{"id":6664,"date":"2026-05-19T13:29:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T13:29:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/?p=6664"},"modified":"2026-05-19T13:29:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T13:29:22","slug":"30-billion-twilio-ceo-wakes-at-430-a-m-works-sundays-and-runs-laps-in-his-house-between-meetings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/?p=6664","title":{"rendered":"$30 billion Twilio CEO wakes at 4:30 a.m., works Sundays and runs laps in his house between meetings"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

For most 20-something-year-olds fresh out of college, 4:30 a.m. is when the night ends, after a night of partying. For Twilio\u2019s CEO, Khozema Shipchandler, it was the beginning of his day.<\/p>\n

The 51-year-old exec says he\u2019s always been a morning person\u2014on weekdays, at least\u2014and that starting his day while others slept is why he got ahead faster than most.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was kind of built that way,\u201d he told Fortune last summer, adding you set \u201cbenchmarks based on your life experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cMy parents were the classic immigrant success story, and as with many immigrant parents, they wanted their kids to do better than them and to create the opportunities for them,\u201d\u00a0he reflected on his family, who moved to the U.S. from Mumbai.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey really pushed working hard and playing hard\u2014which, by the way, I do play hard when I\u2019m not working\u2014so that was the goal.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shipchandler graduated from Indiana University Bloomington in 1996 and that summer began his career at the industrial conglomerate. And that drive paid off early. By the time he was 31, Shipchandler was already CFO of a multi-billion-dollar GE business.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you were willing to put in the effort, they were willing to give you the opportunity,\u201d he added. \u201cSo I got a lot of opportunities there.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Gen Z and millennial workers are rewriting the rules of corporate life\u2014demanding flexibility, autonomy, and strict boundaries around \u201cme time\u201d\u2014Shipchandler isn\u2019t convinced you can reach the C-suite without long hours and sacrifice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery one of us has to make certain work-life choices,\u201d the Gen X boss.\u00a0 \u201cThis work-life choice obviously has certain consequences. I wasn\u2019t there for all of my son\u2019s tennis matches.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want to work eight-to-five, coach your kids sports teams, have the evenings for yourself, and maybe another hobby or interest, that\u2019s awesome,\u201d Shipchandler adds\u2014but he caveats that he\u2019s \u201cnever spoken to a peer\u201d who doesn\u2019t have a similar routine and level of balance as him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A day in the life of Twilio\u2019s CEO<\/p>\n

While his early mornings were once about getting ahead of the competition, now that he\u2019s running a $30 billion company with over 5,500 employees, it\u2019s about getting ahead of his calendar: \u201cMost other people aren\u2019t up, and so it allows me to just get a lot of work done.\u201d Fortune got the lowdown on his daily routine.<\/p>\n

4:30 a.m. Shipchandler is awake and scanning Slack, emails, and texts for any \u201cred hot\u201d issues that need immediate attention.\u00a0<\/p>\n

From there, he has the same daily routine: A coffee, breakfast\u2014usually a smoothie\u2014a skim of the news headline and then a workout \u201cimmediately after\u201d and always in that very specific order.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI do it in that order intentionally so that while I\u2019m working out, I have an opportunity to think through the various things that have happened, through the course of the news, the things that I\u2019ve seen on email and Slack and stuff like that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

7:30 a.m. Shipchandler is \u201cofficially at work,\u201d ahead of most of Twilio\u2019s engineers, who he says typically start at 9.\u00a0<\/p>\n

6:30 p.m. He takes a dinner break\u2014either at home with family or with a customer or senior leader when out of town. \u201cI tend to be on the road about 75% of the time, but same routine,\u201d Shipchandler says.<\/p>\n

8:00 p.m. He squeezes in about an hour of extra work before winding down with 20\u201330 minutes of SportsCenter when traveling, or whatever \u201chis wife falls asleep to fastest\u201d when at home, he jokes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

9:30 p.m. Bedtime.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Weekends: Shipchandler rises at 6:30 a.m. on the weekend. While his routine is a little more relaxed on weekends, he still works most Sundays. \u201cIt\u2019s the nature of the job, I\u2019m usually thinking about work and the gap that I allow for me to not think about work is six to eight hours on Saturdays.\u201d<\/p>\n

High-performance habits: Running around the house to blow off steam in between meetings<\/p>\n

When asked if he thinks work-life balance is possible at the top, Shipchandler quickly responded: \u201cI do not.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t mean he lets hours slip away. \u201cI\u2019m all for working smarter,\u201d he says, adding that as well as making the most of every productivity tool at his disposal, he leans heavily on high-performance habits to stay focused.<\/p>\n

For example, he\u2019s very strict with his calendar and making time to move throughout the day: \u201cI do not take meetings that I don\u2019t think drive the ball forward for the company, or that don\u2019t bring me energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI typically only do 25-minute meetings in a 30-minute slot, and I only take 50-minute meetings in an hour slot, and in the time in between, I\u2019ll do maybe a quick lap around the house to get the blood flowing, or get some fresh air.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

After lunch, he always immediately hits the treadmill for 10 minutes of walking so that he doesn\u2019t get an afternoon lull. He also doesn\u2019t use social media\u2014and says that helps keep his focus.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think habits really matter,\u201d Shipchandler explains. \u201cWhen you have a set of habits, it allows you to kind of move through the work in a way in which is very intentional and you don\u2019t let a lot of distractions creep in.\u201d
A version of this story originally published on\u00a0Fortune.com\u00a0on\u00a0August 29, 2025.<\/p>\n

Want to level up your workday? See how other high-performing execs structure their day.<\/p>\n

#billion #Twilio #CEO #wakes #a.m #works #Sundays #runs #laps #house #meetings<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For most 20-something-year-olds fresh out of college, 4:30 a.m. is when the night ends, after…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[245],"tags":[6273,552,1406,402,585,960,12432,640,2582,12435,5375,1693,920,12434,317,10890,12433,2790,2605],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6664"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6664\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}