It has been nearly a month since I wrote about not leaving San Francisco (Bay Area.) Since then, Hewlett Packard has decided to leave for Texas. So has Oracle. And Elon Musk. Clearly, Texas is an anagram for taxes. But others are staying. Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky and Twilio founder Jeff Lawson have explicitly stated that they have no plans to leave the state, despite the questionable policies and convoluted politics. Lawson, who is a good friend, in a tweet thread this morning, noted, “What I take issue with is our leaders—people of means— abandoning our community when it needs us most.” Many of us have benefitted from the San Francisco Bay Area, or Airbnb’s Chesky said: “I don’t think I would have succeeded in the same way if not for the people I met here.” I would urge you to read Jeff’s full Twitter thread. His thoughts and arguments are worth your time.
Jeff Lawson
A Conversation With Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson On The Evolution Of Communication
There is no better person to talk with about the evolution and future of communication then Jeff Lawson. We have known each other since 2008 when we met outside a Starbucks—the same year he co-founded Twilio. He was one of the original product managers for Amazon Web Services (AWS), heavily involved in Versity, the founder of NineStar, and CTO of StubHub. He could be described as a serial inventor and early on recognized the need for communication systems.
I believe Jeff truly embodies the best of Silicon Valley. His goal with his work is to help bring out the full span of human potential and allowing people to be innovators. An Application Programming Interface (API) allows developers to enable their ideas to see the light of day. Listen to our conversation as we cover Jeff’s beginnings and company, our innate need as humans to communicate, and the future of connectedness.
What a week that was
What an emotional week! I have been unable to comprehend the impact of United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union. It was not how I expected to end my week – considering I spent the first three days in uncharacteristically warm Stinson Beach, in the company of my colleagues from True Ventures. Continue reading “What a week that was”
From zero to half-a-billion: CEO Jeff Lawson writes the perfect story for Twilio
It was almost five years ago when I sat down with Jeff Lawson to talk about his vision for Twilio, and how he wanted to offer a way for all app developers to embed voice into their applications. His pitch at the time was simple and barebones, but his ambition wasn’t. Hard work and fortuitous … Continue reading From zero to half-a-billion: CEO Jeff Lawson writes the perfect story for Twilio