I joined Twilio in May '11 the week of the private launch of Twilio Client. I was #18 or so.
My first day, we got briefings on what it was, what it will do, and then had to finish docs and re-arrange the office for our top customers. (At that stage, most people knew them by name. Shout out patio11!)
Since I knew nothing and the docs were.. weak, I decided to take out the garbage. I grabbed the bags and asked where the dumpster was. Jeff Lawson stopped me and asked if I had an office key card to get back in. Oops, nope. So he grabbed a bag and we took it out together.
So yes, Jeff opened doors for me. ;)
Despite the last year or so of chaos, he founded and built a company that redefined telecomm specifically and tech gtm as a whole. Not a bad track record.
And the infamous five minute demo.. we drilled on that constantly. At my peak (2013), I was giving it 2-3 times a week in front of small groups, with the occasional sales reps, and in front of huge events.
My favorite times were:
- for one of Bob Metcalfe's courses at UT Austin. Yes, that Bob Metcalfe, the co-creator of ethernet. I talked about the origin of Metcalfe's Law here too: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35259442
- 1:1 for Werner Vogels at SXSW. I gave it to one of his senior guys and he said "wow, this is great, let me go get Werner" which was intimidating as f.. a lot. But I managed to nail it.
My first day, we got briefings on what it was, what it will do, and then had to finish docs and re-arrange the office for our top customers. (At that stage, most people knew them by name. Shout out patio11!)
Since I knew nothing and the docs were.. weak, I decided to take out the garbage. I grabbed the bags and asked where the dumpster was. Jeff Lawson stopped me and asked if I had an office key card to get back in. Oops, nope. So he grabbed a bag and we took it out together.
So yes, Jeff opened doors for me. ;)
Despite the last year or so of chaos, he founded and built a company that redefined telecomm specifically and tech gtm as a whole. Not a bad track record.