The CEO of Twilio, the cloud communications platform that powers apps and services such as Lyft and Uber, is donating $1 million to help jump-start homeless assistance until the new $300 million business tax kicks in San Francisco, reports Fast Company contributor Sean Captain.
CEO Jeff Lawson says that the donation had been on his mind for a while, but that the actual decision was spontaneous. He doesn’t even know what organization (or organizations) Twilio would make the check out to. Twilio’s donation is scarcely beyond a symbolic gesture–one third of one percent of what the new tax will bring in. But symbolism could matter in a city drama as emotional as it is legalistic and technocratic. Like most San Francisco businesses, Twilio stayed out of the Prop C debate. But post-election, Lawson is urging tech and other companies to get on board.
“As far as I’m concerned, we as a city, we’ve decided that we’re tackling [homelessness] head on,” he says. “And we’re hoping that other business leaders, civic leaders, and nonprofit leaders who are focused on this problem, can just start stepping up and moving toward the solution part of this, as opposed to the debate.”
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