SaaStr University: https://app.saastruniversity.com/collections/20252• From Impossible to Inevitable: How SaaS and Other Hyper-Growth Companies Create Predictable Revenue: https://www.amazon.com/Impossible-Inevitable-Hyper-Growth-Companies-Predictable/dp/1119531691• Pavilion: https://www.joinpavilion.com/• Top 10 Learnings about Free Trials with Tomasz Tunguz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfQNJpnxmMw• The Terminal List on Prime Video: https://www.amazon.com/The-Terminal-List-Season-1/dp/B09HYNH8TK• Top Gun: Maverick on Paramount: https://www.paramountmovies.com/movies/top-gun-maverick• OpusClip app: https://www.opus.pro/• OnePlus Open smartphone: https://www.amazon.com/OnePlus-Dual-SIM-Unlocked-Smartphone-Hasselblad/dp/B0CHN7M531/• SaaStr conferences: https://www.saastr.com/events/• Marketo: https://go.marketo.com/about-marketo-landingpage-emea.html• Zoomtopia: https://zoomtopia.com/• Money20/20: https://us.money2020.com/• Shoptalk: https://shoptalk.com/• Jeff Lawson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffiel/• Eric Kwan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erickwan/—Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.—Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. Get full access to Lenny's Newsletter at www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe

This is a recap of the top 10 posts on Hacker News on January 8th, 2023.This podcast was generated by wondercraft.ai(00:41): PolarsOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38920043&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(02:25): Dive: A tool for exploring a Docker image, layer contents and moreOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38913425&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(03:59): Jeff Lawson steps down as CEO of TwilioOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38912497&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(05:59): United finds loose bolts on plug doors during 737 Max 9 inspectionsOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38917820&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(08:02): Elixir is now a gradually typed languageOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38914407&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(09:51): What PWA Can Do TodayOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38911791&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(11:14): Apple Vision Pro available in the U.S. on February 2Original post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38912032&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(13:05): 95% of container ships are now going around the Southern Tip of AfricaOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38912974&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(14:56): The phrase "no evidence" is a red flag for bad science communication (2021)Original post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38909735&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(16:51): The curious case of the Raspberry Pi in the network closet (2019)Original post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38917175&utm_source=wondercraft_aiThis is a third-party project, independent from HN and YC. Text and audio generated using AI, by wondercraft.ai. Create your own studio quality podcast with text as the only input in seconds at app.wondercraft.ai. Issues or feedback? We'd love to hear from you: team@wondercraft.ai

In today's episode of Category Visionaries we speak with Davit Baghdasaryan, CEO and Co-Founder of Krisp, a voice productivity platform that's raised $19 Million in funding. Topics Discussed: Davit's background as a software and security engineer and as an Armenian immigrant pursuing the American Dream in Silicon Valley Why entrepreneurs Jeff Lawson and Aaron Levy are inspirations for Davit, and why his all-time favorite book is an Australian novel How Krisp started as a noise-reduction tech company and expanded to other voice-related products Reaching product-market fit, and why Covid was a timely factor for Krisp The one thing Davit would have done differently, and the pros and cons of creating a new product category   Favorite book:  Shantaram

In this week's episode of the ArtTactic Podcast, we speak with Jeff Lawson, founder of Untitled Art, ahead of their annual Miami fair. First, Jeff tells us about when he established Untitled Art and shares how much the Miami art scene has changed since then. After, he discusses how Untitled fits into the Miami art fair ecosystem. Also, Jeff speculates why there has been a surge of interest in emerging artists over the last few years. Additionally, he reveals how the fair's exhibitors are feeling heading into the final test of the art market in 2023. Jeff also responds to NADA Miami changing the starting date of their fair this year to the same day as Untitled. Lastly, he previews this year's iteration of Untitled.

Jeff Lawson is the cofounder and CEO of Twilio, a $10 billion public software communications company.Jeff has an incredible founder story. Prior to Twilio, he co-founded Versity, which he sold for $30 million when he was just 23 years old. He was also the founding CTO of Stubhub and one of the first product managers at AWS. He founded Twilio in 2008. In this episode, Jeff shares his insights into the API economy, scaling successful businesses, and the future of the SaaS business model. Jeff and Auren reflect on the evolution of SaaS and discuss which areas still have yet to be disrupted. Jeff dives into Twilio's fascinating journey, including his takes on raising money in a challenging environment and pitching new technology to investors. He provides a firsthand account of Twilio's journey from startup to billion dollar public company, including how they built a top tier sales organization. He and Auren also discuss API business models, the challenges of M&A, and breaking down internal silos that hold companies back. World of DaaS is brought to you by SafeGraph & Flex Capital. For more episodes, visit safegraph.com/podcasts.You can find Auren Hoffman on X at @auren and Jeff Lawson on X at @jeffiel. 

Hello and welcome to episode 401 with Jeff Lawson, theologian and elder at Faith Sarasota. This talk covered a range of life messages, and was an in-person one that went into a few topics of understanding and growth. Jeff’s passion is to utilize his gifts that facilitate an atmosphere that seeks to promote the goal […]

I've known the duo of Plastic Angels (Bethany and Jeff Lawson) for years and when I heard they moved to Nashville, a catch-up interview was always on my mind. Well, here we are! Bethany and Jeff talk about what prompted the move and those early days, especially as COVID set in. We look how things were in Nashville during the pandemic and the work to keep the legendary music scene on track. Compared to where I live in Massachusetts, it's a very different experience.   Everyone knows Nashville is a haven for the best of the best of the music world and I hear about the big names they've encountered in the most random situations (one story involves onion rings). We look at the influence of being among such greats and if it's had an impact on who they are and what they do.   Since Plastic Angels became Nashville residents they've been very active, both on stage and off. I ask about live shows and some of their favorite places—trust me, it's a nearly endless list of options. We hear about the recent releases, “I Want Me” and “Living Proof” and the stories behind them plus their plans for the future.   Wrapping things up is “I Want Me,” a truly powerful song. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get my bags packed, ‘cause Nashville is calling.

Today's conversation is all about ship building in a sense. Running a destination organization is tough, managing one in a pandemic is tougher but what about trying to actually be creating a brand-new destination organization through a once in a century event? (We hope)  Today's guest is all about what it's like to launch a ship in the roughest of waters and somehow steer it through to the other side in hopes of finding prosperity and vitality for one's community.  Please welcome to the show, Jeff Lawson, VP tourism of Lake Champlain Chamber AKA Hello Burlington, VT. Hello Burlington, VT Destinations International The Architects of Destination Advocacy Podcast is a part of the Destination Marketing Podcast Network. It is hosted by Andreas Weissenborn and produced by Relic. To learn more about the Destination Marketing Podcast Network and to listen to our other shows, please visit https://thedmpn.com/. If you are interested in becoming a part of the network, please email adam@relicagency.com.

When Jeff Lawson co-founded Twilio in 2008, he had already been through a series of start-ups. Some succeeded, others fizzled out—but each provided insights that led him to build one of the most extensive communication platforms in business. Fueled by his frustration juggling customer calls while trying to run a surf and skate store in LA, Lawson realized he could use his coding skills and knowledge of cloud computing to help companies connect with customers. Twilio's early communications technology quickly gained traction with developers at other start-ups like Uber, which used it to text riders that their car had arrived. Despite early skepticism from investors, Twilio eventually grew into a $4 billion business, with customers like Nike, Toyota, OpenAI, and Airbnb. This episode was produced by Kira Wakeam, with music by Ramtin ArabloueiEdited by Neva Grant, with research help from Sam Paulson.You can follow HIBT on Twitter & Instagram, and email us at hibt@id.wondery.com.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

As product lead, Russ Nealis has been focused on introducing the discipline of product management in the Developer Foundations organization. This episode discusses the reasons why PMs are currently uncommon in platform organizations, examples of when having a PM has been helpful, and more. Discussion points: (1:23) Russ's role at Plaid  (2:49) Why platform product managers are uncommon (3:28) Backgrounds to look for when hiring a platform PM (4:58) Deciding whether to hire a platform PM (6:20) Signs that bringing in a Product Manager would be beneficial (9:16) How Russ personally became a platform PM (12:15) Whether a platform PM is a career path  (14:55) Articulating the business impact a platform PM has (18:56) Challenges Plaid's platform team has faced without a PM   (19:19) Symptoms of a need for product management in an internal-facing team (30:15) Whether Twilio had platform PMs   (31:22) Example projects where PMs have been crucial (34:12) How the book “Ask Your Developer” influenced Twilio's engineering culture  (36:13) Getting started with introducing a product management discipline to an organization  (38:33) Org structure and where platform PMs may report  (40:00) Career ladder for platform PM when reporting to engineering leadership (41:20) Being product-led or technology-led (43:14) How technical skills may help when in a platform PM role ‍Mentions and links: Follow Russ on LinkedIn Episode 7 with Will Larson - related to why it's difficult to find Platform PMsEpisode 27 with Jean-Michel Lemieux - related to the percentage of investment that should be put towards platform investments The Build Trap by Melissa PerriAsk Your Developer by Jeff Lawson

Brought to you by Public—Invest in stocks, treasuries, crypto, and more | Eppo—Run reliable, impactful experiments | Writer—Generative AI for the enterprise—Laura Schaffer is the brand-new VP of Growth at Amplitude. Prior to this role, she spent over 10 years leading product management and growth teams at Twilio, Bandwidth, and Rapid. In today's episode, we talk about the role of experimentation and data in growth, and Laura shares stories of big wins from her time leading growth teams. She explains how customer insights helped her uplevel her career and how she (surprisingly) thinks about qualitative versus quantitative data. We wrap up our conversation by discussing where the best ideas come from and what you need to know if you're selling to developers.Find the full transcript here: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/career-frameworks-ab-testing-mistakes-counterintuitive-onboarding-tips-selling-to-developers-laura-schaffer-vp-of-growth-at-amplitude/#transcriptWhere to find Laura Schaffer:• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauraschaffer/Where to find Lenny:• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/Referenced:• Elena Verna on Lenny's Podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/elena-verna-on-how-b2b-growth-is-changing-product-led-growth-product-led-sales-why-you-should-go-freemium-not-trial-what-features-to-make-free-and-much-more/• Bandwidth: https://www.bandwidth.com/• Twilio: https://ahoy.twilio.com/• Jeff Lawson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffiel/• The Surprising Power of Online Experiments: https://hbr.org/2017/09/the-surprising-power-of-online-experiments• Reforge: https://www.reforge.com/• Online Experimentation at Microsoft: https://ai.stanford.edu/~ronnyk/ExPThinkWeek2009Public.pdf• The Simple Path to Wealth: Your Road Map to Financial Independence and a Rich, Free Life: https://www.amazon.com/Simple-Path-Wealth-financial-independence/dp/1533667926• Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones: https://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Habits-Proven-Build-Break/dp/0735211299/• James Clear on The Tim Ferriss Show: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/648-james-clear-atomic-habits-simple-strategies-for/id863897795?i=1000592431628• The Great British Baking Show on PBS: https://www.pbs.org/food/shows/great-british-baking-show/• Hotjar: https://www.hotjar.com/• Amplitude: https://amplitude.com/• Builder: https://www.builder.io/• ChatGPT: https://chat.openai.com/• Lenny Bot: https://www.lennybot.com/• Segment: https://segment.com/• Senior Growth PM, Monetization, at Amplitude: https://boards.greenhouse.io/amplitude/jobs/6636704002• Lead Growth PM at Builder: https://boards.greenhouse.io/builder/jobs/4814755004?gh_src=30cfda2d4us• Growth PM at Rapid: https://jobs.lever.co/rapidapi/8d2611d1-6463-4919-9817-31f61e730831In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Laura's background(04:15) How to carve your own career path, and an example from Bandwidth(05:50) Laura's career growth framework(10:18) The value of customer insights(12:25) The “voice of the customer” report(16:14) Leaning into your strengths(18:16) The experiment that shifted the way Laura thinks about friction(20:20) Questions that improved Twilio's onboarding and conversion rate(28:53) Thinking about the psyche of your users(31:26) The hot dog analogy for burying “scary stuff”(33:58) Why it's better to be iterative and why experiments fail(36:21) Saving money by validating fast(41:58) Where the best ideas come from(49:51) Experimentation lessons(52:54) The amount of time a growth team needs to be successful (54:43) The big change at Twilio that led to tens of millions of dollars(58:41) The need for both PLG and enterprise, and how Amplitude plans to tap into PLG(1:05:42) What it's like to serve developers(1:11:16) Lightning roundProduction and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com. Get full access to Lenny's Newsletter at www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe

Our anchors begin today's show with CNBC's Steve Liesman reporting on New York Fed data showing an increase in household debt, and CNBC's Kristina Partsinevelos covers a few companies that could become profitable sooner than expected. Then, Twilio Co-Founder and CEO Jeff Lawson breaks down the enterprise software firm's earnings sending shares higher, and our Julia Boorstin looks at quarterly results from Roku and Paramount. Next, Synopsys CEO Aart de Geus breaks down the chip designer's latest earnings and shares his outlook for the broader semiconductor space. Later, Toast CEO Chris Comparato joins after the restaurant fintech company posted a beat in Q4, and our Jon Fortt shares highlights from his Fortt Knox update with NerdWallet CEO Tim Chen.

The 2022 Season Finale of TalkingHeadz features Jeff Lawson, CEO and co-Founder of Twilio.  Jeff is always clear, articulate, and friendly. I'm proud to say Twilio was born during my shift as a telecom analyst, and it's been exciting to watch it grow and transform. Jeff presented to analysts before the recent Twilio Signal Conference. He claimed that Twilio is always ahead of the industry. That's a bold (fighting words) statement, but he backed it up with a common sense observation. Twilio's customers create solutions that, in general, can't be purchased (yet). Lawson and Twilio more or less created the CPaaS category, an enterprise comms sector that is becoming a little crowded. That's probably one of Twilio's motivations to go broader and become a customer data platform (CDP) provider. CDP may seem totally unrelated to CPaaS, thus many perceive the change as a pivot. While there's some truth to that, Jeffs sees it as more of a logical extension. A lot of the CPaaS use cases support marketing, but they tend to be transactional rather than strategic. Twilio wants to better activate the information on customers that enterprises have, and the first step is to create a consolidated view.  Regardless of how you spin it, this public, multi-billion dollar company is once again a startup that's defining (or converging) a new category. Check out this interview to get a better idea of what is on Jeff's mind. 

Apprendre à bien gérer son énergie est fondamental pour être productif au quotidien. Car sans énergie, il est impossible de rester concentré sur des tâches complexes ou d'accomplir un quelconque projet. C'est pourquoi il faut prêter une attention particulière à son sommeil, au fait d'avoir un mode de vie saint (et actif), et aussi à ce que l'on mange (la nutrition). Concernant la nutrition, il existe une technique peu connue qui a de nombreux bénéfices sur la santé et qui permet d'avoir plus d'énergie: le jeûne intermittent. Bien plus qu'une simple diète, c'est une pratique qui consiste à limiter les périodes d'alimentation dans une journée et à prendre intentionnellement des moments de jeûne pour laisser le temps à son organisme de bien digérer les aliments. Dans cet épisode de podcast, je reçois Pénélope Villeneuve, une naturopathe spécialisée sur le sujet. Et elle nous explique :C'est quoi le jeûne intermittent (définition)?Quels sont les bénéfices de cette pratique sur la santé, la productivité et le niveau d'énergiePourquoi devrait-on pratiquer le jeûne intermittent au quotidien Comment intégrer le jeûne intermittent à notre mode de vieDécouvrez cette stratégie inédite pour avoir plus d'énergie! Bonne écoute. --LIENS ET RESSOURCES MENTIONNÉES :► Le site web de Pénélope Villeneuve► Ma formation gratuite « Gestion du temps 101 »► Épisode 18 sur la nutrition avec Jeff Lawson ► Épisode 29 sur le sommeil avec Jérémy Coron ► Article sur les bénéfices du jeûne intermittent► Article sur les impacts du jeûne intermittent sur la productivité ► L'application FASTING - Tracker de jeûne (Android)► L'application FASTING - Tracker de jeûne (Apple) Des questions ou commentaires en lien avec cet épisode?

Twilio (NYSE: TWLO) wants to become the world's leading customer engagement platform. Its cloud-based communications software was initially created to help businesses to embed SMS/text messaging within their Smartphone apps to communicate with customers. Businesses like Lyft (Nasdaq: LYFT), Airbnb (Nasdaq: ABNB), and eBay(Nasdaq: EBAY) -- who were constantly interacting with customers via texts -- were eager to embrace them. Today, Twilio serves more than 280,000 paying customers. Yet the beloved communications platform-as-a-service provider has been having a terrible year. Revenues are slowing due to a challenging macro environment, losses are mounting due to heavy operating expenses from previous acquisitions, and its go-to-market strategy is struggling as it attempts to win deals with larger enterprises. Thus far in 2022, Twilio's stock has now fallen by 85%. Its co-founder and CEO Jeff Lawson has recognized many of the problems and announced a corporate restructuring, which recently included laying off 11% of its workforce. Is this the beginning of the end for Twilio, where there will be even more pain ahead for investors? Or will Twilio succeed in its turnaround plans, meaning its inexpensive stock is actually a huge opportunity? In this episode of the 7investing podcast, lead advisors Anirban Mahanti, Luke Hallard, and Simon Erickson check in on Twilio. The three provide an overview of Twilio's business model, discuss where it derives its profit margins, and objectively look at the challenges it faces. They also describe Twilio's four strategic priorities and its likelihood of succeeding at them. And in the final segment, each advisor provides a "Twilio score", to quantify how bullish or bearish they are about investing in the company during the next year. This conversation was originally recorded live on November 8, 2022. Publicly-traded companies mentioned in this podcast include Salesforce and Twilio. 7investing's advisors and/or its guests may have positions in the companies that are mentioned. Welcome to 7investing. We are here to empower you to invest in your future! We publish our 7 best ideas in the stock market to our subscribers for just $49 per month or $399 per year. Start your journey toward's financial independence: https://www.7investing.com/subscribe Stop by our website to level-up your investing education: https://www.7investing.com Join the 7investing Community Forum: https://discord.gg/6YvazDf9sw Follow us: ► https://www.facebook.com/7investing ► https://twitter.com/7investing ► https://instagram.com/7investing --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/7investing/message

Our anchors begin today's show with Wolfe Research Managing Director Darrin Peller breaking down earnings from fintech names Square and PayPal, and Twilio Co-Founder and CEO Jeff Lawson takes a deep dive into the enterprise software firm's latest results and guidance. Next, Expedia Group CEO Peter Kern discusses the travel platform beating the Street in Q3, and we continue our earnings coverage with Microchip Technology CEO Ganesh Moorthy. Later, our Julia Boorstin looks at shares of Warner Brothers Discovery plunging after missing on revenue for the quarter, and CNBC's Becky Quick recaps key headlines from Tesla CEO Elon Musk's appearance at the Baron Investment Conference in New York City.

In this episode of Making Markets, Jeff Lawson, CEO and co-founder of Twilio, talks with host Daniel Newman about the company's Signal conference in San Francisco, what the future of customer engagement looks like, how to make customer experiences more personal and targeted, and his outlook on the current macroeconomic environment. Disclaimer: The Making Markets podcast is for information and entertainment purposes only. Over the course of this podcast, we may talk about companies that are publicly traded and we may even reference that fact and their equity share price, but please do not take anything that we say as a recommendation about what you should do with your investment dollars. We are not investment advisors and we do not ask that you treat us as such.

Pour être productif, il y a 3 ressources fondamentales qui doivent être présentes au rendez-vous : le temps, la concentration et l'énergie. Dès que l'une de ces variables est absente, impossible d'accomplir son travail. Dans ce podcast, j'adresse spécifiquement la problématique du manque d'énergie pour accomplir une tâche.Ce genre de situation désagréable nous est tous déjà arrivé : on a beaucoup de choses à accomplir dans une journée et on sait précisément ce qu'on doit faire; mais on n'a pas l'énergie pour le faire!Comment donc gérer cette situation et réussir à être productif malgré tout? Je vous propose 5 astuces pratiques dans cet épisode!   -- LIENS ET RESSOURCES MENTIONNÉES : Participe à mon webinaire gratuit sur la gestion du temps et des priorités Inscris-toi à ma formation « Maitriser et optimiser son temps » Épisode 46: Les 3 ressources fondamentales pour être productif Épisode 18 sur la bonne nutrition avec Jeff Lawson Épisode 29 sur le sommeil avec Jérémy Coron Article : Quoi faire quand on manque d'énergie RETROUVEZ-MOI SUR : ► Mon site web ► Ma newsletter « Productif au quotidien » ► Mon compte Instagram ► Ma page Facebook ► Mon profil LinkedIn ► Ma chaîne YouTube ► Mon compte Pinterest 

Read the article and watch the full interview: https://dx.tips/plaid-hockey-tips---SaaS API founders should not miss this week's Cartoon Avatars interview with William Hockey, former Plaid cofounder/CTO and now founder of Column.He does not do interviews often and rarely do you get this level of insight into a $13 billion, fintech category-defining behemoth. What follows is a TL;DR for those who, well, TL;DW.The $12 Billion UI Decision - Owning the UIMany SaaS API providers take pride in being "behind the scenes", or being "whitelabel" to appeal to as many enterprise customers as possible. Jeff Lawson often proudly talks about how many people use Twilio without realizing it.TLDR: Hockey bet the company on going against that received wisdom - forcing 100% of his customers to migrate to a Plaid hosted UI with Plaid's logo and branding - over a period of 2 years, with a lot of pushback.He estimates this decision alone was worth 90% of the company value today (!)From the 22-26 minute mark:I think the most successful decision we made was actually owning the interface - the physical design and owning the client side...When we first started, we were this transparent infrastructure provider and so the consumer had no idea who we were......and so what happened is you didn't know, as a consumer, that Plaid existed in that flow. We realized that this was kind of problematic because, as a consumer, you were not getting the same experience hooking up your bank account to Venmo as you were when you hooked up your account to Square Cash, or Chime or, Coinbase..and that had a lot of security issues but also had conversion issues because every application thought that their design was best or whatnot...so what we decided to do is we made them display a Plaid designed UI to the consumer...We made the application insert our branding, our logo and our experience into the application. That was extraordinarily controversial, as you can imagine, because these applications want to control the experience.One way to view this move is concluding "Plaid customers were so bad at their jobs of optimizing UI that just providing the APIs wasn't enough."The motivations were two fold: self protection (Plaid oriented) and conversion optimization (customer oriented):We needed to establish some level of relationship with the consumer and provide uniformity across these applications because we were the only one focused this hard on conversion.It actually started converting a lot better... the consumer actually started to feel comfortable, like hey I know this screen, I've seen this before, and it also allowed us to do a lot of micro optimizations around messaging certain banks and just allowed us to kind of have a platform that we could actually deliver content and software directly to the consumer...Where my eyes really popped is how far they took this - forcing ALL their users to adopt this flow - near impossible for most API companies to do especially if customers threaten to leave over this decision.Now 100% of traffic flows this way and it's actually one of the only reasons that we have good relationships with the banks because those sensitive data never actually hits the application anymore and we can also if a bank wants to make you accept some terms of service or something like that, we can deploy that instantly... and so it allows us instant flexibility.but it was a very very challenging rollout - it took almost 18 to 24 months, there was a lot of pushback to it - but i think if we didn't do that, A) consumers wouldn't have as good of an experience, B) we also would have got commoditized and it would have been really easy for these applications to switch it out. It would just been a worse experience for everybodyBut in the end, it was worth it:I think that (decision) probably generated like 90% of our market cap today.You can try the full UX of the $12 Billion UI right here: plaid.com/demo without connecting a bank account.You can see Stripe, a Plaid competitor that stayed relatively behind the scenes, increasingly start to own the experience with Billing in 2018, Checkout in 2020, and lots more I am unaware of. In fact, Stripe Checkout's marketing sounds eerily similar to what Hockey just said for Plaid:You get the benefit of all this and everything that's to come: even faster load times, additional payment methods we add, compliance with future payments regulations, and every optimization we make to maximize conversion—all without major code changes on your end.Alvar Lagerlof also reports that Swedish fintech Klarna also inserts a branded UI:This is a product direction you can expect more SaaS APIs taking going forward as they seek both to build their own customer relationships and to serve their B2B customers better (by doing their jobs better than they can).Sidenote: Founder Intuition Over DataWhat is perhaps most interesting is that this decision was made without data - Hockey felt like he would not have had support from consumers, banks, or employees - which is why these kind of high conviction bets require founder-led companies.Also noteworthy - it took "three or four years" before it became obvious that forcing their UI was the right decision.At 27 minutes:I see this with founders a lot - when they go try to do product interviews or customer interviews, they're assuming that the people they're interviewing have similar knowledge, interest, or insight to them, and that's just not the case.We just felt like there was a bit of an arbitrage where we knew where the industry was going to play out we knew what the banks were going to react and so we just made the gut call.This isn't something he encourages at all scales - and the transition from being a product visionary at 10 employees to a delegating leader at 1000 employees is a difficult but necessary transition.Column: The Bank with Developer ExperienceFor his next act (as a billionaire, post Plaid), William bought a bank and is now aiming to provide "financial infrastructure to other companies" - if anyone wants to do bank-like activities (loaning, holding, or moving money), Column offers you an API to do that. They aren't the first, but they are aiming to do it better/faster than the incumbents.True to form, he seems to want to own the whole experience here too.At the 39-44 minute mark:How it worked before is, you had this very complicated supply chain where you had these community banks that were obsessively renting out their charters, but they didn't really know what people were doing with it.(Then) banking as a service providers... would sit in between the customer and the bank and they would provide the APIs, they'd provide the developer experience, and they would pass all the risk and complexity up to the bank...and the bank would then outsource all of their technology out to a core and these cores are something called FIS, Fiserv and Jack Henry and they provide all of what you actually think a bank does...We looked at this space and it seems over complicated for something that should be relatively simple... so we are a bank but we also have built all of our own core, we built all of our own developer experience, so if you want to do something, all you have to do is come to us and we'll provide the end-to-end solution.We took this really elongated supply chain and condensed it into one institution...What i learned from Plaid is it's really hard to build a really great developer experience unless you control your entire end-to-end flow because if I don't actually own the bank or I don't own the core, I can't actually deliver you a good service, because I have partners upstream that could it mess up.What happens in the industry right now, is you have these really great companies that are super smart, they build really great technology, but they've obsessively offloaded a lot of the technology and responsibility upstream to people they don't control and so they actually can't deliver a good experience.I want to control the entire thing, all the way up to the Fed and back...So in many ways, it's just a high conviction bet that I think this space is going to evolve a completely vertical solution that is controlled end to end, it will be the winner and I think it's going to take me 10-40 years to get there, but if we do I think we have an opportunity to be the largest and most important financial institution out there.The rest of the conversation goes into cryptoskeptic discussion which isn't super useful for devtool founders.Founder/Investor ReflectionsThis interview/anecdote was notable because it concerns the ideal structure of developer tooling (I wrote a basic intro on Horizontal vs Vertical strategy here).The default approach of all SaaS APIs for the past 1-2 decades has been to aggressively horizontalize - pick one piece of functionality that is repeatedly built by all other companies, specialize in it, turn the fixed-cost upfront investment into a scale-from-zero-to-infinity variable cost API.Hockey took a different route - going from partial vertical integration - forcing Plaid as an API-in-the-middle provider - to full vertical integration with Column. Other founders, notably Rippling, are choosing to centralize rather than specialize, and build multiple offerings from day 1.Developers know the adage - there are only two ways to make money - bundling and unbundling.Economists call this the study of industrial organization.As exhaustion sets in from the modern data, devops, martech, and other landscapes becoming too fragmented, there are surely opportunities to offer the vertically integrated, premium "Apple" to the free, commoditized, so-so "Android" in each kind of developer tooling domain.Either way you land, Plaid and William Hockey's story is a fascinating and relatively rare example of successful vertical organization that more people should know.

Our anchors begin today's show breaking down the Bureau of Labor Statistics' jobs data for July with CNBC's Mike Santoli, and CNBC's Kate Rooney breaks down the latest earnings from fintech company Block. Next, Wall Street Journal Senior Personal Technology Columnist Joanna Stern discusses Amazon buying Roomba maker iRobot for $1.7 billion, and Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson offers his insight on the enterprise software firm's second quarter. Then, our Julia Boorstin reports on Q2 numbers out of several streamers, and Doximity CEO Jeff Tangney joins after the health tech provider slashed its full-year guidance. Later, GoDaddy CEO Aman Bhutani covers the internet services platform's recent results, and our Julia Boorstin returns with the latest in the Elon Musk-Twitter saga.

Martial arts and the art of self defence could save your life on the street one day - what better way to learn than with former MMA fighter Jeff Lawson.First specialising in Judo and now teaching Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) at Ippon Gym, there's an obvious physical strength to Jeff, but dig deeper and his experiences post-MMA career are otherworldly.Jeff joins us for Episode 6 of Off Script with Ty Temel, as he shares the hardest part of instructing BJJ, which martial art is best for self defence in the street, and his world-altering experiences with psychedelics.This episode coversJeff's staggering Judo skills & MMA careerThe experience of appearing on Ultimate Fighter in 2009How Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) becomes indispensable in real world altercationsThe hardest thing for any BJJ instructorTaking psychedelics safely, and the life-changing experiences Jeff has had with themHow Jeff's Ayahuasca trips have inspired his artJeff Lawson:https://www.instagram.com/mr_ippon/https://www.ipponfitness.com/Ty Temel:https://www.instagram.com/ty_temelLinks and references: https://www.tytemel.com/podcast

Did you know that Jeff Lawson, the co-founder and CEO of Twilio, sold his wedding gifts to kick the company off? Back in the summer of 2008, this strategy may seem risky but looking at what Twilio achieved since, it clearly was a winning choice. Twilio is now the leading cloud communications platform and became an international company.Despite its international growth, Twilio managed to keep its very strong company culture, focused on the well-being of its employees, and that's something that Jeff is very proud of. He explains the concept of “Twilio Magic”, the company's core values, and defines what is “blameless post-mortem”, an important mindset in the big Twilio family.This episode is hosted by Roxanne Varza, STATION F's Director, and Laurence Benamran, co-founder and CEO of Pinpo, a STATION F company selected to be part of Future 40 in 2019. Pinpo is a leading tech platform specializing in lead qualification and a happy user of Twilio.Topics00:10 — Introduction with Roxanne Varza (STATION F) and Laurence Benamran (Pinpo)02:58 — The story behind Twilio's funding. Spoiler: it involves Jeff Lawson's wedding gifts!12:35 — Jeff about Twilio going international and its launch in France17:51 — How to implement a strong company culture, like Twilio does, on a large scale?22:30 — Jeff describes Twilio's core values as “Twilio Magic”24:18 — The difference between a company culture and its values26:16 — Jeff explains the concept of “blameless post-mortem”32:30 — Jeff's biggest advice for entrepreneursThis episode is supported by TikTok, hosted by Roxanne Varza, produced by Cindy Yang, and edited by Grégoire Duhourcau. Art is by Gaëtan Lefebvre. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

To help you become an awesome software architect, we have picked out our top four books to make 12 in total. We are looking at engineering books have influenced both ourselves and 'The Flywheel Effect' book. 1. 'Continuous Delivery' came out in 2011. And it has been massively influential in how high performing teams deliver their software today. It is still as fresh as it was when it was written. And a lot of teams would do well to actually read it again. 2. 'Domain Driven Design' is a good book on how to describe a domain, good domain models and the importance of collaboration, communication and shared understanding, including their chapter on ubiquitous languages. You can be in different types of stacks or scenarios, but the knowledge is abstract so it's broadly applicable. 3. The Simon Wardley Book I have got a print copy of it. And I find myself always coming back to it. I think it was out in 2011. It's chunky and quite academic. So it's not exactly an easy read. But it's as deep as well, as they say. So I'm a big fan and I always go back to it. I don't take every word of it literally. But it's definitely a good read and will challenge your thinking still to this day. 4. 'Accelerate' by Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble, and Gene Kim. This is a game changer. I think everyone the industry understands that. It distills down and captures (with scientific backing) all of the things that we were trying to articulate or were trying to push or evolve in our ecosystem.The capabilities to drive improvement, the scientific backing and little snippets of good advice and guidance. It is one of the best. 5. 'Extreme Ownership' by Jocko Willink. There's some cracking guidance on how to own something and lead. One that sticks out is centralised command and leading up and down the line. It's a well thought out and structured book on how to think, modern leadership and how to motivate people to be successful. I enjoy reading about how to think through systems, particularly in a leadership position, in technical orbs and stuff like that. It helps you to think like a leader. 6. 'Team Topologies' by Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais. It's such a powerful question to ask 'what type of team are you?' And the response is: 'what do you mean?'. The answer is that you're a platform team, an enablement team, a value stream team or you're not anything. And all the techniques are in it with different tools and team API's and stuff. I think it's really practical. You can pick it up and implement tomorrow. 7. 'Reaching Cloud Velocity' It covers how to succeed in the cloud. In other words what are the principles and tenets that you should apply. What are the cultural and organisational things you should think about as you're starting to move to the cloud. It looks at the architectural approaches and patterns you should adopt. And how to do security and governance. It also looks at what's your business strategy, now that you're in the cloud. 8. 'Designing Data Intensive Applications' is almost a bible for anything data related such as streaming, different types of databases and why you make decisions on certain types of databases. You get into the design and the nuance of it. And understanding the landscape. It's broken into 2 to 3 minute blocks. So you can get straight into it and get perspective or context. 9. 'Creativity Inc', by Ed Catmull. The book is about Pixar, who went up against Disney by direct selling films. The full title of the book is 'Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration' . They talk about the inspiration of creating and then actually making it. And how they structured the company and all the challenges they had. 10. 'Working Backwards' by Colin Bryar and Bill Carr. We see Amazon from the outside eg. amazon.com, Amazon Prime, deliveries and Alexa. But how do they actually do it? How can they be so successful and set themselves up for success? What way are their leadership structured? 'Working Backwards' distils down and gives insight into how Amazon operates at that sort of scale. It looks at how they have remained successful despite their growth. 11. 'Ask Your Developer' by Jeff Lawson, looking at the developer centric approach at Twilio. There's a lot of good content on how to inspire great individuals and teams to be creative. There's a good chapter on developer experience, their golden path and off roading. And how they've organised around developer experience. 12. 'The Software Architect Elevator', by Gregor Hohpe. I love his concept of an architect riding the elevator to talk to the executive in the penthouse, going down to the basement to write code and then all the floors in between. He talks about the how an architect can behave and operate to be successful in a company. Gregor is the 'architect's architect'. Serverless Craic from The Serverless Edge theserverlessedge.com @ServerlessEdge

Stacy Johnson is a TV and film working actor, singer, director, producer, and stunt woman. Her acting career began at the age of 4 on Sesame Street and has blossomed to include high profile projects like “Heroes,” “Ozark,” “The Greatest Showman,” “Halloween,” and “Iron Man” movies. She has produced and won awards for her documentary films “Hursit” and “The Sun Sets.” As a successful actress, Ms. Johnson has taught students on acting and in furthering their careers. She and her husband Scott Dukelow manage SJD Acting Studio that coaches students on acting and the film industry. Ms. Johnson's Lyme disease journey began with a tick bite in 2005. Despite developing classic Lyme disease symptoms and working with scores of the top doctors in Los Angeles, Atlanta, and North Carolina, she was not diagnosed until after more than a decade of suffering. Prior to securing a Lyme disease diagnosis, she suffered from migrating neurological and cardiac symptoms. In 2015 she had to be resuscitated by emergency service personnel after her heart stopped during a visit to a McDonald's restaurant in Chicago. Desperate for answers for her health crisis, Ms. Johnson visited Dr. Jeffrey Lawson, MD at the Piedmont Arthritis Clinic located in South Carolina. Working with Ms. Johnson and her husband, Dr. Lawson diagnosed and treated Ms. Johnson for Lyme disease. The lengthy and painful encounter with Lyme disease inspired Ms. Johnson, Mr. Dukelow, and Dr. Lawson to tell their story on film. The documentary “Lyme Disease: Beating Back Death” is slated to complete filming and to be released on Netflix later this year. If you would like to learn more about how an actor and her team beat back death secondary to Lyme disease, then tune in now!

Show Notes(02:00) Evan shared his upbringing, born and raised in a small coastal town on New Zealand's North Island and later studied Software Engineering and Business.(03:55) Evan recalled working as a software solution architect at NEC Corporation back in New Zealand.(06:17) Evan talked about his decision to join Twilio in 2011 as one of the company's early employees right after its Series B financing.(08:40) Evan shared his perspectives on joining startups and big companies as a new grad.(13:01) Evan provided insights on attributes of exceptional sales engineers, given his time building the first iteration of Twilio's global pre-sales team.(17:30) Evan unpacked the evolution of his career at Twilio — working as a product manager, a director of product & engineering, and a general manager of IoT & wireless.(22:51) Evan dissected Twilio's unique “middle-out” sales strategy, which has hugely impacted the company's incredible growth from Series B through to IPO and beyond.(29:03) Evan went over the untapped opportunity being enabled by new cellular IoT technologies.(33:25) Evan explained his decision to embark on a new journey as the CEO of Fin.com after a decade at Twilio.(37:26) Evan talked about the need for workflow automation and how Fin's product features are built to address that.(40:35) Evan went over Fin's remote performance optimization capabilities that help teams thrive in a remote-first environment.(42:56) Evan shared valuable hiring lessons to attract the right leaders who are excited about Fin's mission.(45:38) Evan shared the hurdles his team has to go through while finding early customers for Fin (as it pivoted to building a SaaS product).(48:02) Evan talked about the qualities of Jeff Lawson that made him such a great CEO.(50:41) Closing segment.Evan's Contact InfoTwitterLinkedInFin's ResourcesWebsiteLinkedInTwitter“Fin.com Raises $20M from Coatue” (Sep 2021)“Customers Operations Benchmarks for 2022” (Nov 2021)“Fin's new Experiments Product Enables CX teams to Confidently Deliver Business Process Changes that Maximize Business Impact” (Dec 2021)Mentioned ContentPeopleJack DorseyBret TaylorPaul BuchheitBook“Startup CXO: A Field Guide to Scaling Up Your Company's Critical Functions and Teams” (by Matt Blumberg)About the showDatacast features long-form, in-depth conversations with practitioners and researchers in the data community to walk through their professional journeys and unpack the lessons learned along the way. I invite guests coming from a wide range of career paths — from scientists and analysts to founders and investors — to analyze the case for using data in the real world and extract their mental models (“the WHY and the HOW”) behind their pursuits. Hopefully, these conversations can serve as valuable tools for early-stage data professionals as they navigate their own careers in the exciting data universe.Datacast is produced and edited by James Le. Get in touch with feedback or guest suggestions by emailing khanhle.1013@gmail.com.Subscribe by searching for Datacast wherever you get podcasts or click one of the links below:Listen on SpotifyListen on Apple PodcastsListen on Google PodcastsIf you're new, see the podcast homepage for the most recent episodes to listen to, or browse the full guest list.

Teddy Schleifer joins Peter Hamby to discuss the emerging political ambitions of a previously anonymous billionaire with some big political aspirations. Jeff Lawson, the C.E.O. of Twilio, is positioning himself to become the biggest political donor on the left, an heir to Benioff, and the latest avatar of how Silicon Valley is reshaping Washington D.C. Follow @PuckNews on Twitter and Subscribe to Puck.News The Power's That Be is a presentation of Cadence 13 Studios. Please listen, rate, review, and follow all episodes wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello everyone! I'm so sorry this episode is late! My ankle hurts! This week we have one of our favorite people in the world back with us, Jeff Lawson!! We talk about Seinfeld, Toledo, moving, Rocket League, Natalie reads from the American Girl book, "A Smart Girl's Guide to Boys," and we have another installment of the hit series, "The Fast and the Curious." We love you!! And I love Natalie and I'm so proud of her for moving but I'm going to miss her so, so much. Follow us and talk to us! Instagram/Twitter: @myexandipod myexandipod.com | myexandipod@gmail.com

Twilio was founded in 2008 by Jeff Lawson, Evan Cooke, and John Wolthuis. Millions of developers around the world have used Twilio to unlock the magic of communications to improve any human experience. Twilio has democratized communications channels like voice, text, chat, video, and email by virtualizing the world's communications infrastructure through APIs that are simple enough for any developer to use, yet robust enough to power the world's most demanding applications. By making communications a part of every software developer's toolkit, Twilio is enabling innovators across every industry — from emerging leaders to the world's largest organizations — to reinvent how companies engage with their customers.   On this episode, we chat with Liz Moy, Developer Evangelist at Twilio to learn more about how Twilio simplifies adding communication to your applications and works well with MongoDB. Twilio and MongoDB Tutorials + Blog Posts https://www.twilio.com/blog/automatically-trigger-twilio-sms-mongodb-mongodb-functions https://dev.to/twilio/save-user-input-via-slackbot-with-twilio-autopilot-functions-and-mongodb-3i13 https://www.twilio.com/docs/voice/tutorials/automated-survey-node-express Contact Liz: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizmoy/ https://twitter.com/Ecmoy

This is a very special one! We have our dear friend Jeff Lawson on for a conversation about: breakups, texting with a new romantic interest, how cute Jeff is, how cute dudes are, a LOT of dirty stuff, Rocket League, talking on the phone, another embarrassing story from Michael, and a bunch of other things! We hope you enjoy it and that you love Jeff as much as we do. Follow us and talk to us! Instagram/Twitter: @myexandipod myexandipod.com | myexandipod@gmail.com Subscribe to Jeff's YouTube channel

On this episode of the Traction podcast, host Lloyed Lobo of Boast.AI welcomes Jeff Lawson, CEO and Co-Founder of Twilio, for a lively discussion about how to build high performing software teams.    Jeff goes over his career journey, which included stops at Stub Hub and Amazon before starting Twilio. Along the way, he discovered that it is difficult to put in the time and energy needed to build a product or service if you aren't passionate about it.    The way to get developers passionate about what they're doing is to give them ownership of the project. Writing code is a creative problem-solving process. Developers don't want to work on assignments — they want to solve problems using their knowledge and experience.   Developers work best in small teams. No matter how much the organization grows, keep teams at around 10 people, and give them a single threaded leader. Then that team can own one specific problem, and they will be passionate about solving that problem. As the team grows, divide it into new, smaller teams. This will keep the passion flowing.    You can tell by listening to Jeff that he has an infectious passion for building strong software teams.   Resources: Jeff Lawson Twilio Lloyed Lobo Boast.AI   This episode is brought to you by: Each year the U.S. and Canadian governments provide more than $20 billion in R&D tax credits and innovation incentives to fund businesses, but the application process is cumbersome, prone to costly audits, and receiving the money can take as long as 16 months. Boast automates this process enabling companies to get more money faster without the paperwork and audit risk. We don't get paid until you do! Find out if you qualify today at https://Boast.AI. Launch Academy is one of the top global tech hubs for international entrepreneurs and a designated organization for Canada's Startup Visa. Since 2012, Launch has worked with more than 6000 entrepreneurs from over 100 countries, of which 300 have grown their startups to Seed and Series A stage and raised over $2 Billion in funding. To learn more about Launch's programs or the Canadian Startup Visa visit https://LaunchAcademy.ca Content Allies helps B2B companies build revenue-generating podcasts. We recommend them to any B2B company that is looking to launch or streamline their podcast production. Learn more at ContentAllies.com

Co-Founder and CEO of Twilio, Jeff Lawson is a serial entrepreneur and technologist with a career including both large companies and a series of start-ups. Jeff leads with knowledge, a visceral connection to the customer's problem, and the understanding of how to connect executives with software developers. Listen as Jeff and David discuss his time at Amazon working for Jeff Bezos, his view on how to define real customer problems, and why he cleverly returned all of his wedding gifts.

Jeff Lawson is a BJJ black belt, a judo black belt, and a former MMA fighter. In the episode we talk about how Jeff got into judo, how he transitioned into mixed martial arts in the early days of the sport, his time on the ultimate fighter, some of his coaching philosophies, and his journey with psychedelic plant medicine.

The heyday of Main Street is over. The spotlight now shines on Digital Street. Curt Sigfstead has been long drawn to the power of entrepreneurs and the opportunity they present to transform the world. After leading the prominent West Coast technology investing division at JP Morgan, Curt joined Clearco. Clearco is at the forefront of digital growth, where they are busy building out the capital infrastructure for the internet in the realm of embedded finance. Working with digital founders, software platforms, and financial institutions, Clearco is helping to revolutionize how founders raise capital.Show Links Follow Clearco on LinkedIn or Twitter Connect with Curt Sigfstead on LinkedIn or Twitter Connect with Andrew Seski on LinkedIn Key Takeaways1:44 - Providing capital based on dataDigitally-founded businesses often don't have the traditional assets required to raise capital. By providing capital based on more diverse factors, Clearco is serving a new, data-driven market.“It means that we can, in a very innovative way, provide capital, provide advice, provide benchmarking, provide a means by which entrepreneurs can improve their business with capital by using data. That's an important core of our business; our ability to leverage third-party data sources to create a modern finance platform that can serve these digital founders. As you were getting to Andrew, [Clearco is] serving what is a global transition from Main Street to Digital Street. And as more and more businesses are founded, at least initially, online--as businesses become less and less geographically constrained--they don't have the aspects that typical financing institutions like banks or credit unions are looking for. They don't have collateral. They don't have inventory. They don't have the assets. But they do have a lot of data. And their data is very revealing with respect to how the business is performing, what the opportunity is for that business. So, what we found is this vast, global underserved market.”3:32 - Helping entrepreneurs retain ownershipAs a rule of thumb, entrepreneurs don't want to give up equity. Clearco gets that, helping businesses get off the ground by focusing on repeatable processes.“So we're part of a spectrum. We're not in the business of competing with venture capital or with seed investors or with friends and family. We're in the business of being a complementary pool of capital for entrepreneurs to leverage as they grow their businesses. And in any business, there are aspects that are repeatable. So, you have an understanding of how the business is actually going to perform based on data, historical data, and how you might project that--like your return on ad spend, or how much inventory you need relative to your sales growth. There are other aspects of your business that are not repeatable. It's innovation that you may have underway. It's actually kicking off a very early-stage business."4:19 - Creating repeatable actions to grow your businessClearco understands what entrepreneurs need--helping them control their destiny through repeatable aspects of the business.“Where Clearco comes in is in those aspects of the business that are repeatable. Our perspective--and what we found product market fit with--is the fact that entrepreneurs don't want to give up equity in their company, and therefore ownership, for aspects of their business that are effectively repeatable. It's, ‘okay, I know if I put a dollar here, I will get $3 in revenue. Why should I give up equity for that?'...As businesses grow, ownership is important for entrepreneurs. It's part of the economic puzzle. And so if we can help them control their destiny, if we can help them access lower-cost capital effectively, and maintain ownership, then we think we're doing our job.”7:06 - The three benchmarks of successCurt says that success comes down to three things: a bulletproof process, strong performance, and a solid market backdrop.“For me, there are really three aspects to a successful process and this is obviously something I learned over many years helping companies to access the market. Which is: 1) you have to have a bulletproof process. You've got to start with a large funnel. You've got to work that funnel and you're eventually going to have a number of investors who come out the bottom of who are committed to funding the company at terms that are acceptable to the board and to the founders of the company. 2) You've got to have performance. Investors really want to understand, at least at the Series C level, how $1 of investment turns into $5-10 of return. It has to be a very repeatable process, i.e., in the Series C you're not introducing new operational risks, you're introducing scaling risk. There's product market fit. Your business works. It's got a huge TAM and really, it's about scaling the company...3) You've got to have a solid market backdrop. None of this happens in isolation. Investors are influenced every day by what happens in the capital markets and what's going on with their investments, as well as how other businesses in their portfolios are growing.”9:39 - A conservative-aggressive approachIt might sound like an oxymoron, but Curt says that the best forecast is optimistic while also building out realistic benchmarks based on market share.“My job was to ensure that our forecast was bulletproof. It was highly conservative, yet aggressive. What do I mean by that? Our job is to express the business in the most optimistic way that we can as a company. That's why we're here. We've got a big opportunity, but at the same time, building in aspects to the forecast that are not leaps of faith. I.e., for us, the size of our marketplace: If there are 10 to 12 trillion of GMV globally, which is cited in a bunch of market forecasts, then trillions of dollars, tens of trillions of dollars - us saying that we can get to 20, 40 billion, 100 billion of GMV, well, that's pretty conservative. We don't have to get a lot of market share. Those are the types of aspects to set the context of your forecast conservatively relative to a lot of external metrics. I think these are important aspects to getting investors to buy into your forecast. [The second factor] is based on your existing business, and so we were very, very focused on that. [The third factor is] you want to make sure that as you go through the funding process, you're meeting and beating your numbers.”11:41 - How to analyze and present dataUse the data you have to prepare. Then, keep investors in an honest feedback loop where you consistently provide contextual updates.“If you fail to prepare, you're preparing to fail. It's kind of like that old adage. We spent a lot of time on that. Then, the second piece of it is obviously thinking about the second and third-order diligence that's going to support that. For us, it's beating up the metrics. It's analyzing the data. It's focusing on, ‘okay, so what are the cohorts doing? How do we present that data in a way that reflects our business?' Not all of it is obviously the best news. You have to be prepared to present the business in a way that is consistent, and it gives investors real insight into how you operate the business. But, you have to do a lot of thinking about how best to present that data because investors don't have any context when they come in. Your job as a modern CFO and as a modern finance team is a much bigger understanding of strategy, so you set the context by which the numbers are being presented because out of context, I think they can be misinterpreted.”16:18 - The magnetic power of foundersCurt was lucky to oversee countless IPOs while at JP Morgan. His favorite part? Working with the founders themselves.“Through my career at JP Morgan, what really got me excited, and I realized this in my last couple of years, was working with founders. In particular, working with CEO/founders who had built their businesses from the ground up, had made the transitions through the various levels of financing and growth. We got to work with them going public and I was fortunate to work with Jeff Lawson at Twilio, and the team with Eric Yuan at Zoom. Obviously relevant names, and a full host of other names, which brings me to Andrew and Michelle [co-founders of Clearco]. As I reflect on it, I had done 100 IPOs and 250 billion of tech M&A and I was looking for that, ‘okay, if I really want to narrow it down, what I really want to do?' I want to work with founders in incredibly constructive ways because I have a very strong personal belief that entrepreneurs and founders are the people changing this world for the better.”23:22 - Building CFO/CEO trustAs a strategic partner, modern CFOs must lead company alignment. Having a united front is critical to success, but it doesn't happen without asking the hard questions.“The most important piece you have to figure out is trust. It sounds a bit cliche, but you've got to find the opportunity over those conversations - and we did - to ask each other hard questions about how...I asked, ‘well how are you guys doing?' or, ‘why didn't you do it this way or do that way?' You're getting a sense of how you're going to operate because if you're coming on as a strategic partner effectively, which I do think is really the role of the modern CFO, you're going to have to have a common operating system effectively because you're going to have to answer questions where all three of you are not in the room, but they're going to have to be based on a consistent framework. You're going to have to defend your decision-making post decision with your partners, just in the way you would if it was a law firm or financial firm. You better have a framework by which everyone can understand how you got there.”24:40 - The best investments often appear a little crazyIt's hard to break with tradition. That's why so many people in the finance world told Clearco founders Andrew and Michelle they were downright crazy, but Curt learned that thinking differently can have its advantages.“When Andrew and Michelle were forming the company, they probably had 100+ meetings with various finance individuals who said they were, ‘absolutely crazy' or, ‘this will never work.' or, ‘how in the world could you do this? This is the way it's been done for a hundred years.' Of course, there are aspects of that I had, as sort of bias or sort of frameworks that I had growing up working at JP Morgan. I've had to learn to just understand it, let it play out, add constructive aspects to it and then just course-correct where we can, let things ride out because there could be something really interesting around the corner on some of those decisions we make that, you know, wouldn't be obvious in the same frameworks that some of the more traditional financing companies work in.”25:40 - Put away your egoThe successful modern CFO is ego-free. The key is embracing a service mindset where the company wins and your wins are the same.“You have to put the ego in the bottom drawer. You're an at-service leader. So, you're here to help people win. You're not here to push your career in a certain direction, or to look good because it doesn't fit with the mission of - and I would say this is probably for any modern CFO is - you're serving the board, you're serving the audit committee, you're serving the founders, you're serving all the employees, you're serving investors. You've got to be in that mindset so that when you get criticism, you get feedback, or otherwise, you have to just take it in. It's all for the better of the company. Push forward.”29:44 - The untapped global potentialCurt says that with the right resources and support, there are hundreds of underrepresented individuals in the world who have the power to change it for the better.“One thing that is underestimated globally is the power of the committed entrepreneur. The power of someone, an individual who is committed to change, who is committed to development, who's committed to their idea and what they're able to accomplish if they have the right resources to do that. I think that is underestimated globally. We have billions of people on this planet who in some way don't have the resources available that other billions do. We're not tapping into the greatest resource we have in this world, which is our human colleagues and capital, and other inhabitants on the planet. I think that is something that we often underestimate. It all seems very normal when we look back, but when you look back over history, it's really people who make a difference. Our responsibility, if we want the best out of this world and the best out of, from business to science to education, we need to empower these people and give them the resources.”‍

Communication is a core function of almost every app, from ordering a pizza, hailing a ride, to booking a doctor's appointment. This week, we deep dive into one of the leading providers of this core functionality, Twilio. Twilio is one of the stocks in our model portfolio for 2021 and we discuss why we think it is a strong company with room to grow. Also, Luke muses on his dreams of a space economy. Twilio is the world's leading cloud communication platform, allowing other companies to embed multiple communication channels into their web, desktop, and mobile applications. They have grown revenues 10x in five years as digital transformation trends gather pace and were accelerated by the pandemic. Twilio estimates that their total addressable market is valued at $79B Its communications-platform-as-a-service business (CPaaS) is a scalable 'land & expand' business model, where marketing is targeted at developers and product managers. This strategy is clearly working as their customer count has increased 350% in three years to reach 221,000 by the end of 2020. Twilio's dollar-based net expansion rate (DBNER) has averaged around 140% each quarter in that time, meaning that customers are spending more on Twilio's products and services over time Twilio has a strong focus on developers, providing them with all the tools to use Twilio's services, and running an annual conference called Signal, where the company showcases its products and runs workshops to help developers get the most out of them. Over 10 million developers use Twilio services, generating network effects through a huge pool of developer expertise. The CEO, Jeff Lawson, has published a book titled “Ask Your Developer: How to Harness the Power of Software Developers and Win in the 21st Century” Twilio Flex is their fully-programmable contact centre platform, which includes features such as intelligent call routing and AI-powered chatbots. Flex came about from feedback from customers, who were building their own contact centre solutions using Twilio's communication service. Flex now has 600 customers and its revenue in 2020 increased 184% from the previous year. Twilio completed its acquisition of Segment last year, a leading customer data platform (CDP) that allows customers to see a single unified view of all their customer interactions, and improve customer experience by tailoring communications to their usage patterns and preferences. As well as addressing the estimated $17B CDP market, Segment is a key part of Twilio's plans to become the world's leading customer engagement platform However, Twilio is not profitable yet as it reinvests heavily in growing its business, and with a market cap of $66B and a P/S ratio of 31, it has a rich valuation, higher than it has been historically. And the competition is heating up, not just from tech giants such as Microsoft and Cisco, but also from smaller pure plays such as Bandwidth and MessageBird. MessageBird, in particular, has a strong presence in Europe and Asia and may impact Twilio's international growth, which currently only accounts for 27% of its revenues The following companies are mentioned in this episode: BAND, FB, MessageBird, MSFT, TWLO, UBER ----- If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing at https://telescopeinvesting.com/subscribe/ Or you can contact the hosts: LukeTelescope AlbertTelescope

Twilio has had an exciting fall. First, Microsoft announced Azure Communication Services, viewed as a shot across the bow at Twilio in the developer driven communications space. Then, Twilio had its first investor day in three years, refreshing investors on their trajectory. Lastly, Twilio announced the purchase of Segment, a customer data platform that signals Twilio's climbing of the value chain. To break it all down, we bring on Captain Twilio, an experienced investor whose portfolio features one stock, Twilio, and Justen Stepka, our frequent guest and an Atlassian and, more relevant to today's conversation, Docker alum who has firsthand experience with Segment as a user. This is a fun conversation for anyone following Twilio, and it also adds interesting perspective on business strategy and SaaS valuations. Topics Covered 3:15 minute mark - The Segment value proposition 9:15 - Recapping Twilio Signal and what it says for Twilio's strategy 13:15 - So why did Segment sell? 19:15 - How Segment fits in 24:15 - Single customer risk as well as enterprise opportunities 28:45 - The analytical edge that comes from a data tool like Segment  31:45 - Build vs. buy and microservices architecture vs. monolithic when thinking about data 36:45 - Entering another giant's territory…the pending showdown with Salesforce 48:15 - The right valuation approach and what metrics (and dollars) matter most References: Segment blog on gross margins: https://segment.com/blog/the-10m-engineering-problem/ Jeff Lawson interview with Ben Thompson: https://stratechery.com/2020/twilio-acquires-segment-what-is-segment-an-interview-with-twilio-ceo-jeff-lawson/

The old constraint when it came to technology was hardware -- how many CPUs can I get my hands on. Today, spinning up compute can be done from any smartphone with an AWS account or something similar. The current constraint is software. And since software is written and operated by people, tackling that constraint comes down to making people as informed, enabled, and efficient as possible. Three CEOs and co-founders of three companies that serve software developers -- Chris Wanstrath from GitHub, Jeff Lawson from Twilio, and Ben Uretsky of Digital Ocean -- take part in a conversation with a16z's Peter Levine about the needs of software developers. What are the emerging platforms, ecosystems, and tools that help developers succeed at what is increasingly the most important job in any company – writing and running software. The views expressed here are those of the individual AH Capital Management, L.L.C. (“a16z”) personnel quoted and are not the views of a16z or its affiliates. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by a16z. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, a16z has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation. This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Furthermore, this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors, and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest in any fund managed by a16z. (An offering to invest in an a16z fund will be made only by the private placement memorandum, subscription agreement, and other relevant documentation of any such fund and should be read in their entirety.) Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by a16z, and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results. A list of investments made by funds managed by Andreessen Horowitz (excluding investments and certain publicly traded cryptocurrencies/ digital assets for which the issuer has not provided permission for a16z to disclose publicly) is available at https://a16z.com/investments/. Charts and graphs provided within are for informational purposes solely and should not be relied upon when making any investment decision. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The content speaks only as of the date indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects, and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others. Please see https://a16z.com/disclosures for additional important information.