Forbes, Oct 4, 2016 (IV)

choi

Miguel Helft, The Wizard of Apps; The hottest stock in America. Twilio is a company you've never heard of. It uses the cloud to put communications everywhere. (cover story).
http://www.forbes.com/sites/migu ... icorn/#6036e02fcbf7

Note:
(a) the cover:
(i) Wizard of Apps[:] Jeff Lawson[;] 'We are not some fly-by-night unicorn.'
(ii) The World's Sexist Stock; Riding a blockbuster IPO that quadrupled in two months. wonky Twilio is the stealth power behind the biggest apps.
(iii) Exclusive New Ranking[:] Cloud 100[;] The coolest companies in tech's hottest area

(b) "Uber's SMS [acronym for "Short Message Service": text messaging] provider, Air2Web, was going to have a scheduled outage, which meant some Uber features, like notifications and SMS ride requests, would be temporarily unusable."
(c) "Twilio now runs texts, alerts and voice calls on the Uber app in most parts of the world. When a driver and passenger call each other, they do so through a Twilio number that keeps their own phone numbers private. * * * Match.com pairs potential lovebirds without revealing phone numbers, Airbnb sends rental notifications and the American Red Cross deploys volunteers, all through Twilio. * * * Its [Twilio's] largest customer, WhatsApp, uses Twilio to verify customer accounts and logins. Apps from Lyft, Expedia, Netflix, Coca-Cola, Salesforce and the New York Times all have Twilio inside. * * * Twilio, which still isn’t profitable, went public in June, raising $150 million at a $1.2 billion valuation."

I know nothing about programing. But this sounds to me similar to PayPal as intermediary of payment.
(d) CEO Jeff "LAWSON and two friends [Evan Cooke and John Wolthuis] founded Twilio in 2008 * * * Lawson's parlor trick

parlour trick (n): "an amusing trick or pastime to entertain house guests"
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/parlour_trick
(e) "Hungry for some big-company experience to round out his skills, Lawson interviewed at Amazon in 2004. He got an offer" and worked there until 2006.

round out (vt): "to make something more complete, especially by adding another feature  <Bodine and Rogers rounded out the list of top finishers>"
http://www.macmillandictionary.c ... /american/round-out

(f) "they [Twilio's three founders] developed a prototype and put it up—where else?—on AWS. Initial reaction from developers was enthusiastic, and Twilio got its first customer, a service called PhoneMyPhone.com, which allowed people to type their number into a website to ring their own cellphone (handy when it's [cellphone's] stuck between the couch pillows).  Twilio's reception on Sand Hill Road was more muted."
(i) twilio. Amazon Web Services (AWS) Marketplace, undated
https://aws.amazon.com/marketpla ... 2-9e3d-1a346e0f5e0e
("Visit the Twilio Website")
(ii) Sand Hill Road
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_Hill_Road

(g) "Lawson, whose stake in Twilio gives him a fortune that approaches $500 million"