Jeff Lawson
@jeffiel
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Owner of The Onion. Entrepreneur, ex-CEO and cofounder of Twilio. NYT Worst Selling author.
Joined May 2008
I am opposed to the recall of Governor Newsom here in California. I wanted to briefly walk through why this is important, and encourage CA citizens to vote in the upcoming recall election.
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So Google Drive has this weird emergent behavior: . When an employee leaves a company, their manager typically inherits their files. As time goes on, all documents migrate upward. So after 16 years as CEO, here's my Google account.
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Alright, the news is out. Yes, I bought The Onion. Why? .1/4.
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🧵 With many of the Valley’s richest companies fleeing the Bay mid-pandemic, I feel compelled to speak out. There’s no question that California is imperfect. The cost of living, taxes and policies, among other things, make it difficult for lots of people to succeed here. (1/9).
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Attention students of America. If you get detention because you walked out and joined the March - I will send you a gallon of ice cream for every day of detention. Because kids should have ice cream, not detention. Seriously, text me if you're in this situation 727-866-4867.
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The Onion is an institution, a national treasure, and we need it. But its success is based on something different than most media companies. The Onion has been stifled, along with most of the Internet, by byzantine cookie dialogs, paywalls, bizarro belly fat ads, and clickbait.
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A lot of people have asked, what do I get for $2? . Twice as much nothing.
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This week we're adding an explicit prohibition of hate speech in Twilio's Acceptable Use Policy. Hope other tech co's do the same.
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That’s why we’re asking everybody to pitch in $1. If you care about The Onion, if the Onion ever made you laugh – give us a buck. For that dollar, you get… absolutely nothing. Just a smug sense that you’ve once again spent less on The Onion than its worth in your life. 3/4.
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For the first time ever, we have microphones on Mars! This is the first recorded audio of what it sounds like on the red planet. Amazing!.
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Over time, we’ll be introducing new products and getting into new mediums. But more than anything – this is about unleashing the creative team that’s been making you laugh for over 30 years. Letting these amazing writers do what they do best. I can’t wait to see what you pee in.
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I disagree with this privately and publicly.
Diversity shouldn't "override" merit in hiring decisions, says Snowflake CEO Frank Slootman. And he tells @emilychangtv other CEOs agree with this privately, despite what they may say publicly
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Newsom may not be perfect, but I'm pretty sure that he's better than the outcome that this horrible governance exercise may very well produce. So exercise your vote. This recall stuff is playing with fire.
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I think Governor Newsom has led California well during the pandemic, and while it's not been perfect, he's led with science and (generally) reasonable policies. But even if you reasonably disagree, there are compelling reasons to be against the recall. .
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If a majority of people vote to recall (Yes on question 1), then the candidate with the most votes in question 2 takes the governorship. This is… batshit poor governance. Look at the math.
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What I take issue with is our leaders—people of means— abandoning our community when it needs us most. Reaping the benefits of Silicon Valley’s talent, tech incubators, mentors, professional network, and culture until they no longer need it. (3/9).
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To those figuring out how the coming weeks with kids are home are going to work, I offer the schedule my friend put together for his family
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I’m asking my colleagues, friends and fellow CEOs to #committothebay. Pledge to stay and rebuild what has given so much to us. This is what it means to be a part of a community. @twilio isn’t going anywhere. (7/9).
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Zuck champions free speech, but fails to mention that the FB algorithm decides what billions read every day, amplifying the speech that maximize revenue. Don't pretend this is a 1st amendment matter. It's about revenue maximization. Shut down the algo and we're aligned.
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First, the recall election is triggered by gathering signatures representing only 12% of the voters in the prior election. Given no candidate wins with 88% support, there are always 12% of the population who probably want a re-do, on either side.
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I just published "Separating immigrant families isn’t just wrong, it’s a war crime".
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Recently came across this Twilio board deck from almost exactly 10 years ago! I thought I'd share it in case anybody gets value from learning how one early stage leadership team communicated progress to it's early stage board.
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I’m investing in San Francisco. My wife & I were among the first to support Give2SF, the city's COVID relief fund. We have committed $8M this year for Help Kitchen ( to connect the food insecure with meals from local restaurants. (8/9).
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This community has bred and cultivated some of the most successful and innovative companies in the world. And to be frank, it made a lot of business leaders extraordinarily wealthy. If you reaped the benefit, pay your taxes! (4/9).
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So… mathematically, if 49% of people vote to keep the governor, he “loses” and is recalled, and is replaced by a candidate with (at current polling) 20% or less of the votes!.
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More than anything, the importance of the recall is a matter of good governance for the most populous state in the US and 5th largest economy in the world.
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To get their name on the ballot, one needs just 65 signatures and a ~$4k filing fee. That's it. There are 46 candidates on the ballot, who met the low bar for inclusion, including a healthy mix of talk show radio hosts, YouTubers, and a hairstylist.
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Learning this whole public company CEO thing. I'm supposed to express interest in buying Twitter now, right?.
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What San Francisco needs now as small businesses are desperate for a lifeline, average Americans are food insecure, workers are losing their jobs, homes and loved ones to this nasty virus and shelters and hospitals are overrun is for tech leaders to step up and give back. (5/9).
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Third, like primaries, it's likely that people with more extreme views will bother to participate in a recall election. So it's not unlikely that a person with a small minority of the vote, from an extreme electorate, will become the next CA governor.
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Second, how the recall election itself works is problematic: there are two ballot questions. a) Should the governor be recalled? (Y/N) and if he is, then b) who should fulfill the remainder of the term (pick one)?.
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In other words, the primary use-case today for web3 is VC returns.
Today @pmarca was asked by @tylercowen to explain a Web3 use case. I clipped this gem from 28:08 of Conversations With Tyler. Highly recommended.
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We have the opportunity to build a better, more equitable place to live and work. To become stronger as a result. #committothebay #webuild (9/9).
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I’m excited to announce my book, #AskYourDeveloper, releasing Jan 2021 from @HarperBusiness! . It’s a playbook to help bridge the gap between business people and their developers-- to build great software products and win in the digital economy.
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So for those keeping score, this formula is accurate according to “recall math”: 20 > 49 ?!?.
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Today @twilio announced we’re acquiring @Segment. By adding their data platform into the Twilio fold, we'll be able to build the customer engagement platform of the future, providing unparalleled insight into the way customers interact across every channel.
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Announcing the Twilio API for WhatsApp. An official, supported, easy to use API for developers and brands to reach customers in the top messaging app globally. We can’t wait to see what you build!.
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Currently, the leading candidate is polling with about 20% support.
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We let our kids name our new home school. They will therefore be attending the “San Francisco School of Video Games, Laser Tag, and like Math and Stuff, Academy with Bunnies” for the next several weeks. Share your school’s name!.
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To every engineer who worked to meet the GDPR deadline today, thank you. I truly believe that the work every company is now doing to become more aware of our data footprint, and to provide transparency to our users, is making the world better.
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Just leaving this here for any software entrepreneurs considering doing consumer desktop apps.
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Join me in welcoming Twilio's first CIO! Welcome to Twilio Michelle! .
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To commit to helping our community not only get through this pandemic but to emerge stronger, more equitable, and more sustainable for all. Give more than you take from this community. (6/9).
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That's a wrap on @Twilio Q3 earnings! $448M rev, up 52% Y/Y with 137% expansion rate. In Q3 we welcomed @lybrac as our Chief DEI Officer, Deloitte Digital as a Premier GSI Partner, huge virtual #SignalCONF, & soon to welcome the Team @segment!. Proud of Team Twilio! Onward!
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(By the way, Austin is awesome. I just hope you don’t abandon them too when its convenient.).
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At Twilio, we've seen a huge influx of COVID-related ideas getting built by non-profits, health care systems, entrepreneurs and more. The energy to build is amazing. If you need help for your organization or community RE: CV, reach out to coronavirus@twilio.com.
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We want to help consumers take back their phones. Verified by Twilio will help consumers know who is calling them and why, giving them the confidence to answer the phone again. #SIGNALConf
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True story: Venmo was the first Twilio SMS customer. Pretty sure I was one of the first Venmo users. Anybody got me beat?
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Our office is around the corner from the proposed site, and we’d happily welcome a navigation center to house hundreds of homeless in our neighborhood. #YIMBY.
Homelessness is a crisis in our city and we need to act to get people off the streets and into housing. We're happy to demonstrate how these Nav Centers work and the benefits they've brought to other neighborhoods, but we can't afford unnecessary delays.
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Folks have asked me my thoughts about the exploding number of unwanted robocalls. Twilio doesn’t allow these shenanigans, and I'm as concerned about robocalls as you are. I think it’s time to take back your phone. My thoughts:
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That's a wrap on @Twilio's Q2 2021 earnings! $669M up 67% Y/Y, fueled by 135% net expansion. Congrats to Twilions everywhere for yet again wearing our customers' shoes and driving the future of customer engagement (and helping to vaccinate nearly 300M people!) #ProudTwilion
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To the asshole who stole my bicycle today:. You’re an asshole. Sincerely, . Jeff.
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Folks, I have to remind you to honor Section 15 of Twilio's Terms of Service.
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Every year at Twilio, we take an epic all hands photo. Here's 2018!
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I just published “The immigration ban is fundamentally UnAmerican”
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True story.
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It's astonishing how poorly Musk, Branson, & Bezos are portraying the societal benefits of safe, affordable, and widely-accessible space travel can become over the coming years and decades. They're landing the ships, but completely crashing the message.
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Q2 2018 earnings call in the bag! Congratulations to Twilions worldwide on a great quarter - 54% year over year revenue growth and op profit a quarter before plan. Onward!
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Original Twilio name-brainstorm list just found! . FYI - pig is a short, memorable word.
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My wife asked if I knew who was playing in the Super Bowl. I didn’t realize the NFL played their season.
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Achievement unlocked. Called out by Mary Meeker in her 2019 Internet Trends report! Thanks Mary!
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I fully understand, respect & support the desire to seek out more affordable locations when the opportunity presents itself. People need to do what’s best for them, their family and well-being & I respect those decisions. (2/9).
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That’s a wrap! Congrats Twilions on a great Q3 and a new milestone, our first $100M quarter!
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The result of having a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture is more customer value, more engaged employees & increased shareholder value. That is based on ample longitudinal studies across many industries.
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To help combat Robocalling and provide transparency, we’ve built a service to let you lookup the (probable) carrier who initiated the call. You can also report offenders to us in case the call was initiated front Twilio. #YourPhoneYourCall.
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🧵 My first book #AskYourDeveloper: How to Harness the Power of Software Developers and Win in the 21st Century is available today from @HarperBusiness
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Twilio Q1 earnings call is a wrap! Great quarter of execution from Twilions around the world, and a big milestone of a half billion dollar runrate!
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This is why I believe By Right Building is needed in San Francisco. If a proposed project meets all laws and codes, you should be allowed to build it. If the community disagrees, then they elect officials to change said laws and codes.
“In Daly City, the city and school district got together, agreed they needed housing and then didn’t ask 8,000 single-family homeowners their opinion about it.”.
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Love what Amazon has done with the home screen, everything is so easy now! http://t.co/5cXY6CooWH.
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I promise. But if you don’t give us the dollar before going to sleep tonight you will turn into a cow slot machine in your dreams and you’ll never wake up and if you do wake up you’ll be a cow slot machine in real life.
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It is a dark day in our nation’s history. Stripping away this basic human right disproportionately impacts the most vulnerable women across the country. Both I and Twilio support every woman’s right to choose.
In response to today’s SCOTUS ruling, Twilio is taking these steps to support our employees and to support reproductive healthcare rights around the world.
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Watch the interview, I think it's very misguided. I respect Frank and Snowflake, but this is a bad take. Building a diverse company, where every talented person, regardless of background, can contribute and be successful is not a "distraction". it's a key job of a CEO.
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Every year, Black Friday is the highest volume day for email on Twilio SendGrid, and 2019 was no exception. The team preps all year for this day. Congrats to the entire team for fantastic execution today, reaching by far all time volume with no incidents. Next stop, Cyber Monday!.
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First $TWLO earnings call in the bag! Thank you customers, shareholders and all Twilions for an awesome quarter!
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Regarding our new remote-first way of operating Twilio, one of our leaders told me yesterday: . "Work is a thing you do, not a place you go to." . I liked the clarity and simplicity of that statement.
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The irony would be if all this free marketing for Game Stop resulted in actual elevated sales, meriting a bull position.
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Excited to announce the opening of Twilio's newest office in Atlanta!
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And that's a wrap on Q2 2019 Earnings! Incredibly proud of Twilions around the world as we pass the $1B revenue runrate milestone at 86% Y/Y growth! Tremendous quarter, yet the opportunity is ahead. See you at SIGNAL next week, at Moscone Center!
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That’s a wrap on Q3 2019! Now more than 7 million developers, $275 million total revenue, 75% y/y growth — with a diverse group of new customers: Allianz, Westpac, Compucom/OfficeDepot, @Chime, @ByMasonUSA and 172,000+ customers in total. Congrats Team @Twilio on a great Q3!
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That's a wrap on @Twilio Q1 2021 - congrats to all Twilions on yet another quarter of continued strength across the board! $590M quarterly revenue, up 62% Y/Y, strong 133% expansion rate, & a huge thank you to our 235,000 active customers for putting your trust in Twilio. Onward!
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A highlight of my life was welcoming Michelle Obama to the #SignalConf virtual stage today!
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