Jeff Lawson
Born 1977 · Age 48
American entrepreneur and investor; co-founder and longtime CEO of Twilio; serial founder (Versity, StubHub, NineStar) and early Amazon product manager who helped launch AWS; investor and philanthropist.
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Life & Career Timeline
Started event video production business (middle school)
Began shooting and editing videos for events (bar mitzvahs), launching his first entrepreneurial venture while in middle school.
Expanded event/video business through high school
Grew his video business through high school, filming weddings and weekend events; reportedly made up to $5,000 per wedding.
Enrolled at University of Michigan
Matriculated at the University of Michigan to study computer science and film/video.
Took entrepreneurial leaves during college
Took approximately four years off from his degree program over the 1995–2003 period to pursue startups and product work.
Founded Versity.com, Inc.
Founded Versity (listed as co-founder, CEO & CTO in bios).
Co-founded/Founding CTO of StubHub.com
Involved as a founding technologist of StubHub (listed as 'founding CTO' in profiles); company founding listed April 2000 in the sources provided.
Founded Nine Star Inc (NineStar)
Founded Nine Star Inc (also shown in his early-entrepreneur bios; he later served as Founder & CTO).
Graduated University of Michigan (BS in Computer Science & Film/Video)
Completed bachelor's degree after pauses for entrepreneurial work; degree in computer science and film/video.
Became an early product manager on Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Spent roughly 15 months working on AWS product management; cited as formative in inspiring 'infrastructure as a service' thinking.
Joined Amazon as Technical Product Manager
Hired at Amazon in a product management role; one of his early major corporate roles after graduation.
Left Amazon to found Twilio
Departed Amazon in January 2008 to start Twilio, a company to provide communications (SMS, voice, etc.) via APIs.
Launched Twilio (initial product/API offering)
Twilio launched developer-facing communications APIs (SMS, voice) enabling software-driven communications.
Began serving as Twilio CEO and Chairman
Assumed the CEO role at Twilio from founding; led product and growth for more than a decade.
Angel investments (Versity & NineStar listed and others)
Listed as an angel investor in Mattermark, Nine Star, Versity and Major League Hacking (timing spread across 2000s–2010s).
Major media coverage and profile pieces (Forbes, etc.)
Featured in multiple national profiles describing Twilio's growth and Lawson's leadership (2016 onward).
Twilio IPO (raised ~$150M)
Twilio went public (NYSE: TWLO); the IPO raised roughly $150 million, exceeding initial expectations.
Twilio donated $1M to San Francisco homelessness programs
Publicly backed local homelessness efforts and Twilio announced a $1M donation to local programs.
Signed The Giving Pledge
Jeff Lawson and his wife signed the Giving Pledge, committing to give away a majority of their wealth.
Twilio acquires SendGrid (company-level milestone noted in profiles)
Twilio completed a major acquisition of SendGrid (profile references his board/connection to SendGrid and Twilio's M&A activity during this period).
Twilio reached ~$1 billion annual run rate
Profiles and talks referenced Twilio growing to a $1B run rate under Lawson's leadership.
Named a billionaire as Twilio stock surged
Forbes reported Lawson became a billionaire as Twilio stock jumped in 2019.
Led investor group to buy The Onion (satirical site)
Led a small investor group (with Ben Collins and others) to acquire The Onion; created company 'Global Tetrahedron' for ownership/operations.
Lawson re-entered billionaire ranks as stock surged
Forbes reported Lawson 'jumps back into billionaire ranks' in May 2020 as demand for cloud communications increased.
Sold 27,000 shares of Twilio stock
Insider transaction reported (MarketBeat) of 27,000 shares sold by Jeff Lawson.
Announced acquisition of Segment for ~$3.2B
Twilio announced its acquisition of customer data platform Segment; deal value reported at about $3.2 billion.
Published book (CEO commentary referenced)
Forbes referenced Lawson's 'new book' in early 2021 about leveraging developers and digital transformation (commonly cited as 'Ask Your Developer').
Twilio valuation briefly peaked (reported ~ $70B)
Profiles noted Twilio's valuation briefly skyrocketed to about $70 billion after its public-market momentum.
Twilio launched marketing product built on Segment acquisition
Forbes coverage noted Twilio expanded into marketing with a new product born of the Segment acquisition, first major product from that integration.
Public philanthropy and SF civic involvement
Publicly defended San Francisco, gave to local causes and participated in efforts to build homeless services (reported donations and civic advocacy across 2018–2022).
Attempted/group bid for Infowars (purchase halted by judge)
News coverage described the group that owns The Onion (which Lawson is a principal of) announced an attempted purchase of Infowars; a bankruptcy judge temporarily halted the deal.
Reported political donations with wife (more than $400k)
SFChronicle reported Lawson and his wife donated more than $400,000 to moderate causes in local elections over the prior year (report published later).
Ongoing angel investor activities (Mattermark, Major League Hacking)
Profiles list him as an angel investor in Mattermark and Major League Hacking among other early-stage bets; investments span 2000s–2020s.
Reported resignation as Twilio CEO (profileled as 'resigned earlier this year')
News profiles stated Lawson resigned as CEO earlier in the year amid investor disputes about company direction (date and details reported in SFChronicle timeline coverage).
Listed as owner/principal of Global Tetrahedron (Onion's owning entity)
Listed among principals (with Ben Collins, Leila Brillson, Danielle Strle) in the ownership/management structure for The Onion under the Global Tetrahedron name.
Regular keynote & conference speaker (Fast Company, AAE listings)
Continues to speak at major industry events and is represented on speaker bureaus for corporate keynote appearances (Fast Company, AAE speaker listings noted).
Multiple media appearances and leadership interviews
Featured in numerous interviews and talks about developer-led business, API strategy, and Twilio's culture (Forbes, TechCrunch, YouTube talks referenced).
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