At SendGrid, we picked the brain of CEO Jim Franklin.
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Founded in 2009, after graduating from the TechStars program, SendGrid has developed a cloud based service that solves the challenge of email delivery by delivering emails on behalf of companies. SendGrid eliminates the complexity of sending email, saving time and money, while providing reliable delivery to the inbox. With over a decade of thought-leadership backed by a stellar record of delivering email, SendGrid is climbing to new heights.
How did SendGrid get its start?
The three tech founders met at the University of California - Riverside. In many ways, our company is a modern American success story: two of the founders are Hispanic, and were the first in their families to go to college. Back then, they were just building web apps for their own entertainment. In that process, they realized that every time they built an app, they had to build email infrastructure to go with it. After six or seven years of doing this, they realized that everyone who was building apps had this same problem.
The solution they came up with was to build that email infrastructure in a cloud, and then they could rent it to their friends who were also doing app development. Roughly four years later, they had about 100,000 friends. That recipe was the application for TechStars. So they moved to Boulder, and just had a heads-down focus on launching the company. The founders ended up moving back to California, with an office in Boulder and then expanded to Denver in order to reach a larger metro area.
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Why Denver?
Culturally, it’s much more “okay” to do startups here. I came from the East coast, where it seemed like there was a much higher expectation that you have a “proper” job, where you wear a 3-piece suit, you get a degree in law or accounting or an MBA. Here I am 47 wearing a t-shirt and jeans to work everyday. People here are just more open minded, and very good about failure. What I mean by that is that it's culturally acceptable to try something, fail, but learn from it and try again.
I’ve crashed companies, gotten fired from real jobs... you just pick yourself up, you re-form and you move on. You have to be able to take the risk on the front end and have early failures.
Colorado is a great place to have a company, because it's so central. You're a 2 1/2 hour flight from anywhere, it's easier to communicate than being on the coast where you can be three time zones away.
And then there's just the lifestyle living here - the sunshine, dry weather, multisport atttude. Because of that there's a lot of inbound migration to the area, and that means new ideas and talent coming through.
You've had years of experience with several companies, what are some lessons you've learned from mistakes over the years?
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There have definitely been some hiring failures. When you’re in your twenties, there's a big temptation to just hire your friends and people you meet when you're out and about. That has about a 1 in 3 chance of success at best. When you get clear on what your values are and you can articulate them well, you start really using that in your hiring, and you're much more successful at building a good team.
What other advice would you give early-stage companies and aspiring founders?
Get out there and network with your peers. Don't just hole up in your office and work on your business, you have to go talk to people. Find people who are already doing what you’ll be doing next, or even better, someone who's already been at it for ten years. The insight they can give you is invaluable. When I became a CFO at 28, I went and found CFOs who knew what they were doing. I would take them to lunch and just start picking their brains. Nobody ever said "no," and that's where I learned the most about what I was doing.
People in Denver are really great that way – eveyrone is helpful. Any time you ask for help, they’re like, "sure, no problem." Everyone wants to help, we all want one another to succeed. Peer networking and establishing that network is huge.
What do you think are some of the most interesting things happening in the local startup scene?
I'm always interested in the people who are getting big fast. Traction is the key to the universe. Who’s getting good traction? How do they do it with minimal funds and incomplete teams? I'd say companies like Gnip, Full Contact API, SimpleEnergy, iBotta, PaySimple...
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How would you describe the company culture at SendGrid?
Honest, hungry, humble, happy. You'll hear me say that all the time. Qualitatively, I like to say that we're somewhat Midwestern, in that we're very goal-oriented and high-striving. There's a strong work ethic here, and we're all continuous learners. I think that's consistent across all of our offices.
What do you perceive as the greatest needs of Colorado's startup community?
Connecting founders and building founding teams. We need to do more to help facilitate the assembly of fundable teams. A lot of people say that we need more capital, but I'd disagree. Or, rather, I'd say the focus shouldn't be on getting that - it flows to where the fundable teams are.
I think the biggest barrier to success locally right now is that the supply of founder material doesn’t change that much over time. Things like The Founder’s Institute help. It really just comes down to connecting with other people, connecting non-tech people with tech founders. If we can increase the pool of founders, it will mean more companies doing more interesting things, and the money will follow.
Any major goals or benchmarks coming up for the company this year?
We're growing like crazy - we've got 43 open jobs at the moment. We're hitting our stride with scaling as we go from 100 to 200+ people. There will also be some announcements on some partnerships and that sort of thing.
Anything else you'd like the community to know about you or about the company?
We like to be your customer. We want to use your stuff. It’s no coincidence that we use Round Pegg for hiring. We like working with the home team. If you’re starting something, we want to be your perfect early adopter. People really appreciate it when we get that first partner. If we’re not on your customer list, something’s wrong.
Learn more about SendGrid in their company profile or via their website, find their job openings on our job board, and follow them on Facebook and Twitter @SendGrid.
This week we also visited with Ben Nunez of Birdbox and Avi Stopper of CaptainU. Learn more about Built In Denver's Startup Tour and read previous weeks' posts here.
