Twilio's 2016 IPO letter from Jeff Lawson

About this letter

Jeff Lawson, Twilio's co-founder, chief executive and chairman, wrote this letter for the registration statement on form S-1 that Twilio filed with the SEC on 26 May 2016 ahead of its initial public offering. Titled 'By Developers, For Developers', it sits before the business section of the prospectus.

Lawson introduces himself as a software developer and serial entrepreneur who, at each earlier company, needed communications built into his software and found the communications industry moving at another cadence altogether, with every idea taking years and millions of dollars to roll out. He explains that he, Evan Cooke and John Wolthuis set out in 2008 to build a cloud platform that powers communication in other software applications. The letter goes on to describe the company's Nine Values and Leadership Principles and Twilio.org, its programme for non-profits.

What to notice

1. 1

   Twilio inverts the traditional enterprise sales model: it publishes its pricing, supports customers even on free trials, and puts a commercial transaction after the customer is already succeeding with the product.

“We can't wait to see what you build.”