Indian-origin CEO says he starts checking his emails at 4.30 am; ‘If you want to work eight-to five…’

​Indian-origin CEO says work-life balance is not possible at the top.

CEO Khozema Shipchandler said he starts checking his emails at 4.30 am that then wraps up his work at 9 pm. There is no day off and the Indian-origin CEO of Twilio runs laps around the house between meetings so that he does not spend all his time sitting as most of the time he’s awake, he is working. In an interview with Fortune, he said that wanting work-life balance is awesome but sacrifice is what separates leaders from everyone else. For example, the 51-year-old CEO said he missed many of his son’s tennis matches. The price that he paid made him a CFO when he was 31.On checking mails at 4.30 am, Shipchandler said he was always a morning person, and it helped him to remain ahead of others. Coffee, breakfast, browse through news headlines, and then a workout follow. “I do it in that order intentionally so that while I’m 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’ve seen on email and Slack and stuff like that,” he said.Shipchandler is at work at 7.30 am which goes on till lunch. After lunch, he always immediately hits the treadmill for 10 minutes of walking so that he doesn’t get an afternoon lull. Then he takes a dinner break at 6.30 pm. Despite his traveling, he maintains the same routine. At 8 pm, he squeezes in another hour of extra work and then goes to sleep at 9.30 pm. On the weekend, he wakes up at 6.30 am and keeps his routine a little relaxed but he still works most Sundays.

Work-life balance not possible at the top, says CEO

Shipchandler said he does not think that work-life balance is possible at the top but he insisted that he is not against smart working. “Every one of us has to make certain work-life choices,” he said. “This work-life choice obviously has certain consequences. I wasn’t there for all of my son’s tennis matches.”“If you want to work eight-to-five, coach your kids sports teams, have the evenings for yourself, and maybe another hobby or interest, that’s awesome,” Shipchandler said.He also doesn’t use social media and says that helps keep his focus.Shipchandler said he was built to work hard. “My 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,” he said. “They really pushed working hard and playing hard, which, by the way, I do play hard when I’m not working, so that was the goal,” he added.

Who is Khozema Shipchandler?

Shipchandler was born in Indiana to Indian parents who were from Mumbai. But his ancestral home is in Bengaluru. Khozema holds a Bachelor of Arts in Biology and English from Indiana University Bloomington. He started his career at GE and rose through the ranks to become the Chief Commercial Officer. After 22 years at GE, he joined Twilio and became the CEO in 2024.