Jeff Lawson, CEO of Twilio: The API Economy

Jeff Lawson is the cofounder and CEO of Twilio, a $10 billion public software communications company.

Jeff has an incredible founder story. Prior to Twilio, he co-founded Versity, which he sold for $30 million when he was just 23 years old. He was also the founding CTO of Stubhub and one of the first product managers at AWS. He founded Twilio in 2008. 

In this episode, Jeff shares his insights into the API economy, scaling successful businesses, and the future of the SaaS business model. Jeff and Auren reflect on the evolution of SaaS and discuss which areas still have yet to be disrupted. 

Jeff dives into Twilio’s fascinating journey, including his takes on raising money in a challenging environment and pitching new technology to investors. He provides a firsthand account of Twilio’s journey from startup to billion dollar public company, including how they built a top tier sales organization. He and Auren also discuss API business models, the challenges of M&A, and breaking down internal silos that hold companies back. 

World of DaaS is brought to you by SafeGraph & Flex Capital. For more episodes, visit safegraph.com/podcasts.

You can find Auren Hoffman on X at @auren and Jeff Lawson on X at @jeffiel.