Wayne
Twilo's best summer monthSummer usually means a dip. People sit by the pool, emails get ignored, and service-based businesses tend to feel it – although it’s often a chance to get caught up ahead of a busy September. July was steady, but August defied the trend. In fact, it was our highest summer revenue month in Twilo’s history.
The “why” isn’t a mystery. We’ve been visible, focused, and building from a position of strength. Internally, we’re improving our product, tightening up customer service, and investing in our team. Monthly group learning, weekly learning hours, and tailored 13-week plans for everyone have created momentum and better habits. Those habits are now paying off.
And the client results speak for themselves. For one new digital marketing client, we generated three times as many enquiries as their previous provider delivered in the previous two months combined. For another, we hit their 6-month KPIs in just 4 months.
It gives me a nice feeling inside to be typing this – well done to the team for their focus and determination to deliver on our promises.
The Economic Uncertainty Continues, and So Do Those With A Plan
In a recent end of month entry, I shared that redundancies are accelerating at a steeper rate than in the 2008 global recession. Unfortunately, the trend is continuing at the moment, with unemployment in the UK now the worst it’s been in 4 years, recruitment down 40% year on year, and 50,000 businesses are on the brink of liquidation.
Whether or not this is doom and gloom depends on your perspective – I prefer to look for opportunity amongst uncertainty. I’ve also shared earlier this year that we’ve adjusted our vision and business objectives, which has provided a solid foundation for Twilo to build on as we head into our second decade. Rather than get caught up in what might happen, we’ve been fully focused on our objectives and setting ambitious KPIs to ensure we’re in a strong position to act on opportunities.
Likewise for existing and potential clients, now could be the ideal time to double down on digital marketing. Our recent results show what’s possible in a short space of time, and businesses who remain positive and have a clear vision will prosper.
Beats & Burgers
Outside of work, I finally got to see legendary DJs Sasha and John Digweed back-to-back for the first time, with Nick Warren on warm-up duties. Having seen them individually, their B2B sets are a rare thing. The sun shone down on a closed-off street in Manchester, and bumping into old friends felt like the old days when dance music events were attended in the hundreds of thousands up and down the country.
I also visited Hawksmoor in Manchester to try their “Big Matt” burger (their spin on a Big Mac). If you haven’t been, Hawksmoor is excellent, and their lunch deal is great value for money.
Twilo’s Summer Outing
This year’s summer outing saw the Twilo team go head-to-head at TeamSport Go-Karting. Just two-tenths of a second separated the top two drivers, proving bragging rights are a fine margin. With such a spread across lap times, I reckon we could go another 100 times and not put in two laps so close together.
Rudy’s pizza and a few drinks in Leeds wrapped things up nicely.
Andrew
Faster websites and cat cafesGreat Strides In Speed and Performance
We have been working with a website for a very long time which is host to hundreds of thousands of products. The performance of this website has always been very challenging. This has particularly been the case with category pages that must search through all of those products to load in some cases, products totalling to less than a quarter of what is in the database.
In August, we have worked to improve this with great success. By partitioning the product tables, we are now only looking at products that are relevant to the category page the user has loaded. For the smaller categories, this is huge. Instead of searching 300,000 products as an example, we are only searching 10,000. The partitioning combined with added caches, has reduced loading times by 75%. This has been a fantastic victory for this month!
New Mobile App With Offline Capability
I am greatly looking forward to developing for a new client in September which has recently been given the go ahead. This project will give us the opportunity to develop a mobile application that communicates to a web server and will work in offline mode. It will be an interesting challenge to detect when a device has no internet connection, keep hold of submitted data and attempt to send this to the server once an internet connection has formed. There will be much to consider such as how we know if the server has successfully received the data or not; How do we ensure that we are not too intensive on a mobile’s storage? I think this will be a great project when we get it out the door.
Shopping In Leeds and A Visit To The Kitty Cafe
At the weekend, we spent the day shopping for bits and bobs in Leeds and decided to stop by the Kitty Café while we were there. In case you are not familiar, you pay an entry fee when entering the café and this goes towards looking after the cats living there. It’s a nice place to go for some food and coffee and to say hi to some cats while they try and steal your food. It’s a perfect way to spend the afternoon and have a relaxing end to the month.
Matt
Hitting KPIs & festivals in the sunHitting KPIs Early
This month has been another great month at Twilo. This month we’ve hit our KPI goals for some clients earlier than anticipated.
When we start a campaign for clients, we set target KPIs that we’d like to hit, e.g number of enquiries in a month, low cost per conversion and we don’t want to set unrealistic expectations with clients. We know that with Google Ads it can take time, and you need to work on the ads till you can have them running perfectly.
So, with our KPIs we like to set out six-month plans to show our clients how we look to reach the KPIs month on month. However, for two clients this month we’ve hit all their KPIs early! One client we hit all our KPIs on month five and unbelievably for another client we hit everything on month one! This is a great personal achievement for myself and I’m extremely happy about the success I can deliver to our clients.
We don’t stop there though at Twilo, now these KPIs have been achieved we’ll go back and look to increase the KPIs for the remaining months, so we ensure the success grows.
Say Cheese
The team are in the process of building Twilo a new website and a new website, means new headshots of the team. Liam did an excellent job in finding the perfect camera angle and background for the photos and ensuring that everyone was relaxed and smiley in their photos.
Go-Karting & Pizza Fun!
This month we had Twilo’s summer party, where we went to Team Sport Go Karting in Leeds. We had an absolute blast, racing around the track! It took me a few laps to get used to the kart and the track, but once I had the hang of it, I didn’t want it to end.
After karting, we headed to Rudy’s for, as always, a 10/10 pizza with some chilli honey dip! It’s definitely one of the best pizza places in Leeds.
We ended the night by going to N64 on Merrion Street, where we played a lot of retro games on the different systems that they have there and had some game/movie based cocktails which were tasty.
Sunshine & Good Vibes
The month ended with a day trip to Leeds festival on the Saturday! It’s been 10 years since I first went to Leeds fest, which makes me feel very old, but it was still as fun as that first time going.
My friend who now lives in Australia was back visiting and came along too, so it was lovely to catch up in the nice weather and seeing some of our favourite artists.
The weather was perfect for a British festival, and we saw some brilliant acts. The highlights being Chappell Roan and the new Chevron Stage. It’s such a privilege to have a massive festival on your doorstep like Leeds fest.
Reece
Stag dos, moving and unique website buildsProjects I’ve Been Working On
This month I’ve been working on a really interesting project building a website for a company that partners with architects, contractors and developers across the UK. They wanted the site to really show off the amazing buildings and applications they’ve been involved in.
The website has two unique sector pages packed with case studies, which was fun to build, but the bit I really enjoyed was creating an interactive map. The map has their case studies dotted around the UK, and when you click on certain areas it zooms in and shows you the projects from that location. It was something a bit different to work on and I loved figuring out the best way to make it smooth and engaging.
Outside Of Work
At the start of the month, I took a bit of leave for a mate’s stag do in Wales. We tackled the Corn Du twin summit walk, the Cribyn and Fan y Big, which was a brilliant hike. We also went paddle boarding and did a few other activities, although most of the time was definitely spent drinking, (standard stag do really).
As if that wasn’t enough, I also moved house around the same time. I thought after moving every year at uni I’d be an expert by now… turns out I was wrong. It was a few solid days of lugging boxes, putting together flat-pack furniture and scrubbing the old place. Definitely glad that’s behind me now and looking forward to settling into the new place.
We had a work trip go-karting too, which was a laugh. Let’s just say I need to improve my karting skills, I was nowhere near the top of the leaderboard, but there’s always next time. All of that was packed into the same week, so it was a bit manic.
Now things have calmed down a bit, I’m looking forward to a couple of chilled weeks before my mate’s wedding. I’m still working on the best man speech, but it’s slowly coming together! I’m also ready to get my head down and start the next set of exciting projects just around the corner.
Vadym
Reaching milestones and growthAugust 2025 has been a month of milestones, growth, and special memories. As the summer draws to a close, I wanted to take a moment to look back at the highlights that made this month so meaningful for me, both professionally and personally.
Passing My probation
The biggest achievement of this month was successfully completing my probation period at work. It’s always a little nerve-wracking when you start a new role, and the first few months are about proving your skills, adapting to the company culture, and showing that you’re the right fit for the team.
I’m proud to say that I’ve settled into my position well. The feedback I received was encouraging, and it motivates me to keep learning and pushing forward. Passing this milestone feels like opening the next chapter of my career journey.
Working On A Global Franchise Project
Another highlight was being involved in an incredible project for a world-renowned franchise restaurant. This wasn’t just any project, it was a chance to contribute to something on a truly global scale.
The project allowed me to use my technical skills in a challenging environment, and I learned so much about teamwork, delivering solutions that can scale internationally. It feels rewarding to see my efforts contributing to a project that people around the world will interact with.
Karting In Leeds
One of the most fun experiences this month was going karting in Leeds with my team. It was the first time in a while that I did something so adrenaline-filled, and the competitive atmosphere made it even better.
I didn’t win the race – but honestly, that wasn’t the point. The laughter, the team spirit, and the thrill of racing around the track made it unforgettable. It was a reminder that sometimes the best memories come not from winning but from simply enjoying the moment together.
A Week In Primrose Valley
Of course, August wasn’t only about work. I also took some time off and spent a week in Primrose Valley, which was absolutely amazing. The fresh sea air, sandy beaches, and beautiful coastal walks were the perfect way to recharge after a busy few months.
It reminded me how important it is to balance work and relaxation. Spending quality time outdoors gave me a new perspective, and I came back feeling more creative and inspired.
Looking Ahead
August 2025 was a turning point: passing probation, contributing to a high-profile project, and enjoying a well-deserved holiday. I feel grateful for the opportunities I’ve had and excited for what September will bring.
As I step into autumn, my goals are to keep building on this momentum, take on new challenges, and carve out more time for travel and creativity.
Liam Kearns
A Twilo focused month
August has been a really fun month at Twilo. It’s seen a few big projects enter development stage, some of those projects also reaching their launch dates, it’s seen the Twilo Summer party and a lot of really positive steps forward in many key areas.
Twilo Summer Party
This blog had to start with the Twilo Summer party, not only because it happened at the start of the month, but also because it was my first day out with the team, and what a day it was! We kicked off the day at Teamsport Karting which was incredible, I managed to sneak first place over Wayne by a minuscule 0.2 seconds, a time difference that highlights how competitive the racing was. We then moved into Leeds city centre for Rudy’s pizza, probably one of the most consistent pizza places I’ve been to, the carni with hot honey dip is the only choice. Belly’s full, we crawled to the nearest bar and once we regained some energy, continued the beer theme and found ourselves in NQ64 playing everything from Time Crisis 2 to basketball. If I had to list my ideal day out, it would probably look something similar to this. A great day was had by all and it was really nice to have a social with all the team after being here for a few months now.
Internal Branding and Website Work
This month has seen a lot of work on our own branding and even our website. Coming from a background of branding and ‘traditional’ design, I’ve been tasked with rejuvenating Twilo’s brand which has been on the back burner for too long. This has started with updating the look and feel of the socials to get to grips with the assets and brand that we currently have, and gradually over the last few months I’ve been assembling and developing a more cohesive brand deck, with a custom icon set, new fonts, extended colour palettes and a lot of background work on our core values and tone of voice. The biggest part of this project (the website rebuild), is well underway now and I think everyone is super excited that we’re giving Twilo the time and attention that it really deserves.
Developer Handovers
July saw a couple of websites coming to the end of their design process, which meant August has been busy with handing over those designs to our front end developer, Reece. This process is so much more thorough at Twilo than I’ve experienced in the past, involving several meetings to go through every page on the website, and then a few more meetings to go through what Reece has built to ensure that everything is aligned with the designs. It may seem like a lot of meetings to some, but its absolutely essential to ensure your developer has a full understanding of the design and the more thorough you can be at the beginning, the quicker and smoother the rest of the process is. Reece has a real eye for detail and asks all the right questions in our handover sessions so the amends stages between myself and him have been very minimal which is really great to see. Keep your eyes peeled for new websites being announced on our socials – @twilocreative if you don’t already follow us!
Personal Highlights From August
This month we headed back to Darlington to visit my wife’s family and took a trip out to Malham Cove where they famously filmed a scene from Harry Potter. It’s an incredible place with a huge cliff face that you can climb up and around the side of until you’re ontop looking over the beck and the small village of Malham. We continued the walk around to Gordale Scar which was arguably even more impressive. Following a small stream into a ravine where you then have to scale a pretty challenging rock climb up a waterfall to an opening that reveals a scene straight out of Avatar (picture #1 below). An overall amazing day out, made even better by the 30 degree heat and a few pints at The Buck Inn.
Looking Ahead
We have a few really exciting projects kicking off in September that I can’t wait to get my teeth into, including a few more websites and even a mobile app which is something that doesn’t come around all too often. I’ll also be celebrating my 1st anniversary with my wife at the start of next month so I’m looking forward to some time off to enjoy some quality time together.
