Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Quick Takes Tim Stinovic from Bloomberg Radio Well the CURRENTISHO
Speaker 1: of bloomber Business Week magazine. It's just on newsstands, online
Speaker 1: and on the Bloomberg. It's all about the year ahead.
Speaker 1: The comprehensive coverage includes a list of the fifty companies
Speaker 1: to watch. On that list, Twilio. Uh, it's a company.
Speaker 1: It's a stock that was one of the last year's
Speaker 1: high flyers up two amid a time of robust demand
Speaker 1: for its communications software. Joining us right now to talk
Speaker 1: about the company and also about his new book is
Speaker 1: Jeff Lawson, who is chairman, CEO and co founder of Twilio.
Speaker 1: He his new book, Ask Your Developer, How to Harness
Speaker 1: the power of Software developers and win in the twenty
Speaker 1: first century. Jeff joins us on the phone in San Francisco.
Speaker 1: It's taken a week to finally get to here. And
Speaker 1: we appreciate your patients because we've had a lot of
Speaker 1: news breaking that is often preempted stuff. Um. Just nice
Speaker 1: to have you back with us. How are you in
Speaker 1: Congratulations on the book bank, Carol, It is great to
Speaker 1: join you today and doing well as well as you
Speaker 1: know people do during a pandemic. But really excited to
Speaker 1: get this book out there because I started writing this
Speaker 1: book about the power of software developers and innovation and
Speaker 1: the power that software is playing, and so many businesses
Speaker 1: and so many industries started writing this book actually you
Speaker 1: know before COVID, and I think the last year has
Speaker 1: just shown even more so how important digital innovation, digital communications,
Speaker 1: but agility essentially in business is when factors outside of
Speaker 1: our control are changing constantly. Well, I think that is
Speaker 1: spot on, um, and I want to dig into the
Speaker 1: book specifically, but I do want to ask you about
Speaker 1: this past year. Like some companies, your business, uh, Twilio
Speaker 1: benefited as we were all working from home and companies
Speaker 1: needed more than ever before really to communicate with their customers,
Speaker 1: and they needed you know, your infrastruction infrastructure software. Um,
Speaker 1: what was the year like for you? How would you
Speaker 1: sum it up? And when did you all of a
Speaker 1: sudden see that it was going to turn out to
Speaker 1: be a strong year for you financially? Well, you know
Speaker 1: Tolio's product. We are a platform that enables companies who
Speaker 1: are building things in software to be able to communicate
Speaker 1: digitally using digital communication channels like voice, text, messaging, chat, video, email,
Speaker 1: and more. And so you know what we have always
Speaker 1: provided to the world even before covid was first digital
Speaker 1: customer engagement ability to connect people together using digital technologies.
Speaker 1: Number two software agility because we enable software developers to
Speaker 1: build communications into all the apps and experiences that we
Speaker 1: have every day. And third is cloud scale. When somebody
Speaker 1: builds something on toilio, it just works everywhere in the
Speaker 1: world that works at any scale. You have to worry
Speaker 1: about racking and stacking servers and all this kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: That's why many of the best companies in the world
Speaker 1: have been using Toilio to build these amazing customer experiences,
Speaker 1: you know, like uber list and Shopify and amazing companies
Speaker 1: that are leading the edge. But which are the companies
Speaker 1: we know about right as consumers, But we don't understand
Speaker 1: kind of how it all works or how it gets
Speaker 1: to us exactly behind the scenes. And if you think
Speaker 1: about those three things that I just mentioned, like digital engagement, uh,
Speaker 1: cloud scale and software agility. While the world needed those
Speaker 1: even more because as we had to reconfigure our world
Speaker 1: to get rid of human to human face to face
Speaker 1: interactions replace them with digital equivalence, and we needed to
Speaker 1: re a factor the whole world in real time with
Speaker 1: these changing conditions. While the things actually brought to our
Speaker 1: customers was incredibly valuable. Were you surprised though, at how
Speaker 1: strong the demand ultimately and how it played out for
Speaker 1: you guys? You know, not really. I had an early sentence.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you that when the when the pandemic began
Speaker 1: um in, you know, early to mid March of last year,
Speaker 1: we saw a really quick influx of customers all realizing
Speaker 1: that they needed to build. You know, there were say
Speaker 1: needs time to build, like we've never dealt with a
Speaker 1: global pandemic before. We need to reinvent our customer experience.
Speaker 1: We need to contactless delivery, we need to accelerate our
Speaker 1: online order abilities. We need to see patients remotely for
Speaker 1: for telehealth, like there are all these use cases coming
Speaker 1: to prominence that in a very like in the course
Speaker 1: of a week, so many customers reaching out and saying,
Speaker 1: our road map has changed, Our priorities all just changed.
Speaker 1: And Tali has be a big part of how we're
Speaker 1: gonna respond to the pandemic. And so I think we
Speaker 1: got a pretty early view into the importance of it.
Speaker 1: That's why we leaned in. We said, we're here to
Speaker 1: serve our customers during this time, to make them successful
Speaker 1: the pandemic and build even tighter customer relationships during this
Speaker 1: pretiod time. That's going to be so successful for our
Speaker 1: customers and for the world. Jeff, I want to talk
Speaker 1: more about the book. I've just got about forty seconds,
Speaker 1: so I do want to ask you what does one
Speaker 1: look like for you guys in terms of what kind
Speaker 1: of visibility and just quickly if you could, and then
Speaker 1: we'll come back and talk more. Well, we see twenty
Speaker 1: as having been an acceleration of the trends that have
Speaker 1: long gone on of the world moving to digital, of
Speaker 1: every industry becoming a software industry, and every company having
Speaker 1: to really up their digital game, and Pandemic accelerated those
Speaker 1: plans often times in companies. By six years that rod
Speaker 1: Maps got accelerated is going to be no different. That
Speaker 1: acceleration is a one way path, and every industry and
Speaker 1: every company who expects to win in this digital economy
Speaker 1: is going to have to keep up the pace of
Speaker 1: invention and agility in using software to serve their customers
Speaker 1: and so I think we're going to continue to help
Speaker 1: companies unlock these amazing digital experiences. Forgive me, Jeff, and
Speaker 1: we love talking with you because you've got to go
Speaker 1: a lot of places with us. But if I'm not
Speaker 1: a person who's into software, am I going to be like, Okay,
Speaker 1: why do I need to read this book? And it
Speaker 1: sounds like we all need to read this book in
Speaker 1: terms of understanding, especially in an increasingly high tech world.
Speaker 1: You know, we've certainly seen that over the last year.
Speaker 1: Why did you write it? Who are you addressing and
Speaker 1: what's the message you want to get out here? This
Speaker 1: book is written actually for people who aren't the developers
Speaker 1: and aren't the software people. It's written for the wide
Speaker 1: variety of business executives who know that software in many
Speaker 1: ways represents the future of their company. Because every company
Speaker 1: is in the star we be in struggle to build
Speaker 1: great digital products and experiences to serve their customers in
Speaker 1: this era where the interface that we have with our
Speaker 1: customers is now oftentimes an app on a phone or
Speaker 1: a website. Therefore, it's the companies that build great software experiences.
Speaker 1: Those are the companies who win the hearts and minds
Speaker 1: and wallets of their customers, and so so much has
Speaker 1: been said about this, you know, and the software is
Speaker 1: eating the world, and so many industries have been challenged
Speaker 1: by the nature of software and how software is changing
Speaker 1: these industries, but not a lot has been said about
Speaker 1: how the business people who aren't software developers, who aren't technologists,
Speaker 1: how do they partner with the technical talent in their
Speaker 1: company or the technical talent they want to bring into
Speaker 1: their company to actually successfully build those great digital products
Speaker 1: and experiences. Because at the end of the day, the
Speaker 1: technical people and the business executives are all aligned in
Speaker 1: what they want. They want to build amazing products and
Speaker 1: experiences that millions or billions of customers are gonna love,
Speaker 1: that will drive business growth. Yet oftentimes there's this invisible
Speaker 1: divide between the business executives and the technical talent because
Speaker 1: they speak different languages. Right. And the interesting thing is
Speaker 1: that I'm a CEO of a public company, I'm also
Speaker 1: a software developers. I've have a foot in both of
Speaker 1: these worlds, and so I wrote the book to try
Speaker 1: to build that bridge, to talk to business executives and
Speaker 1: tell them what goes on in the world of software
Speaker 1: and what their developers are actually doing and how they
Speaker 1: can work with those developers to unlock innovation and build
Speaker 1: great software that will differentiate their company in the eyes
Speaker 1: of their customers, because that is how you win in
Speaker 1: this disual, right well, and I feel like in many ways,
Speaker 1: it's like after the financial crisis, um, we looked at
Speaker 1: CFOs very differently because CFOs how to figure out financially,
Speaker 1: how to get their companies through a really difficult crisis.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't just you know, accounting guys, you know,
Speaker 1: checking out the numbers. They became really key and implement
Speaker 1: you know, and and strategical to companies. And I feel
Speaker 1: like that's what we see now with ct O s
Speaker 1: and i T departments. Increasingly it's not just like, hey,
Speaker 1: I need a new mouse pad, you know, it's a
Speaker 1: lot more strategic, um, you know, especially as almost every
Speaker 1: company has become a tech company. Well, first, I do
Speaker 1: need a new mousepair. Okay, I'll get I'll get right
Speaker 1: on it. You're absolutely right. Twenty years ago, You're right,
Speaker 1: I T was a cost center. It was about you know,
Speaker 1: laptops for the employees and printers and you know, maybe uh,
Speaker 1: you know, the financial system that customers never knew about
Speaker 1: or cared about. But nowadays, when the company their interface
Speaker 1: with their customers is a digital one, customers suddenly care
Speaker 1: about the quality of your software. Are you using software
Speaker 1: to differentiate? So software has moved from the back office
Speaker 1: and cost center to the revenue driver of so many companies,
Speaker 1: and it actually it's something that customers care about. Think
Speaker 1: about your bank, you know. It used to be that
Speaker 1: your bank was a bricks and mortar store that you
Speaker 1: walked into and if it was well decorated, well lit,
Speaker 1: the teller was friendly and they gave your kid a lollipop,
Speaker 1: you'd say, well, I like my bank. Nowadays your bank
Speaker 1: is a software app on your phone, and you like
Speaker 1: to your bank if the app is fast, if it
Speaker 1: doesn't crash, and if it makes you like easier. And
Speaker 1: the act of achieving those things is really the act
Speaker 1: of companies listening to their customers and answering the problems
Speaker 1: that their customers need solved with all that software. And
Speaker 1: that's fundamentally an act of building. And that's why so
Speaker 1: many Silicon Valley companies, who oftentimes higher developers as the
Speaker 1: first thing they do, that's why they end up challenging
Speaker 1: so many different industries but every company is starting to
Speaker 1: adopt that methodology if they want to compete and win
Speaker 1: in this era. And that's what this book is really about.
Speaker 1: It's the playbook for how to do that well. And
Speaker 1: your customer line up, whether it's Uber, what's app, whether
Speaker 1: it's Left, whether it's Nordstrom, whether it's Nike. I mean
Speaker 1: you really kind of look into so many different areas
Speaker 1: of the corporate world based on what you're seeing from
Speaker 1: some of your customers and where they're spending money. What
Speaker 1: does it tell you maybe about our environment, our broader
Speaker 1: market environment. Well, I think that it's it's just it's
Speaker 1: just a truism that in the digital economy, the companies
Speaker 1: with the best digital experiences are going to win the
Speaker 1: heart spinds of wallets of customers. Yeah, and I look
Speaker 1: at you know, it's not just about the startups, and
Speaker 1: it's not just about certain companies. It's really every company.
Speaker 1: In the book, I talked about the story about Domino's
Speaker 1: Pizza actually, which has been a huge, like look at
Speaker 1: their stock place over the last decade. It's an amazing
Speaker 1: story of a company that transformed from a pizza company
Speaker 1: to a technology company and the seat it all started
Speaker 1: with the CEO of Patrick Doyle about a decade ago,
Speaker 1: realized that he needed to transform Dominoes into a technology company.
Speaker 1: Let's he be destructed by all the food delivery services.
Speaker 1: And he started on this path. He hired a great
Speaker 1: leader to leave the organization and then empower them to
Speaker 1: go listen to customers and serve them. And it's a
Speaker 1: great example of how a company one doesn't typically think
Speaker 1: of as a technology company has unlocked this innovation and
Speaker 1: in doing so created tremendous shareholder value and the return
Speaker 1: to go. If anyone hasn't seen it, it's just like
Speaker 1: sleeper success story of the last decade. Yeah, it's really
Speaker 1: it's really remarkable. We've we've talked about their story a lot.
Speaker 1: Hey just got about forty seconds left here, Jeff Um.
Speaker 1: As technology and your own company becomes more entrenched in everyone,
Speaker 1: what's the responsibility of technology? You know, we saw Amazon
Speaker 1: pull off parlor Um. Do you agree with that that
Speaker 1: they've got to also be responsible in terms of who
Speaker 1: they work with and just quickly on that if you could, Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1: You know, in a society, you know, the words you
Speaker 1: use matter, the actions you think matter. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: what it means to be in a society together. And
Speaker 1: this is nothing new, right. It used to be that
Speaker 1: if you walked into a movie theater and yelled fire
Speaker 1: or ice cream shop and started shouting racist epithets like
Speaker 1: you'd be kicked out very quickly. This is a digital
Speaker 1: equivalent of that. That's why technology companies, and really most
Speaker 1: companies have terms of service, acceptable use policies, and if
Speaker 1: customers can't buy it by them, then companies have the
Speaker 1: right to say we don't want you as a customer.
Speaker 1: And that's really what you see going on. And it's
Speaker 1: nothing new. It's writing, uh in the digital realm. Hey, listen,
Speaker 1: good stuff is always good. Luck with the book, Jeff.
Speaker 1: Thank you Jeff Laws and chairman's CEO, co founder of Willio.
Speaker 1: Check out his new book, Ask Your Developer, How to
Speaker 1: Harness the power of software developers and win in the
Speaker 1: twenty first century.