Twilio
Encyclopedia
Twilio is a cloud communications
IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) company based in San Francisco, California
. Twilio allows software developers to programmatically make and receive phone calls
and send and receive text messages using its web service
APIs. Twilio's services are accessed over HTTP and are billed based on usage.
Twilio has over 40,000 registered software developers using the service.
, Evan Cooke, and John Wolthuis and was originally based in both Seattle, Washington
and San Francisco, California
.
Twilio's first major press coverage was the result of an application built by Jeff Lawson to Rickroll people, which investor Dave McClure
used on TechCrunch
founder and editor Michael Arrington
as a prank. A few days later the company launched Twilio Voice, an API to make and receive phone calls completely hosted in the cloud. Twilio's text messaging API was released in February 2010, and SMS shortcodes were released in public beta in July 2011.
to acquire customers
, and the most notable early success story from this approach is GroupMe, a company created in May 2010 at the TechCrunch Disrupt hackathon
in New York City that uses Twilio's text messaging product to facilitate group chat and raised $10.6 million in venture funding in January 2011.
Following the success of the TechCrunch Disrupt hackathon Seed accelerator
500 Startups announced the Twilio Fund, a $250,000 "micro-fund" to provide seed money
to startups using Twilio in September 2010.
, The Founders Fund
, Dave McClure
, David G. Cohen, Chris Sacca
, Manu Kumar, and Jeff Fluhr. Twilio's first A round of funding was led by Union Square Ventures
for $3.7 million and its second B round of funding was for $12 million was led by Bessemer Venture Partners
.
to host telephony infrastructure and provide connectivity between HTTP and the public switched telephone network
(PSTN) through its APIs.
outage in April 2011.
and regularly makes contributions to the open source community. In June 2010 Twilio launched OpenVBX, an open source product that lets business users configure phone numbers to receive and route phone calls. One month later Twilio engineer Kyle Conroy released Stashboard, an open source status dashboard written in the Python programming language
that any API or software service can use to display whether their service is functioning properly or not. Twilio also sponsors Localtunnel, created by Twilio engineer Jeff Lindsay, which enables software developers to expose their local development environment to the public internet from behind a NAT
.
"Cool Vendor" in April 2011.
Cloud communications
Cloud communications are Internet-based voice and data communications where telecommunications applications, switching and storage are hosted by a third-party outside of the organization using them, and they are accessed over the public Internet. Cloud services is a broad term, referring primarily...
IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) company based in San Francisco, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. Twilio allows software developers to programmatically make and receive phone calls
Telephone call
A telephone call is a connection over a telephone network between the calling party and the called party.-Information transmission:A telephone call may carry ordinary voice transmission using a telephone, data transmission when the calling party and called party are using modems, or facsimile...
and send and receive text messages using its web service
Web service
A Web service is a method of communication between two electronic devices over the web.The W3C defines a "Web service" as "a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network". It has an interface described in a machine-processable format...
APIs. Twilio's services are accessed over HTTP and are billed based on usage.
Twilio has over 40,000 registered software developers using the service.
Creation
Twilio was founded in 2007 by Jeff LawsonJeff Lawson
Jeff Lawson may refer to:* Jeff Lawson, meteorologist at WTTG from 1984–1989, now at WVEC in Norfolk, Virginia* Jeff Lawson, co-founder of distributed.net* Jeff Lawson , English MMA fighter and The Ultimate Fighter 9 cast member...
, Evan Cooke, and John Wolthuis and was originally based in both Seattle, Washington
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
and San Francisco, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
.
Twilio's first major press coverage was the result of an application built by Jeff Lawson to Rickroll people, which investor Dave McClure
Dave McClure
Dave McClure is an entrepreneur and prominent angel investor based in the San Francisco Bay Area, who founded and runs the business incubator "500 Startups". He is often described as one of the super angel investors.-Bio:...
used on TechCrunch
TechCrunch
TechCrunch is a web publication that offers technology news and analysis, as well as profiling of startup companies, products, and websites. It was founded by Michael Arrington in 2005, and was first published on June 11, 2005....
founder and editor Michael Arrington
Michael Arrington
J. Michael Arrington is the founder and former co-editor of TechCrunch, a blog covering the Silicon Valley technology start-up communities and the wider technology field in USA and elsewhere...
as a prank. A few days later the company launched Twilio Voice, an API to make and receive phone calls completely hosted in the cloud. Twilio's text messaging API was released in February 2010, and SMS shortcodes were released in public beta in July 2011.
Reception
Twilio is known for its use of platform evangelismPlatform evangelism
Platform evangelism is the application of technology evangelism to a multi-sided platform...
to acquire customers
, and the most notable early success story from this approach is GroupMe, a company created in May 2010 at the TechCrunch Disrupt hackathon
Hackathon
A hackathon, a hacker neologism, is an event when programmers meet to do collaborative computer programming. The spirit of a hackathon is to collaboratively build programs and applications. Hackathons are typically between several days and a week in length...
in New York City that uses Twilio's text messaging product to facilitate group chat and raised $10.6 million in venture funding in January 2011.
Following the success of the TechCrunch Disrupt hackathon Seed accelerator
Seed accelerator
Seed Accelerator is a type of startup incubator but has 3 major differences. 1) they begin with a cohort intake process whereby they accept applications for entry and pick a set number per round. 2) they make an equity investment in the startups, usually sub $150,000 USD, but often sub $20,000 range...
500 Startups announced the Twilio Fund, a $250,000 "micro-fund" to provide seed money
Seed money
Seed money, sometimes known as seed funding, friends and family funding or angel funding , is a securities offering whereby one or more parties that have some connection to a new enterprise invest the funds necessary to start the business so that it has enough funds to sustain itself for a period...
to startups using Twilio in September 2010.
Funding
Twilio has raised approximately US$16 million in venture capitalist growth funding. Twilio received its first round of seed funding in March 2009 for an undisclosed amount, rumored to be around $250,000, from Mitch KaporMitch Kapor
Mitchell David Kapor is the founder of Lotus Development Corporation and the designer of Lotus 1-2-3. He is also a co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and was the first chair of the Mozilla Foundation...
, The Founders Fund
The Founders Fund
Founders Fund is a San Francisco based venture capital firm which invests at all stages in companies with revolutionary technologies. The firm’s six partners, Peter Thiel, Sean Parker, Ken Howery, Luke Nosek, Bruce Gibney, and Brian Singerman have been founders of or early investors in numerous...
, Dave McClure
Dave McClure
Dave McClure is an entrepreneur and prominent angel investor based in the San Francisco Bay Area, who founded and runs the business incubator "500 Startups". He is often described as one of the super angel investors.-Bio:...
, David G. Cohen, Chris Sacca
Chris Sacca
Christopher Sacca is a venture investor, public speaker, private equity adviser, and former employee of Google Inc. He is an investor in Twitter.-Education:...
, Manu Kumar, and Jeff Fluhr. Twilio's first A round of funding was led by Union Square Ventures
Union Square Ventures
Union Square Ventures is a venture capital firm based in New York City, New York, United States.The firm was founded by Fred Wilson and Brad Burnham in 2004...
for $3.7 million and its second B round of funding was for $12 million was led by Bessemer Venture Partners
Bessemer Venture Partners
Bessemer Venture Partners is a private venture capital firm with offices in Silicon Valley, New York, Massachusetts, Israel, China, and India.Bessemer Venture Partners is the longest-standing venture capital practice in the United States...
.
Architecture
Twilio uses Amazon Web ServicesAmazon Web Services
Amazon Web Services is a collection of remote computing services that together make up a cloud computing platform, offered over the Internet by Amazon.com...
to host telephony infrastructure and provide connectivity between HTTP and the public switched telephone network
Public switched telephone network
The public switched telephone network is the network of the world's public circuit-switched telephone networks. It consists of telephone lines, fiber optic cables, microwave transmission links, cellular networks, communications satellites, and undersea telephone cables, all inter-connected by...
(PSTN) through its APIs.
Reliability
Twilio follows a set of architectural design principles to protect against unexpected outages, and received praise for staying online during the widespread Amazon Web ServicesAmazon Web Services
Amazon Web Services is a collection of remote computing services that together make up a cloud computing platform, offered over the Internet by Amazon.com...
outage in April 2011.
Open Source
Twilio supports the development of open-source softwareOpen-source software
Open-source software is computer software that is available in source code form: the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license that permits users to study, change, improve and at times also to distribute the software.Open...
and regularly makes contributions to the open source community. In June 2010 Twilio launched OpenVBX, an open source product that lets business users configure phone numbers to receive and route phone calls. One month later Twilio engineer Kyle Conroy released Stashboard, an open source status dashboard written in the Python programming language
Python (programming language)
Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive...
that any API or software service can use to display whether their service is functioning properly or not. Twilio also sponsors Localtunnel, created by Twilio engineer Jeff Lindsay, which enables software developers to expose their local development environment to the public internet from behind a NAT
Nat
Nat or NAT may refer to:* Nat., an abbreviation for Natural* Nat , a Burmese spirit worshipped in Myanmar in conjunction with Buddhism...
.
Awards
Twilio was named to the "Dow Jones FASTech 50 Start-ups to Watch" list for 2010, The Business Insider named Twilio as one of "20 Hot Silicon Valley Startups You Need To Watch" in 2010, and Twilio received recognition as a GartnerGartner
Gartner, Inc. is an information technology research and advisory firm headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, United States. It was known as GartnerGroup until 2001....
"Cool Vendor" in April 2011.