On this presentation we talk a bit more about SendGrid Accelerate, our startup program, as well as insights on when / how we have scaled in addition to 10 help tips on how to close deals with major tech companies, when you are just a small startup. This version specifically was presented at 21212 Accelerator in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

1. 1
SendGrid
Accelerate
Growth Lessons from Scaling SendGrid

2. 2
BUT, Who the hell are you?
Pedro Sorrentino @pedrosorren
• Founder (2 companies) – Sold One,
Failed the other
• Early Stage SendGrid Employee
• BD & Sales Experience
• International Growth Experience

3. 3

4. 4

5. 5
To put this into perspective, it took 49 months to hit our first 100 billion. Ten months later we hit
200 billion. It will take 8 months to hit 300 billion emails.

6. 6
Techstars Demo
Day

7. 7
Techstars Demo Day
6MM Series A
20MM Series B

8. Deliver Email That Matters

9. SendGrid | The Story
SGA | 2014
FIXING EMAIL, FOR US & YOU
Delivering email is HARD.
So, we built a proven platform
to power your email application
and customer engagement
communication.
2009 TechStars Graduate
2010 – 1B emails
20 employees
2011 – 10B emails
40 employees
2012 – 40B emails
90 employees
2013 – 100B emails
180 employees
Today – 200B emails to date
200+ employees

10. Global Presence | Support
SGA | 2014
Los Angeles | San Francisco | Denver | Boulder | New York City | Providence, RI | São Paulo | London | Romania | Tokyo

11. 20%
of the worlds wanted email
does NOT reach the inbox

12. SGA | 2014
Delivering 16+ billion emails per month
for 180,000+ customers

13. #SendGridEverywhere
SGA | 2014

14. 10 Steps for Successful BD and
Sales.

15. 1. Swarm the Org.
Who Reports to Who?
People Left. People Die.
People Move On.
YOU, Don’t Give Up.

16. 2. Find your Champion
Who is going to be the crazy one
that will support you?
What are your goals?
How can you help your partner sell
more?

17. 3. Do Their Work!
Understand the dynamics of
their company.
YOU are not their priority
But you can hack the system

18. 4. I am in the neighborhood =)

19. 5. Tier up and Scale Up

20. 6. Don’t look like a sales guy. Bring
PM and Engineer.
Use your internal resources in an intelligent way
For the most part your answers is yes.

21. 7. NO is just the beginning
No is not a bad thing. Silence is a much worse.

22. 8. Sell on Fear

23. 9. Offsite to close the deal.
80% fun 20% work
Winning is just the
beginning
What matters once the deal
is closed?

24. 10. Start Small. But Start
Somewhere.

25. Bonus: be an essentialist.

26. Accelerate Program

27. SGA | 2014
Program Details
CRITICAL CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT
You need email.
We have email.
…and more!
We’re here to help
you.
• Exclusive SendGrid product
discounts.
• Mentorship from our people –
founders, execs, community team.
• Best Practices knowledge-sharing
• Early access to beta test new
products and features.
• Amplification – we’ll use your
product, tell our friends, and help
your voice reach the world.

28. GRACIAS!
pedro@sendgrid.com| @pedrosorren