Twilio Built Software Layers to Avoid Becoming a Commoditized Infrastructure Pipe
Byron Deeter · 20VC: The Twilio Memo: Bessemer's Byron Deeter on How a $125K Initial Check Became Bessemer's Largest Position, What The Influx of Late-Stage Capital Means For Venture Today & Why The Incumbent Advantage Is Now An Incumbent Disadvantage · May 27, 2021 · at 36:32
Byron Deeter is an investor at Bessemer Venture Partners who led the firm's early investment in Twilio. He details how Twilio addressed key pre-mortem risks around product commoditization.
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“The commoditization of communications or the migration of their larger customers. So I think you asked a very insightful question along the way, which I probably didn't give enough due to, which is we worried about that very heavily. And so part of our Preemptive solution to that was moving up the stack and making sure that we had the broadest solution with the most interconnectivity, and also that we provided software-like capabilities on top, so we weren't just dumb pipes.”
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