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Hello, So I have a slightly different take on this. (Disclaimer: I'm the community manager for 2600hz). I've always thought Twilio was trying to get acquired

Hello, So I have a slightly different take on this. (Disclaimer: I'm the community manager for 2600hz). I've always thought Twilio was trying to get acquired (their deals with AT&T and Microsoft seemed to imply a conversation was happening in this regard at the very least) but for a valuation north of $1B. My personal feeling is that you can't get a $1B valuation without Mobile and Twilio doesn't really do mobile in the same way 2600hz doesn't really do mobile (at least not yet). The walled Garden that is Carrier-land prevents native dialing (dialing through the handset dialer instead of a native app/web app/plugin). Becoming an MVNO is super risky, but I was really encouraged by Twilio's announcement with AT&T and even more so by Voxeo's announcement with Deutsche. This is a big world and the clear winner of the voice API war will be crowned in the mid 20-teen's not now. If your argument is that Twilio will burn out before their acquired, my reply is: Maybe. That's the risk they took, and it's similar to the risk Square took (see this leaked chart: http://i.imgur.com/b1Sm9.png http://i.imgur.com/b1Sm9.png). I admire Twilio because they're the best developer evangelism team I've ever seen. Yes they spend a ton on marketing and they might be the Groupon of Voice APIs, but the fact is that they're doing it, and if they get acquired all of the Voice API companies will benefit from their success. In short, Twilio doing well actually benefits Voxeo and so I don't understand the worst girlfriend analogy. I'm by no means in love with Twilio, but you have to admire them for what they do: they're hands-down the best evangelists for any platform out there. Their developer engagement is nothing short of awesome. Cheers, Joshua

ryanwaggoner 14y ago
Is that chart leaked? Looks like just an outside estimate by Business Insider: http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-03-06/research/31125966_1_credit-card-specific-merchants-payments-networks http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-03-06/research/3112...
- josh2600 14y ago
  That's what I get for assuming blogs are correct. Thank you for posting the original article, I'll edit my post above to reflect this. Thanks!! Oops, too late to edit, guess my mistake has to rest in stone :/.
  - ryanwaggoner 14y ago
    No problem, I only found the original because I was googling around trying to find some interesting commentary on the "leak". In particular, why do transaction costs grow so much faster than revenue? That almost implies that they're going to be processing many more transactions at lower average cost per transaction, so they'll end up paying a higher percentage of the total in fees?
    - josh2600 14y ago
      My theory is that the additional distribution from their deals with Visa and Starbucks didn't come with the same business terms they're able to negotiate independently. One small biz negotiating with Square versus the gigantic morass that is Visa. Chances are Visa will have a more dominant negotiating position.

ryanwaggoner 14y ago

Is that chart leaked? Looks like just an outside estimate by Business Insider: http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-03-06/research/31125966_1_credit-card-specific-merchants-payments-networks http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-03-06/research/3112...

josh2600 14y ago
That's what I get for assuming blogs are correct. Thank you for posting the original article, I'll edit my post above to reflect this. Thanks!! Oops, too late to edit, guess my mistake has to rest in stone :/.
- ryanwaggoner 14y ago
  No problem, I only found the original because I was googling around trying to find some interesting commentary on the "leak". In particular, why do transaction costs grow so much faster than revenue? That almost implies that they're going to be processing many more transactions at lower average cost per transaction, so they'll end up paying a higher percentage of the total in fees?
  - josh2600 14y ago
    My theory is that the additional distribution from their deals with Visa and Starbucks didn't come with the same business terms they're able to negotiate independently. One small biz negotiating with Square versus the gigantic morass that is Visa. Chances are Visa will have a more dominant negotiating position.