Twilio chief Khozema Shipchandler credits pre-dawn schedule and constant movement for leading a $38 billion firm

Khozema Shipchandler, the 51-year-old chief executive of Twilio, attributes his ascent—from a 1996 Indiana University graduate to a GE CFO at 31—to an extreme daily regimen. He awakens at 4:30 a.m., scans communications for urgent issues, then follows a set order of coffee, smoothie, news briefing and a quick run around his house. By 7:30 a.m. he is officially at work, ahead of most engineers, and continues through the evening, taking a brief dinner break before a final hour of tasks and a short sports broadcast.

On weekends he rises at 6:30 a.m., works most Sundays, and allows only a six-to-eight-hour respite on Saturdays. Shipchandler rejects the notion of a sustainable work-life balance at the C-suite level, emphasizing strict calendar management, brief 25-minute meetings, and frequent movement to maintain focus. He also avoids social media to limit distractions, citing his immigrant parents’ emphasis on hard work as a guiding principle.