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Just want to note that yes, cost can rise in advance of growth. Whether or not that's "OK" depends on the unit economics. Frankly, I share your skepticism. I

Just want to note that yes, cost can rise in advance of growth. Whether or not that's "OK" depends on the unit economics. Frankly, I share your skepticism. I think you hit the nail on the head - Twilio has few, if any moats, that can't be crossed by large competitors like Google or Amazon. And if I'm Bezos and Twilio is making all this money off the back of AWS, why not just cut out Twilio? Heck, Amazon is doing that to friggin vitamin makers, why not do it to tech companies?

prostoalex 10y ago
> Twilio has few, if any moats, that can't be crossed by large competitors like Google or Amazon Here's one moat - with GOOG's annual revenue of $75 billion or AMZN's $107 billion how likely are either to chase an opportunity that, assuming perfect execution, complete market share grab and ultimate destruction of Twilio, will add $167 million of annual revenue to their balance sheet? From the corporate politics standpoint this would be a hard project to pursue internally, as anything under a billion is unlikely to register on CEO's radar. From the customer standpoint, chances of getting competent and prioritized support might be better with Twilio, where the telephony API is their primary product, versus Google, where it might be 108th project on the priority list.
- jon-wood 10y ago
  This feels very much like something Amazon might pursue, although probably in a more piecemeal manner. AWS already has a lot of the components that would be needed for a Twilio competitor in the form of SQS, SNS, and Lambda - all they really need is the ability to receive incoming text messages and voice support to be competitive. A lot of people would jump on that just stay within AWS rather than add another provider to deal with.
  - prostoalex 10y ago
    I agree there are some fundamental building blocks they might pursue. There's already a parallel story to follow - SES and Mailchimp/Mailgun/Sendgrid. Competitive at the basic level, with Amazon actually validating the market and sending the clients off when they're ready to go beyond "simple".

prostoalex 10y ago

> Twilio has few, if any moats, that can't be crossed by large competitors like Google or Amazon Here's one moat - with GOOG's annual revenue of $75 billion or AMZN's $107 billion how likely are either to chase an opportunity that, assuming perfect execution, complete market share grab and ultimate destruction of Twilio, will add $167 million of annual revenue to their balance sheet? From the corporate politics standpoint this would be a hard project to pursue internally, as anything under a billion is unlikely to register on CEO's radar. From the customer standpoint, chances of getting competent and prioritized support might be better with Twilio, where the telephony API is their primary product, versus Google, where it might be 108th project on the priority list.

jon-wood 10y ago
This feels very much like something Amazon might pursue, although probably in a more piecemeal manner. AWS already has a lot of the components that would be needed for a Twilio competitor in the form of SQS, SNS, and Lambda - all they really need is the ability to receive incoming text messages and voice support to be competitive. A lot of people would jump on that just stay within AWS rather than add another provider to deal with.
- prostoalex 10y ago
  I agree there are some fundamental building blocks they might pursue. There's already a parallel story to follow - SES and Mailchimp/Mailgun/Sendgrid. Competitive at the basic level, with Amazon actually validating the market and sending the clients off when they're ready to go beyond "simple".