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Happy Anniversary To Us: Two Years With Twilio

You’ve likely seen the news about Twilio’s recent acquisition of messaging provider Beepsend, or that we’ve acquired the Kurento WebRTC media server technology. Acquisitions often present challenges: team fit, technical compatibility, customer migration, and so on. But Twilio has done a great job of welcoming new companies and technology, especially with their very first acquisition: Authy.  

When Twilio acquired Authy two years ago this week, we were a relatively young (4 years old) and small start-up from Bogota, Columbia that was making big waves in the online security and authentication space. The arrangement was (and continues to be) a great fit! Our corporate cultures mesh well, our focus on the developer community is complimentary, and we share a  passion for great user experiences. Even our logos sorta look like they belong together.

A Lot Has Happened In 2 Years!

The way we work has evolved; the talent we now attract has elevated; and the opportunities provided to us, as part of a larger company, are exceptional. Frankly,  the entire security landscape has changed in these past 24 months. Looking back, security breaches were not as common as they are today, and certainly not as massive in scale. SMS authentication was then the standard, while industry experts today agree that SMS is not the most secure authentication mechanism. And back then, the general populace was kind of lazy about password hygiene (sadly, that’s still true).

Much has changed. So, we thought we’d check in to see how things are unfolding for the Authy team

Paolo Francula, Enterprise Sales

“I joined the Authy team at Twilio after the acquisition and during my time here I’ve seen the product grow from a popular consumer app with a niche following to a highly trusted enterprise security solution. It’s nice to see that we’re not only securing user access but also providing guidance on industry trends and leading the way for the industry as a whole.”

Phil Nash, Developer Evangelist

“For me, my favorite moment with Authy was telling a developer about it one week at a conference, he’d actually asked about 2FA with Twilio SMS, and hearing back from him a week later telling me he’d implemented Authy in one afternoon. It’s our job in developer evangelism to inspire and equip developers, and Authy has made that so much easier when it comes to the security of applications.”

Simon Thorpe, Director of Product, Authentication

“Combining with Twilio has been amazing. The team, the culture and of course, being part of the journey to the company’s initial public offering last year. We’ve seen the release of OneTouch, which has been a milestone for authentication at login or to confirm a transaction, and then we released a OneTouch version for desktop and a mobile SDK! Exciting.”

Trak Lord, Sr. PR Manager

“I remember having to explain 2FA to everyone who wasn’t a security analyst. Two years later, journalists are introducing themselves by telling us how much they love Authy. Maybe it’s that we spent the last two years educating people on the weakness of passwords alone; maybe it’s the series of massive breaches and compromised accounts. Either way, it’s great to know people are taking account security seriously, and that we continue to play a role in protecting users.”

Marcelo Jabali, Solutions Architect

“Probably one of the most prominent developments in cybersecurity is multi-factor authentication with multiple delivery channels. It’s  become the new norm for consumers and enterprise users so personal and corporate data is not lost or stolen. That’s exactly where Twilio & Authy joined forces and have been executing for the last couple of years through innovative solutions and increased awareness.”

Adriana Pineda, Software Developer

“Today not a single company is exempt of being attacked, and as 2FA becomes a priority to all sorts of industries, we see users with interests ranging from gaming, to finance, to social networking. We discovered recently that so many are using  Authy to protect their accounts with companies like Tibia, Electronic Arts, and other gaming sites. That was eye-opening. Another interesting development is with our end-users. They proactively request 2FA from a site who doesn’t offer it, and sometimes refuse to use a service if 2FA is not an option, proving that Authy is not an application just for developers or security experts, it’s an application for everyone.”

Dan Killmer, Lead Solutions Architect, Authentication

“The past two years? We’ve been very busy, that’s for sure. We’ve announced, delivered, and have had major successful adoption of our OneTouch authentication product. We achieved SOC2 compliance. We’ve expanded the team globally with offices in Europe and Asia. And above all, we’ve navigated a very successful integration into Twilio technically and professionally, all with the support of the awesome Twilio executive team.”

James Chin, New Business, Enterprise Field Sales

“As the security landscape continues to evolve, it’s been great to see more companies recognizing the importance of authentication and verification. We’re glad to be at the forefront of helping businesses retain customer trust with better online security.”

Marc Boroditsky, VP & GM for Authentication

“It has been an awesome two years with more than a 100 new releases of our offerings, thousands of new customers and millions of new users protected online with our solutions that make it a no-brainer to add better account security. At the same time, billions more passwords have been exposed and still, a majority of sites and apps are not protected and continue to make it a user problem to pick and manage unique silly strings of letters and numbers AKA passwords. We have much work to do and being a part of Twilio gives us the platform to win this war for better account security!”  

In the months and years to come, you’re sure to hear a lot more about new Twilio Authy innovations as well as advancements in the ever-evolving authentication industry. We’re excited to be part of this field — and part of Twilio — and we’d like to recognize some of the great brands who’ve helped us grow over the years, including Gemini Capital, Datto, EpicNPC, Coinbase, Settrax, Cloudflare, Twitch, Dell, Zesty.io, MercardoLibre, SendGrid, VMWareIS app, and so many others.

Thank you for putting your trust in Authy!

 

About the author Authy

Authy is simple & secure two-factor authentication, available as a free mobile or desktop app, from Twilio. To get yours, click on the download button at the top of the page.

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