SaaStr Podcast #218: Twilio Founder, Jeff Lawson & SendGrid CEO, Sameer Dholakia on Why Developer First Is A Maturation In The Supply Chain Of Software
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This post is by Harry Stebbings from SaaStr
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Jeff Lawson is the Founder & CEO @ Twilio, the company building the future of communications allowing you to engage customers like never before on voice, SMS, WhatsApp or Video. Prior to their IPO in 2016, Twilio had raised over $250m in VC funding from some of the best in venture including USV, Bessemer, Salesforce and Techstars just to name a few. Prior to founding Twilio, Jeff was the Founder & CTO @ Nine Star Inc and enjoyed a spell at Amazon as a Technical Product Manager.
Sameer Dholakia is the CEO @ SendGrid, the category leader in email delivery, reaching half of the world’s digital users every 3 months. Last year Twilio acquired SendGrid bringing email into one seamless customer engagement platform. Prior to joining SendGrid, he spent 4 years at Citrix, where he drove the company’s product strategy for cloud infrastructure and server virtualization. Sameer joined the company
2010, when Citrix acquired VMLogix, where he served as CEO and doubled revenues during each year of his tenure. Before that, he worked for 12 years at Trilogy, where he held key leadership roles helping the company grow from a start-up to a $300 million business.
In Today’s Episode We Discuss:
- How Jeff came to found Twilio and what was that a-ha moment for him? How did Sameer enter the world of SaaS and come to be CEO @ SendGrid?
How did Jeff and Sameer assess the culture fit between the 2 companies when deciding whether or not to join forces? How did they formulate and approach creating a new set of values with the 2 companies coming together? How do they distinguish between culture and values? How can leaders both be authoritative and vulnerable simultaneously?
What does Jeff mean when he says, “the developer first approach is a maturation of the supply chain of software?” How has Jeff seen his original thesis for “developer first” evolve and change with time? What does truly special customer experience look like in the developer first model?
In terms of product strategy, how do Jeff and Sameer approach when is the right time to release a second product? What does Jeff mean when he says, “you have to maximize the number of at bat opportunities you have?” Why does Sameer think that SendGrid waited too long to release additional product lines? What were his core learnings from that?
How do Jeff and Sameer think about what what truly special leadership looks like today? How do they approach speaking so that people will remember? What are some of their biggest tips to aspiring entrepreneurs with regards to that and team empowerment? Why do both Jeff and Sameer believe that so much of the management wisdom today is outdated?
60 Second SaaStr:
- What do Jeff and Sameer know now that they wish they had known at the beginning?
The book they have gifted most often and why?
What does it take to truly be a great board member?
What do the next 5 years look like for Twilio? How big could it get?
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Jason Lemkin
Harry Stebbings
SaaStr
Jeff Lawson
Sameer Dholakia
Transcript
Harry Stebbings: Welcome back to the official SaaStr podcast with me, Harry Stebbings. You can suggest future guests and questions on Instagram at @HStebbings1996 with two b’s. Today is one of the most special episodes we have ever done. Why? Well, a number of reasons, but first we have, not one, but two incredible Unicorn CEOs joining us in the hot seat. Second, as a total SaaS nerd, I have to admit they are literally two of my biggest heroes, and then three, because after one acquired the other late last year, they now form one of the most formidable and exciting forces in the world of SaaS.
Harry Stebbings: Can you guess? Well first I’m stoked to welcome Jeff Lawson. Founder and CEO at Twilio, the company building the future of communications, allowing you to engage customers like never before on voice, SMS, WhatsApp, or video and prior to the IPO in 2016, the Twilio and raised over $250 million in VC funding from some of the very best in the business, including USV, Bessemer, Salesforce and Techstars. Just to name a few.
Harry Stebbings: As for Jeff. Prior to founding Twilio, Jeff was the founder and CTO at Nine Star Inc. and enjoyed a spell at Amazon as a technical product manager and if having Jeff on the show was not enough for my SaaS excitement, we have Sameer Dholakia also in the hot seat. Sameer is the CEO at SendGrid, the category leader in email delivery, reaching half of the world’s digital users every three months. And as I said last year, Twilio acquired SendGrid, bringing email into one seamless customer engagement platform.
Harry Stebbings: As for Sameer, prior to joining SendGrid, he spent four years at Citrix, where he drove the company’s product strategy for cloud infrastructure and server virtualization. Sameer joined the company in 2010 when Citrix acquired VM Logix, where he served as CEO and doubled revenues during each year of his tenure. Before that he worked for 12 years at Trilogy where he held key leadership roles helping the company grow from a startup, to a $300 million business.
Harry Stebbings: I do also have to say a huge thank you to Ryan McIntyre at Foundry, Ethan Kurzweil, Byron Deeter, David Cohen, and Scott Rainey for providing some really fantastic questions today. I really do so appreciate that.
Harry Stebbings: Jeff and Sameer. I mean, what can I say? I’ve heard so many great things both from David Cohen and from Byron Deeter. It’s such a pleasure having you on the show today. Thank you so much for joining me.
Jeff Lawson: No, thanks for the opportunity.
Sameer Dholakia: Yeah, thanks for having us.
Harry Stebbings: Not at all, but I want to start today with a little context. Jeff, how did you come to found Twilio and then Sameer, how did you come to be CEO at SendGrid? And I’ll let you decide who goes first.
Jeff Lawson: Sure. I’ll give you the 45 minute background. Really quickly, I am a software developer and I’d started multiple companies before Twilio. One of them, I was the first CTO of Stubhub. Then I was one of the first product managers at Amazon Web Services. When I went to Amazon, I thought about what I wanted to start next and I realized in every single one of the companies I had started previously, there were two things in common. Number one, we use the power of software to iterate quickly, to build idea
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