As a company built for developers, by developers, we understand the complexities surrounding developing new applications and how instrumental mentorship is in overcoming them. Mentorship has had a major impact on our scalability since we graduated from TechStars in 2009, so a big part of the Accelerate Program is providing similar guidance. Our international Developer Relations team will be leading this effort—they are known for providing their expertise and support at hackathons and conferences around the world. Dave McClure, Founding Partner at 500 Startups explains:
“I’ve been working beside various members of the SendGrid team at events and hackathons for the last few years, and have invited many of their founders and team to travel alongside me for our Geeks on a Plane tours. The SendGrid team, and in particular, the developer relations team, is broadly known and respected by developers and startups all over the world. They are an ideal partner to bring on board to help our portfolio companies as they build and launch awesome products and services.”
SendGrid’s Developer Relations team has been leading a “SendGrid Everywhere” strategy since 2009 and these new partnerships will be another step in developing that effort. A primary aim of "SendGrid Everywhere" is to expose startup teams to SendGrid as early as possible, often when the companies are small teams of two or three founders or employees. As a result, some of the biggest names in tech today have been using SendGrid since their first year (or even months) in existence, including Pinterest, Snapchat, Uber, foursquare, Dwolla and Spotify.
Paul Ford, SendGrid’s VP of Product and Marketing explains the importance of building these supportive relationships early on:
“Our partnerships with Techstars, 500 Startups and Global Accelerator Network represent our commitment to making startups’ and developers’ lives easier and to making SendGrid as accessible as possible as early as possible for startups and developers everywhere. These three accelerator programs are also philosophically aligned with SendGrid in that each places an emphasis not just on company, product development, and revenue, but also on human development, community development and the spirit of helping one another, even when participating parties may not have a stake in the eventual outcome. As a mentor at all three accelerators, I’m proud to establish these formalized partnership relationships, and to give back to the people who need our help the most.”
We are thrilled to kick off these partnerships and to help further aid the development of early stage startups. To learn more, read the official press release and visit each accelerator's website:
