A local tech entrepreneur is upset that everyone is leaving the Bay Area.
Twilio’s CEO Jeff Lawson accessed Twitter and LinkedIn to call on his fellow technology leaders to keep their businesses in the bay area and invest in San Francisco’s longevity. This came after Oracle and Hewlett Packard Enterprise recently announced that they will each move their headquarters to Texas and technology icon Keith Rabois has declared that he is leaving San Francisco permanently because he thinks it is “impossible to stay”.
“I am asking my colleagues, friends and fellow CEOs to #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 December 18 on Twitter.
Lawson went on to state how he is giving back to the community, mentioning that he and his wife made a donation to Give2SF, the city’s COVID aid fund, and pledged $ 8 million in 2021 to Help Kitchen, an organization that connects food insecurity with meals from local restaurants.
Some local tech executives took the call, including Salesforce’s chief operating officer, Bret Taylor. He said on Twitter: “I was born in Oakland and I’m excited to stay 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 the local government. And I have never been more optimistic about the future of California. “
Twilio was founded in 2008 and has 1,334 employees in the Bay Area, according to LinkedIn. The cloud communications platform has two offices in San Francisco, both in the South Beach area of SoMa.