A local tech entrepreneur is upset that everyone is leaving the Bay.
Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson urged Twitter and LinkedIn to urge his fellow tech leaders to keep their businesses in the Bay and invest in San Francisco’s long life. This comes after both Oracle and Hewlett Packard Enterprise recently announced they would be relocating their headquarters to Texas and tech icon Keith Rabois said he was leaving San Francisco permanently because he found it “impossible to stay”.
‘I ask my colleagues, friends and co-CEOs about #committothebay. Promise to stay and rebuild what has given us so much. This is what it means to be part of a community. @twilio is not going anywhere, ”he wrote on Twitter on December 18.
Lawson goes on to say that he is giving back to the community and mentions that he and his wife donated to Give2SF, the city’s COVID relief fund, and in 2021 pledged $ 8 million to Help Kitchen, an organization that links food safety to meals local restaurants.
Some local technology executives heeded the call, including Salesforce chief operating officer Bret Taylor. He said on Twitter: “I was born in Oakland and am excited to live in the Bay Area – to create local jobs and help solve all the problems we face as a community, in partnership with non-profit organizations and local government. . And I have never been more optimistic about the future of California. ”
According to LinkedIn, Twilio was founded in 2008 and has 1,334 employees in the Bay Area. The cloud communications platform has two offices in San Francisco, both in the South Beach area of SoMa.