Jeff Lawson, Co-founder and CEO of Twilio

Jeff Lawson, CEO of Twilio and author of “Ask Your Developer,” discusses his insights on entrepreneurship, the transformative power of software, and how companies can attract and retain software developers. On how all companies need to adopt a software mindset: “The software mindset is really one where you see a problem—whether it’s a business problem, a global problem, a societal problem, whatever it is—and your instinct says users can actually get their hands on this data, and computers can help us solve this problem.” On the role software developers play in troubleshooting problems: “The software people are the people who wake up every day and they see some problem in the world. And what their mind jumps to very quickly is ‘how can software help solve this problem?’ And that is not a skillset, it’s a mindset. And it really leads you to this ‘ask your developer’ — if you’re wondering how software can help solve this problem—ask your developer.”