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Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. I'm Carol

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Speaker 1: Masser and I'm Tim Stanik. Welcome to the Bloomberg Business

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Speaker 1: Week Extra. It's a weekly podcast bringing you a highlight

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Speaker 1: our favorite interview from the week, and this week it's

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Speaker 1: with Cozma Ship Chandler, CFO of the cloud communication platform

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Speaker 1: company's Wilio. Tim shares of Twilio have been on a

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Speaker 1: tear stock Is that more than twenty year to date

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Speaker 1: after two rally Wow. So Twilio works with everyone from

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Speaker 1: lift to Uber, Shopify and Instacart to Netflix, Twitter, Yelp,

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Speaker 1: and Morgan's Stanley lending Tree into It and more. My

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Speaker 1: conversation began with the company's recent quarterly update, but we

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Speaker 1: had a strong performance, I would say pretty much across

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Speaker 1: the board. We are in the early innings of what

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Speaker 1: I would characterize as really a generational opportunity in this

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Speaker 1: space of customer engagement. I think what we found during

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Speaker 1: the course of is that when customers embrace software, when

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Speaker 1: they embrace agility, and in particular, when they decide to

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Speaker 1: build things on their own own, that they tend to

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Speaker 1: be the ones that are winning. And we're lucky to

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Speaker 1: be able to power a number of their use cases, right,

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Speaker 1: and that's exactly what you guys are doing, providing the

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Speaker 1: tools for them to be able to do that. How

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Speaker 1: much though, of what you're seeing is a surge to

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Speaker 1: digitally catch up and expand because of COVID in the

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Speaker 1: shutdown and the big move for the world to digital

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Speaker 1: and e commerce. How much is to catch up in

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Speaker 1: your view? That's a great question. I do think it's

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Speaker 1: more an acceleration, I would say, than catch up. We

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Speaker 1: feel like the shift that's been happening is permanent. You know,

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Speaker 1: we've done a number of studies I'm sure you've seen

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Speaker 1: a number of external studies as well that basically suggests

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Speaker 1: that businesses are not going to go back that over

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Speaker 1: of them in fact planned to either increase or maintain

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Speaker 1: the levels of investment that they've been making in customer

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Speaker 1: engagement after the pandemic. So we're very excited about our

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Speaker 1: prospects going forward. Well, what do you guys do once

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Speaker 1: you kind of land a customer, right, and you get

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Speaker 1: kind of that initial level and you know, relationship between

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Speaker 1: you and the customer, Like, what are the next layers

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Speaker 1: that you can help in terms of helping the customer

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Speaker 1: with what they're doing. Yeah, I think what's important about

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Speaker 1: our business model, which is really exciting and keeps the

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Speaker 1: cost down as well, actually is that most of our

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Speaker 1: interactions start because a developer inside of one of the

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Speaker 1: companies that we're working with starts working on our platform,

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Speaker 1: develops a use case. We notice that there's a certain

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Speaker 1: amount of activity there, and once we do, we have

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Speaker 1: a salesperson contact the company and we start doing some

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Speaker 1: work with them, and they'll start with the use case.

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Speaker 1: It might be an SMS, it might be a one

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Speaker 1: time notification of something, but then will offer some of

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Speaker 1: the other aspects of our portfolio. It could be voice messaging,

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Speaker 1: it could be other SMS use cases, it could be email,

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Speaker 1: you know. Now it could be segment with the company

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Speaker 1: that we just bought with respect to data. So there

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Speaker 1: are any number of things that we can do for

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Speaker 1: a customer as it relates to customer engagement. I'll give

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Speaker 1: you a great example. You know, last week, obviously we

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Speaker 1: are all watching what was happening in Texas, and you know,

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Speaker 1: we were able to deploy a hotline in twenty four

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Speaker 1: hours to help them manage thousands of calls, not just

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Speaker 1: with respect to all of the emergency response activity, but

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Speaker 1: also you know the vaccine distribution and the logistics associated

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Speaker 1: with that. We're not just doing it in Texas, for

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Speaker 1: doing it all the way from California all the way

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Speaker 1: across the Maine as well, so it really does run

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Speaker 1: the gamut. Well, I'm glad you took took us there,

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Speaker 1: because that is certainly something we kick off every broadcast

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Speaker 1: talking about the latest and greatest fingers cross when it

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Speaker 1: comes to COVID and the vaccine. Talk to us a

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Speaker 1: little bit more about what you folks are doing at

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Speaker 1: twilio to help others when it comes in particular to

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Speaker 1: getting that vaccine out and communicating and communication within communities,

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Speaker 1: because we know that has been something that was certainly lagging,

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Speaker 1: uh certainly early on. Yeah, So part of it is

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Speaker 1: deploying a hotline. Another part of it is using our

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Speaker 1: SMS capabilities so that we can provide patients with alerts

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Speaker 1: and scheduling information. Another part of it is so that

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Speaker 1: medical professionals can communicate with one another in a time

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Speaker 1: sensitive way visa V text messaging. And so if you

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Speaker 1: just consider all of these different areas that allow medical

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Speaker 1: professionals patients folks that are attempting to get the vaccine

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Speaker 1: in the hands of patients. It just allows for a

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Speaker 1: very seamless experience. It makes sure that patients are able

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Speaker 1: to get the information when they need it. They can

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Speaker 1: get it through whatever channel they want, whether it's SMS,

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Speaker 1: whether it's voice, whether it's email. And these same solutions

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Speaker 1: can be used to register folks and then constantly communicate

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Speaker 1: with them to make sure that they're keeping their appointments

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Speaker 1: and that they go back for the second vaccine as well. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's great and it creates some organization. Um. I think

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Speaker 1: that many would would argue that wasn't quite there in

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Speaker 1: the beginning. Okay, I want to go back to what

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Speaker 1: you guys are doing and where you go from here,

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Speaker 1: especially once you start working with a customer. We had

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Speaker 1: on James chalk Mark earlier covers the tech sector, and

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Speaker 1: I said to him, okay, so if you were talking,

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Speaker 1: uh to the CFO of Twilio, what would you want

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Speaker 1: to know? And he said, you know, what's interesting is

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Speaker 1: how do you improve you know, how do you kind

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Speaker 1: of boost beyond once you start working with a customer

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Speaker 1: and you are providing data and working with them, how

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Speaker 1: do you kind of improve upon that in terms of productivity,

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Speaker 1: And I'm curious, how do you guys think about that

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Speaker 1: and taking your services to the next level for your customers. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I'll give you a great, great example. Obviously, tax season

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Speaker 1: is right around the corner and one of our marquee

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Speaker 1: customers has been H and R Block historically, and just

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Speaker 1: in the last quarter, we've expanded our relationship with that

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Speaker 1: customer as they prepare for the tax season. Obviously there's

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Speaker 1: a huge surge and the amount of activity that they see,

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Speaker 1: and what we're doing is actually giving them tooling so

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Speaker 1: that they're able to provide better virtual tax support using

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Speaker 1: our Twilio video product. Obviously, last year around this time,

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Speaker 1: the pandemic was just starting. It wasn't quite clear how

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Speaker 1: things were going to play out. And so now above

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Speaker 1: and beyond the the voice, SMS and chat capabilities that

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Speaker 1: we're already providing them, they can now also enhance the

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Speaker 1: experience between H and R Block and their consumer base

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Speaker 1: using a really simple and easy to use in app

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Speaker 1: API to deploy video to make for a richer consumer experience.

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Speaker 1: That makes a lot of sense. What about all the

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Speaker 1: data that that's coming into all of these customers that

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Speaker 1: you guys work with um and and helping them in

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Speaker 1: terms of be more productive with that use of data

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Speaker 1: kind of the data overloads. Yeah, that's a great question.

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Speaker 1: So we actually bought a company towards the end of

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Speaker 1: last year. It's called Segment and Segment their entire value

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Speaker 1: proposition of the company is to really focus on data,

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Speaker 1: and one of the things that they do uniquely well,

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Speaker 1: there's the only company to my knowledge, on the planet

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Speaker 1: that can actually pull it off, is that they can

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Speaker 1: grab data out of all of the unique silos inside

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Speaker 1: of a company, put that data together orchestrated in a way,

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Speaker 1: organize it in a way that makes it really simple

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Speaker 1: to understand what's going on with the consumer experience, so

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Speaker 1: that what we're then able to do is help our

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Speaker 1: customers ensure that they can then deliver a rich consumer experience.

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Speaker 1: So using all of these disparate data sources, we've got

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Speaker 1: the proverbial one pane of glass that allows you then

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Speaker 1: to subsequently deliver something that's really personalized, really rewarding if

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Speaker 1: you're on the consumer ended experience. Sounds like a big

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Speaker 1: growth area for you guys. Absolutely, we're really excited about that. Acquisition.

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Speaker 1: We've signed on some interesting winds recently, and I think

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Speaker 1: there's a lot more that we can do with it.

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Speaker 1: We're just getting started. So because I want to ask you,

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Speaker 1: you do work with just about everybody. If you go

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Speaker 1: to your website, it's Lift, it's Ubert, Shopify, it's Instacard,

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Speaker 1: it's Morgan Stanley, it's lending Tree, it's Netflix, it's Twitter,

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Speaker 1: it's help. What are you hearing from those clients which

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Speaker 1: crossed so many different industries, What are you hearing from

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Speaker 1: them and what are you seeing in terms of your

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Speaker 1: working with them, about what that tells us about how

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Speaker 1: the business environment is and what's going on more broadly

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Speaker 1: in the economy, maybe what kind of year one might be. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think what's never been truer than it is today

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Speaker 1: is this whole idea around the importance of customer engagement.

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Speaker 1: I think we're all used to one way experiences sometimes

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Speaker 1: with our customers, and unfortunately those experiences weren't enabled previously

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Speaker 1: by technology. But now enter Twilio and some of the

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Speaker 1: things that we're able to do to help really drive

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Speaker 1: that rich consumer experience so that you, as a consumer

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Speaker 1: can do business with the clients that you really care about,

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Speaker 1: you can get the kinds of messages from them that

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Speaker 1: you really care about. Obviously, for our customers that helps

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Speaker 1: them drive a revenue event, But to the consumer herself,

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Speaker 1: it's really important because that individual is able to get

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Speaker 1: the information that they want, when they want it, through

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Speaker 1: the channel that they want without it kind of becoming

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Speaker 1: this annoying clutter that we sometimes experience otherwise through these channels.

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Speaker 1: And so customer engagements the name of the game. And

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Speaker 1: I think going forward, every one of the companies that

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Speaker 1: we're working with, they see more share of wallet going

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Speaker 1: towards these customer facing interactions, and we think that's going

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Speaker 1: to continue. We think it's part of a long term

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Speaker 1: secular trend. Frankly, Okay, so that's the trend. But what

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Speaker 1: does it say the economy doing well? Second half story?

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Speaker 1: You know, from from these conversations, what does it tell

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Speaker 1: you about the visibility for our economy and really our

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Speaker 1: business environment. Yeah, I mean, I'm not a macro economist, obviously,

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Speaker 1: I'll i'll maybe kind of answer your question through the

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Speaker 1: lens of our our consumer experience, our customer experience. Excuse me.

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Speaker 1: What we're generally seeing is a lot of strength in

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Speaker 1: the marketplace, and whether it's uh an online retailer, whether

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Speaker 1: it's an e commerce provider, whether it's a brick and

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Speaker 1: mortar bank, We're seeing a lot of traction and a

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Speaker 1: lot of activity. And so I would say we're cautiously

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Speaker 1: optimistic about the way that the broader economy plays out,

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Speaker 1: just based on the activity that we see on our platform.

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Speaker 1: We do see a significant move of that activity from

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Speaker 1: you know, sort of an uh AN in person environment

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Speaker 1: more much more towards an online environment. I think many

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Speaker 1: of the things that we were used to previously attending

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Speaker 1: in person, as much as I'm desperate to go, you know,

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Speaker 1: do a restaurant in person, I think we're all getting

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Speaker 1: used to as consumers um the idea of getting things

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Speaker 1: delivered and and having communications tools help orchestrate some of that.

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Speaker 1: So I think you will see a shift in the

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Speaker 1: way some of these organizations work. But we're broadly optimistic,

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Speaker 1: I would say, cautiously so, just given what a what

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Speaker 1: a dynamic macro environment it is out there. Hey, one

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Speaker 1: last question in terms of you guys seem to be

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Speaker 1: firing out also Landers. It's really impressive and impressive story

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Speaker 1: and company to watch access to workers, any labor constraints.

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Speaker 1: Where are you finding maybe problems as you move forward

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Speaker 1: that maybe can be holding back your growth and just

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Speaker 1: got about forty five seconds. Yeah, that's a great question.

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Speaker 1: I don't see any real issues in terms of our

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Speaker 1: ability to access talent. I think, if anything, Like many

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Speaker 1: other companies, what we're finding is is that as everybody's

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Speaker 1: working from home, there's a global talent market that we

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Speaker 1: can get our talent from. And we're really excited about that.

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Speaker 1: That was because the most ship channeler CFO of the

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Speaker 1: cloud communication platform company Twilio. You've been listening to Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: Business Week Extra, be sure to listen to our Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: Business Week Daily radio show, airing live Monday through Friday

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Speaker 1: search Bloomberg Global News and catch Tim on Bloomberg Quicktake,

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Speaker 1: available on Bloomberg dot com, slash qt and streaming on

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Speaker 1: platforms like Roku, Apple TV, Samsung TV, and more. I'm

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Speaker 1: Carol Masser and I'm Tim Stanovick. This is Bloomberg