WEBVTT - Twilio CFO on Digital Solutions for Vaccine Logistics 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:04.160 This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:08.280 Quick Takes Tim Stinovic from Bloomberg Radio. Well. Shares of 0:00:08.320 --> 0:00:11.399 Twilio have been on a tear this year, stocks up 0:00:11.440 --> 0:00:16.160 more than twenty almost so far in one that's after 0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:20.520 percent rally last year. Recent quarterly update big beat, and 0:00:20.560 --> 0:00:23.239 the company also raised its first quarter outlook. Stock shut 0:00:23.320 --> 0:00:25.840 up nearly eight percent on that news alone. Let's get 0:00:25.840 --> 0:00:28.120 an update though, on the business, the global environment, what 0:00:28.160 --> 0:00:31.000 they're hearing from customers. Because am a Ship Chandler is 0:00:31.040 --> 0:00:34.320 CFO at the cloud communication platform and company Twilio, and 0:00:34.400 --> 0:00:37.240 he joins us on the phone in San Francisco because, Ama, 0:00:37.360 --> 0:00:40.640 nice to have you here. How are you. I'm doing great, 0:00:40.680 --> 0:00:42.880 good afternoon. It's great to be here. Well, it's great 0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:45.200 to have you here with us. A great quarter. Investors 0:00:45.240 --> 0:00:49.519 loved it. What's surprising you about the growth and customers 0:00:49.560 --> 0:00:52.239 that are signing on with Twilio? What what is kind 0:00:52.240 --> 0:00:56.120 of beyond your expectations? Well, you know, we had a 0:00:56.160 --> 0:00:58.680 strong performance, I would say pretty much across the board. 0:00:58.760 --> 0:01:00.960 We are in the early innings of what I would 0:01:01.000 --> 0:01:05.040 characterize as really a generational opportunity in this space of 0:01:05.120 --> 0:01:08.119 customer engagement. I think what we found during the course 0:01:08.160 --> 0:01:14.000 of is that when customers embrace software, when they embrace agility, 0:01:14.080 --> 0:01:17.200 and in particular when they decide to build things on 0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:19.680 their own, that they tend to be the ones that 0:01:19.840 --> 0:01:22.560 are winning. And we're lucky to be able to power 0:01:22.600 --> 0:01:24.800 a number of their use cases, right And that's exactly 0:01:24.840 --> 0:01:27.440 what you guys are doing, providing the tools for them 0:01:27.440 --> 0:01:29.880 to be able to do that. How much though, of 0:01:29.920 --> 0:01:33.440 what you're seeing is a surge to digitally catch up 0:01:33.480 --> 0:01:36.040 and expand because of COVID in the shutdown and the 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:37.959 big move for the world to digital and e commerce. 0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:41.320 How much is to catch up in your view, that's 0:01:41.319 --> 0:01:44.400 a great question. I do think it's more an acceleration, 0:01:44.440 --> 0:01:47.520 I would say, than catch up. We feel like the 0:01:47.560 --> 0:01:50.840 shift that's been happening is permanent. You know, we've done 0:01:50.840 --> 0:01:52.840 a number of studies I'm sure you've seen a number 0:01:52.840 --> 0:01:56.880 of external studies as well that basically suggests that businesses 0:01:56.920 --> 0:02:00.040 are not going to go back that over of and 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:03.760 in fact planned to either increase or maintain the levels 0:02:03.760 --> 0:02:07.360 of investment that they've been making in customer engagement after 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:11.160 the pandemic. So we're very excited about our prospects going forward. Well, 0:02:11.160 --> 0:02:12.720 what do you guys do once you kind of land 0:02:12.760 --> 0:02:14.720 a customer, right and you get kind of that initial 0:02:14.800 --> 0:02:18.000 level and you know, relationship between you and the customer, Like, 0:02:18.200 --> 0:02:20.840 what are the next layers that you can help in 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:25.200 terms of helping the customer with what they're doing. I 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:27.560 think what's important about our business model, which is really 0:02:27.760 --> 0:02:30.800 exciting and keeps the cost down as well, actually is 0:02:30.840 --> 0:02:35.560 that most of our interactions start because a developer inside 0:02:35.560 --> 0:02:38.400 of one of the companies that we're working with, starts 0:02:38.440 --> 0:02:41.760 working on our platform, develops a use case. We notice 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:44.919 that there's a certain amount of activity there, and once 0:02:44.960 --> 0:02:47.800 we do, we have a salesperson contact the company and 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:50.640 we start doing some work with them, and they'll start 0:02:50.680 --> 0:02:52.799 with the use case. It might be an SMS, it 0:02:52.919 --> 0:02:56.119 might be a one time notification of something, but then 0:02:56.200 --> 0:02:59.519 will offer some of the other aspects of our portfolio. 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:02.840 It could voice messaging, it could be other SMS use cases. 0:03:02.880 --> 0:03:05.040 It could be email, you know. Now, it could be 0:03:05.080 --> 0:03:08.160 segment with the company that we just bought with respect 0:03:08.160 --> 0:03:11.000 to data. So there are any number of things that 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:13.280 we can do for a customer as it relates to 0:03:13.280 --> 0:03:15.880 customer engagement. I'll give you a great example. You know, 0:03:16.000 --> 0:03:18.440 last week, obviously we were all watching what was happening 0:03:18.480 --> 0:03:21.919 in Texas, and you know, we were able to deploy 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:25.640 a hotline in twenty four hours to help them manage 0:03:26.160 --> 0:03:29.000 thousands of calls, not just with respect to all of 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:32.720 the emergency response activity, but also you know the vaccine 0:03:32.720 --> 0:03:36.240 distribution and the logistics associated with that. We're not just 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:38.600 doing it in Texas, for doing it all the way 0:03:38.640 --> 0:03:41.280 from California, all the way across the Maine as well, 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:43.640 So it really does run the gamut. Well, I'm glad 0:03:43.680 --> 0:03:46.160 you took took us there, because that is certainly something 0:03:46.200 --> 0:03:48.880 we kick off every broadcast talking about the latest and 0:03:49.000 --> 0:03:51.840 greatest fingers cross when it comes to COVID and the vaccine. 0:03:51.880 --> 0:03:53.840 Talk to us little bit more about what you folks 0:03:53.880 --> 0:03:56.480 are doing at twilio to help others when it comes 0:03:56.600 --> 0:04:00.720 in particular to getting that vaccine out and communicating communication 0:04:00.760 --> 0:04:03.760 within communities, because we know that has been something that 0:04:03.880 --> 0:04:08.520 was certainly lagging, uh certainly early on. Yeah, So part 0:04:08.520 --> 0:04:11.840 of it is deploying a hotline. Another part of it 0:04:11.920 --> 0:04:16.400 is using our SMS capabilities so that we can provide 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:21.200 patients with alert and scheduling information. Another part of it 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:24.920 is so that medical professionals can communicate with one another 0:04:25.400 --> 0:04:29.520 in a time sensitive way visa v text messaging. And 0:04:29.560 --> 0:04:32.560 so if you just consider all of these different areas 0:04:32.600 --> 0:04:37.600 that allow medical professionals, patients, folks that are attempting to 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:40.520 get the vaccine in the hands of patients, it just 0:04:40.560 --> 0:04:43.799 allows for a very seamless experience. It makes sure that 0:04:44.400 --> 0:04:47.240 patients are able to get the information when they need it. 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:49.800 They can get it through whatever channel they want, whether 0:04:49.839 --> 0:04:53.800 it's SMS, whether it's voice, whether it's email, And these 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:57.920 same solutions can be used to register folks and then 0:04:57.960 --> 0:05:01.159 constantly communicate with them to make sure that they're keeping 0:05:01.160 --> 0:05:03.080 their appointments and that they go back for the second 0:05:03.120 --> 0:05:05.960 vaccine as well. Yeah, it's great and it creates some organization. 0:05:06.240 --> 0:05:08.840 Um I think that many would would argue that wasn't 0:05:08.920 --> 0:05:10.800 quite there at the beginning. Okay, I want to go 0:05:10.839 --> 0:05:13.479 back to what you guys are doing and where you 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:15.880 go from here, especially once you start working with a customer. 0:05:15.920 --> 0:05:19.280 We had on James Chok Mok earlier covers the tech sector, 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:20.960 and I said to him, Okay, so if you were 0:05:21.000 --> 0:05:24.440 talking Uh, to the CFO of Twilio, what would you 0:05:24.480 --> 0:05:26.440 want to know? And he said, you know what's interesting 0:05:26.560 --> 0:05:29.359 is how do you improve you know, how do you 0:05:29.440 --> 0:05:32.479 kind of boost beyond Once you start working with a 0:05:32.560 --> 0:05:36.320 customer and you are providing data and working with them, 0:05:36.400 --> 0:05:39.120 how do you kind of improve upon that in terms 0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:42.560 of productivity? And I'm curious, how do you guys think 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:45.440 about that and taking your services to the next level 0:05:45.440 --> 0:05:49.680 for your customers. Yeah, I'll give you a great, great example. Obviously, 0:05:49.839 --> 0:05:53.120 tax season is right around the corner and one of 0:05:53.120 --> 0:05:56.400 our marquee customers has been H and R Block historically, 0:05:57.200 --> 0:06:00.680 and just in the last quarter, we've expanded our relationship 0:06:00.760 --> 0:06:03.800 with that customer as they prepare for the tax season. 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:06.880 Obviously there's a huge surge and the amount of activity 0:06:06.920 --> 0:06:10.800 that they see, and what we're doing is actually giving 0:06:10.800 --> 0:06:14.720 them tooling so that they're able to provide better virtual 0:06:14.800 --> 0:06:19.680 tax support using our Twilio video product. Obviously, last year 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:22.360 around this time, the pandemic was just starting. It wasn't 0:06:22.440 --> 0:06:24.600 quite clear how things were going to play out. And 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:29.320 so now above and beyond the the voice, SMS and 0:06:29.400 --> 0:06:32.800 chat capabilities that we're already providing them, they can now 0:06:32.960 --> 0:06:35.800 also enhance the experience between H and R block and 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:39.919 their consumer base using a really simple and easy to 0:06:40.040 --> 0:06:44.080 use in app API to deploy video to make for 0:06:44.120 --> 0:06:47.200 a richer consumer experience. That makes a lot of sense. 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:49.440 What about all the data that that's coming into all 0:06:49.520 --> 0:06:52.839 of these customers that you guys work with um and 0:06:52.839 --> 0:06:55.520 and helping them in terms of be more productive with 0:06:55.560 --> 0:06:59.320 that use of data kind of the data overloads. Yeah, 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:01.640 that's a great question. And so we actually bought a 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:04.560 company towards the end of last year. It's called Segment 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:09.039 and Segment their entire value proposition of the company is 0:07:09.080 --> 0:07:10.920 to really focus on data. And one of the things 0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:14.080 that they do uniquely, well there's the only company to 0:07:14.160 --> 0:07:16.360 my knowledge on the planet that can actually pull it off, 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:19.360 is that they can grab data out of all of 0:07:19.360 --> 0:07:24.560 the unique silos inside of a company, put that data together, 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:27.680 orchestrate it in a way, organize it in a way 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:31.800 that makes it really simple to understand what's going on 0:07:32.160 --> 0:07:35.600 with the consumer experience. So that what we're then able 0:07:35.640 --> 0:07:39.320 to do is help our customers ensure that they can 0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:43.440 then deliver a rich consumer experience. So using all of 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:46.960 these disparate data sources We've got the proverbial one pane 0:07:46.960 --> 0:07:50.480 of glass that allows you then to subsequently deliver something 0:07:50.520 --> 0:07:54.240 that's really personalized, really rewarding if you're on the consumer 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:58.680 ended experience. Sounds like a big growth area for you guys. Absolutely, 0:07:58.920 --> 0:08:01.800 we're really excited about that acquisition. We've signed on some 0:08:01.880 --> 0:08:05.240 interesting winds recently and I think there's a lot more 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:06.760 that we can do with it. We're just getting started. 0:08:06.960 --> 0:08:09.560 So because they I want to ask you, you do 0:08:09.680 --> 0:08:12.239 work with just about everybody. If you go to your website, 0:08:12.240 --> 0:08:15.480 it's Lift, it's Ubert, Shopify, it's Instacard, it's Morgan Stanley, 0:08:15.480 --> 0:08:18.720 it's lending Tree, it's Netflix, it's Twitter, it's yelp. What 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:21.560 are you hearing from those clients which crossed so many 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:24.560 different industries? What are you hearing from them? And what 0:08:24.600 --> 0:08:27.160 are you seeing in terms of your working with them? 0:08:27.240 --> 0:08:30.320 About what that tells us about how the business environment 0:08:30.440 --> 0:08:32.880 is and what's going on more broadly in the economy. 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:37.360 Maybe what kind of year one might be. Yeah, I 0:08:37.400 --> 0:08:40.640 think what's never been truer than it is today is 0:08:40.720 --> 0:08:45.040 this whole idea around the importance of customer engagement. I 0:08:45.080 --> 0:08:49.200 think we're all used to one way experiences sometimes with 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:54.960 our customers, and unfortunately those experiences weren't enabled previously by technology. 0:08:55.120 --> 0:08:58.400 But now enter Twilio and some of the things that 0:08:58.440 --> 0:09:03.120 we're able to do to help drive that rich consumer 0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:07.280 experience so that you, as a consumer can do business 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:09.680 with the clients that you really care about. You can 0:09:09.720 --> 0:09:13.160 get the kinds of messages from them that you really 0:09:13.200 --> 0:09:16.280 care about. Obviously, for our customers that helps them drive 0:09:16.440 --> 0:09:20.679 a revenue event, but to the consumer herself, it's really 0:09:20.720 --> 0:09:24.559 important because that individual is able to get the information 0:09:24.600 --> 0:09:27.480 that they want, when they want it, through the channel 0:09:27.520 --> 0:09:30.520 that they want, without it kind of becoming this annoying 0:09:30.559 --> 0:09:34.080 clutter that we sometimes experience otherwise through these channels. And 0:09:34.160 --> 0:09:36.640 so customer engagements the name of the game. And I 0:09:36.679 --> 0:09:39.920 think going forward, every one of the companies that we're 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:44.280 working with, they see more share of wallet going towards 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:48.840 these customer facing interactions, and we think that's going to continue. 0:09:48.880 --> 0:09:51.840 We think it's part of a long term secular trend. Frankly, Okay, 0:09:51.840 --> 0:09:54.000 so that's the trend. But what does it say the 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:58.040 economy doing well? Second half story? You know from from 0:09:58.040 --> 0:10:00.920 these conversations, what does it tell you about the visibility 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:04.640 for our economy and really our business environment. Yeah, I 0:10:04.640 --> 0:10:07.480 mean I'm not a macro economist, obviously, I'll I'll maybe 0:10:07.520 --> 0:10:10.319 kind of answer your question through the lens of our 0:10:10.360 --> 0:10:14.200 our consumer experience, our customer experience. Excuse me. What we're 0:10:14.240 --> 0:10:17.559 generally seeing is a lot of strength in in the marketplace, 0:10:17.640 --> 0:10:21.240 and whether it's UH an online retailer, whether it's an 0:10:21.240 --> 0:10:24.559 e commerce provider, whether it's a brick and mortar bank, 0:10:24.840 --> 0:10:27.840 we're seeing a lot of traction and a lot of activity. 0:10:27.880 --> 0:10:31.640 And so I would say we're cautiously optimistic about the 0:10:31.640 --> 0:10:34.240 way that the broader economy plays out, just based on 0:10:34.800 --> 0:10:37.080 the activity that we see on our platform. We do 0:10:37.280 --> 0:10:41.520 see a significant move of that activity from you know, 0:10:41.559 --> 0:10:44.800 sort of an uh an in person environment more much 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:48.320 more towards an online environment. I think many of the 0:10:48.440 --> 0:10:51.680 things that we were used to previously attending in person, 0:10:52.000 --> 0:10:54.520 as much as I'm desperate to go, you know, do 0:10:54.600 --> 0:10:56.600 a restaurant in person, I think we're all getting used 0:10:56.640 --> 0:10:59.839 to as consumers um the idea of getting things to 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:03.560 everard and and having communications tools help orchestrate some of that. 0:11:03.600 --> 0:11:05.440 So I think you will see a shift in the 0:11:05.440 --> 0:11:08.760 way some of these organizations work. But we're broadly optimistic, 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:11.720 I would say cautiously so just given what a what 0:11:11.760 --> 0:11:14.360 a dynamic macro environment it is out there. Hey, one 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:16.839 last question in terms of you guys seem to be 0:11:16.880 --> 0:11:21.120 firing on all cylinders. It's really impressive and impressive story 0:11:21.160 --> 0:11:24.479 and company to watch. Access to workers, any labor constraints. 0:11:24.480 --> 0:11:27.880 Where are you finding maybe problems as you move forward 0:11:28.200 --> 0:11:30.360 that maybe can be holding back your growth? And just 0:11:30.400 --> 0:11:33.760 got about forty five seconds. Yeah, that's a great question. 0:11:33.880 --> 0:11:36.040 I don't see any real issues in terms of our 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:39.240 ability to access talent. I think, if anything, Like many 0:11:39.240 --> 0:11:42.560 other companies, what we're finding is is that as everybody's 0:11:42.559 --> 0:11:44.960 working from home, there's a global talent market that we 0:11:45.040 --> 0:11:48.360 can get our talent from. And we're really excited about that. 0:11:48.520 --> 0:11:50.480 All right, good stuff, Hey, listen, thank you so much. 0:11:50.520 --> 0:11:52.480 What a great conversation and really cool to watch what 0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:55.200 you guys are doing. Because Ama Ship Chandler, he is 0:11:55.240 --> 0:11:58.400 the chief financial officer at Twilio, shutting us on the 0:11:58.440 --> 0:12:00.960 phone from San Francisco's I meant and earlier this was 0:12:01.000 --> 0:12:04.840 one of the really top performers in stock is up 0:12:04.840 --> 0:12:07.760 about one so far this year, and the company did 0:12:07.800 --> 0:12:12.360 recently update UH and raise their outlook for the first quarter.