Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. I'm Carol
Speaker 1: Masser and I'm Tim Stanik. Welcome to the Bloomberg Business
Speaker 1: Week Extra. It's a weekly podcast bringing you a highlight
Speaker 1: our favorite interview from the week, and this week it's
Speaker 1: with Cozma Ship Chandler, CFO of the cloud communication platform
Speaker 1: company's Wilio. Tim shares of Twilio have been on a
Speaker 1: tear stock Is that more than twenty year to date
Speaker 1: after two rally Wow. So Twilio works with everyone from
Speaker 1: lift to Uber, Shopify and Instacart to Netflix, Twitter, Yelp,
Speaker 1: and Morgan's Stanley lending Tree into It and more. My
Speaker 1: conversation began with the company's recent quarterly update, but we
Speaker 1: had a strong performance, I would say pretty much across
Speaker 1: the board. We are in the early innings of what
Speaker 1: I would characterize as really a generational opportunity in this
Speaker 1: space of customer engagement. I think what we found during
Speaker 1: the course of is that when customers embrace software, when
Speaker 1: they embrace agility, and in particular, when they decide to
Speaker 1: build things on their own own, that they tend to
Speaker 1: be the ones that are winning. And we're lucky to
Speaker 1: be able to power a number of their use cases, right,
Speaker 1: and that's exactly what you guys are doing, providing the
Speaker 1: tools for them to be able to do that. How
Speaker 1: much though, of what you're seeing is a surge to
Speaker 1: digitally catch up and expand because of COVID in the
Speaker 1: shutdown and the big move for the world to digital
Speaker 1: and e commerce. How much is to catch up in
Speaker 1: your view? That's a great question. I do think it's
Speaker 1: more an acceleration, I would say, than catch up. We
Speaker 1: feel like the shift that's been happening is permanent. You know,
Speaker 1: we've done a number of studies I'm sure you've seen
Speaker 1: a number of external studies as well that basically suggests
Speaker 1: that businesses are not going to go back that over
Speaker 1: of them in fact planned to either increase or maintain
Speaker 1: the levels of investment that they've been making in customer
Speaker 1: engagement after the pandemic. So we're very excited about our
Speaker 1: prospects going forward. Well, what do you guys do once
Speaker 1: you kind of land a customer, right, and you get
Speaker 1: kind of that initial level and you know, relationship between
Speaker 1: you and the customer, Like, what are the next layers
Speaker 1: that you can help in terms of helping the customer
Speaker 1: with what they're doing. Yeah, I think what's important about
Speaker 1: our business model, which is really exciting and keeps the
Speaker 1: cost down as well, actually is that most of our
Speaker 1: interactions start because a developer inside of one of the
Speaker 1: companies that we're working with starts working on our platform,
Speaker 1: develops a use case. We notice that there's a certain
Speaker 1: amount of activity there, and once we do, we have
Speaker 1: a salesperson contact the company and we start doing some
Speaker 1: work with them, and they'll start with the use case.
Speaker 1: It might be an SMS, it might be a one
Speaker 1: time notification of something, but then will offer some of
Speaker 1: the other aspects of our portfolio. It could be voice messaging,
Speaker 1: it could be other SMS use cases, it could be email,
Speaker 1: you know. Now it could be segment with the company
Speaker 1: that we just bought with respect to data. So there
Speaker 1: are any number of things that we can do for
Speaker 1: a customer as it relates to customer engagement. I'll give
Speaker 1: you a great example. You know, last week, obviously we
Speaker 1: are all watching what was happening in Texas, and you know,
Speaker 1: we were able to deploy a hotline in twenty four
Speaker 1: hours to help them manage thousands of calls, not just
Speaker 1: with respect to all of the emergency response activity, but
Speaker 1: also you know the vaccine distribution and the logistics associated
Speaker 1: with that. We're not just doing it in Texas, for
Speaker 1: doing it all the way from California all the way
Speaker 1: across the Maine as well, so it really does run
Speaker 1: the gamut. Well, I'm glad you took took us there,
Speaker 1: because that is certainly something we kick off every broadcast
Speaker 1: talking about the latest and greatest fingers cross when it
Speaker 1: comes to COVID and the vaccine. Talk to us a
Speaker 1: little bit more about what you folks are doing at
Speaker 1: twilio to help others when it comes in particular to
Speaker 1: getting that vaccine out and communicating and communication within communities,
Speaker 1: because we know that has been something that was certainly lagging,
Speaker 1: uh certainly early on. Yeah, So part of it is
Speaker 1: deploying a hotline. Another part of it is using our
Speaker 1: SMS capabilities so that we can provide patients with alerts
Speaker 1: and scheduling information. Another part of it is so that
Speaker 1: medical professionals can communicate with one another in a time
Speaker 1: sensitive way visa V text messaging. And so if you
Speaker 1: just consider all of these different areas that allow medical
Speaker 1: professionals patients folks that are attempting to get the vaccine
Speaker 1: in the hands of patients. It just allows for a
Speaker 1: very seamless experience. It makes sure that patients are able
Speaker 1: to get the information when they need it. They can
Speaker 1: get it through whatever channel they want, whether it's SMS,
Speaker 1: whether it's voice, whether it's email. And these same solutions
Speaker 1: can be used to register folks and then constantly communicate
Speaker 1: with them to make sure that they're keeping their appointments
Speaker 1: and that they go back for the second vaccine as well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's great and it creates some organization. Um. I think
Speaker 1: that many would would argue that wasn't quite there in
Speaker 1: the beginning. Okay, I want to go back to what
Speaker 1: you guys are doing and where you go from here,
Speaker 1: especially once you start working with a customer. We had
Speaker 1: on James chalk Mark earlier covers the tech sector, and
Speaker 1: I said to him, okay, so if you were talking,
Speaker 1: uh to the CFO of Twilio, what would you want
Speaker 1: to know? And he said, you know, what's interesting is
Speaker 1: how do you improve you know, how do you kind
Speaker 1: of boost beyond once you start working with a customer
Speaker 1: and you are providing data and working with them, how
Speaker 1: do you kind of improve upon that in terms of productivity,
Speaker 1: And I'm curious, how do you guys think about that
Speaker 1: and taking your services to the next level for your customers. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll give you a great, great example. Obviously, tax season
Speaker 1: is right around the corner and one of our marquee
Speaker 1: customers has been H and R Block historically, and just
Speaker 1: in the last quarter, we've expanded our relationship with that
Speaker 1: customer as they prepare for the tax season. Obviously there's
Speaker 1: a huge surge and the amount of activity that they see,
Speaker 1: and what we're doing is actually giving them tooling so
Speaker 1: that they're able to provide better virtual tax support using
Speaker 1: our Twilio video product. Obviously, last year around this time,
Speaker 1: the pandemic was just starting. It wasn't quite clear how
Speaker 1: things were going to play out. And so now above
Speaker 1: and beyond the the voice, SMS and chat capabilities that
Speaker 1: we're already providing them, they can now also enhance the
Speaker 1: experience between H and R Block and their consumer base
Speaker 1: using a really simple and easy to use in app
Speaker 1: API to deploy video to make for a richer consumer experience.
Speaker 1: That makes a lot of sense. What about all the
Speaker 1: data that that's coming into all of these customers that
Speaker 1: you guys work with um and and helping them in
Speaker 1: terms of be more productive with that use of data
Speaker 1: kind of the data overloads. Yeah, that's a great question.
Speaker 1: So we actually bought a company towards the end of
Speaker 1: last year. It's called Segment and Segment their entire value
Speaker 1: proposition of the company is to really focus on data,
Speaker 1: and one of the things that they do uniquely well,
Speaker 1: there's the only company to my knowledge, on the planet
Speaker 1: that can actually pull it off, is that they can
Speaker 1: grab data out of all of the unique silos inside
Speaker 1: of a company, put that data together orchestrated in a way,
Speaker 1: organize it in a way that makes it really simple
Speaker 1: to understand what's going on with the consumer experience, so
Speaker 1: that what we're then able to do is help our
Speaker 1: customers ensure that they can then deliver a rich consumer experience.
Speaker 1: So using all of these disparate data sources, we've got
Speaker 1: the proverbial one pane of glass that allows you then
Speaker 1: to subsequently deliver something that's really personalized, really rewarding if
Speaker 1: you're on the consumer ended experience. Sounds like a big
Speaker 1: growth area for you guys. Absolutely, we're really excited about that. Acquisition.
Speaker 1: We've signed on some interesting winds recently, and I think
Speaker 1: there's a lot more that we can do with it.
Speaker 1: We're just getting started. So because I want to ask you,
Speaker 1: you do work with just about everybody. If you go
Speaker 1: to your website, it's Lift, it's Ubert, Shopify, it's Instacard,
Speaker 1: it's Morgan Stanley, it's lending Tree, it's Netflix, it's Twitter,
Speaker 1: it's help. What are you hearing from those clients which
Speaker 1: crossed so many different industries, What are you hearing from
Speaker 1: them and what are you seeing in terms of your
Speaker 1: working with them, about what that tells us about how
Speaker 1: the business environment is and what's going on more broadly
Speaker 1: in the economy, maybe what kind of year one might be. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think what's never been truer than it is today
Speaker 1: is this whole idea around the importance of customer engagement.
Speaker 1: I think we're all used to one way experiences sometimes
Speaker 1: with our customers, and unfortunately those experiences weren't enabled previously
Speaker 1: by technology. But now enter Twilio and some of the
Speaker 1: things that we're able to do to help really drive
Speaker 1: that rich consumer experience so that you, as a consumer
Speaker 1: can do business with the clients that you really care about,
Speaker 1: you can get the kinds of messages from them that
Speaker 1: you really care about. Obviously, for our customers that helps
Speaker 1: them drive a revenue event, But to the consumer herself,
Speaker 1: it's really important because that individual is able to get
Speaker 1: the information that they want, when they want it, through
Speaker 1: the channel that they want without it kind of becoming
Speaker 1: this annoying clutter that we sometimes experience otherwise through these channels.
Speaker 1: And so customer engagements the name of the game. And
Speaker 1: I think going forward, every one of the companies that
Speaker 1: we're working with, they see more share of wallet going
Speaker 1: towards these customer facing interactions, and we think that's going
Speaker 1: to continue. We think it's part of a long term
Speaker 1: secular trend. Frankly, Okay, so that's the trend. But what
Speaker 1: does it say the economy doing well? Second half story?
Speaker 1: You know, from from these conversations, what does it tell
Speaker 1: you about the visibility for our economy and really our
Speaker 1: business environment. Yeah, I mean, I'm not a macro economist, obviously,
Speaker 1: I'll i'll maybe kind of answer your question through the
Speaker 1: lens of our our consumer experience, our customer experience. Excuse me.
Speaker 1: What we're generally seeing is a lot of strength in
Speaker 1: the marketplace, and whether it's uh an online retailer, whether
Speaker 1: it's an e commerce provider, whether it's a brick and
Speaker 1: mortar bank, We're seeing a lot of traction and a
Speaker 1: lot of activity. And so I would say we're cautiously
Speaker 1: optimistic about the way that the broader economy plays out,
Speaker 1: just based on the activity that we see on our platform.
Speaker 1: We do see a significant move of that activity from
Speaker 1: you know, sort of an uh AN in person environment
Speaker 1: more much more towards an online environment. I think many
Speaker 1: of the things that we were used to previously attending
Speaker 1: in person, as much as I'm desperate to go, you know,
Speaker 1: do a restaurant in person, I think we're all getting
Speaker 1: used to as consumers um the idea of getting things
Speaker 1: delivered and and having communications tools help orchestrate some of that.
Speaker 1: So I think you will see a shift in the
Speaker 1: way some of these organizations work. But we're broadly optimistic,
Speaker 1: I would say, cautiously so, just given what a what
Speaker 1: a dynamic macro environment it is out there. Hey, one
Speaker 1: last question in terms of you guys seem to be
Speaker 1: firing out also Landers. It's really impressive and impressive story
Speaker 1: and company to watch access to workers, any labor constraints.
Speaker 1: Where are you finding maybe problems as you move forward
Speaker 1: that maybe can be holding back your growth and just
Speaker 1: got about forty five seconds. Yeah, that's a great question.
Speaker 1: I don't see any real issues in terms of our
Speaker 1: ability to access talent. I think, if anything, Like many
Speaker 1: other companies, what we're finding is is that as everybody's
Speaker 1: working from home, there's a global talent market that we
Speaker 1: can get our talent from. And we're really excited about that.
Speaker 1: That was because the most ship channeler CFO of the
Speaker 1: cloud communication platform company Twilio. You've been listening to Bloomberg
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Speaker 1: Carol Masser and I'm Tim Stanovick. This is Bloomberg