TechStars Series: Sendgrid’s CEO On The Joy And Panic Of Being Eyeballed By A Giant (like Amazon) – with Jim Franklin

Jim Franklin, Sendgrid, B2B, Customer Acquisition, Hiring, Marketing, SaaS (software as a service), System

What happens to a startup after an outside executive becomes its CEO?

Jim Franklin is the CEO of Sendgrid, which helps companies get their email delivered easily and provides them with analytics so they could improve their messages’ effectiveness.

This is part of my series of interviews with companies that got mentoring, funding and support from TechStars.

Jim Franklin

Sendgrid

Jim Franklin is the CEO of Sendgrid, an email infrastructure applications company.

 

Andrew: Coming up, if you ever need help, who can you go to to help you think through your ideas and get support? Today’s guest did something interesting that got three entrepreneurs to help him. Pay attention to it because I think it could help you someday. Also, what do you do if a giant like Amazon enters your business? How do you keep growing? Today’s guest did it and he’s going to show you how he did it and how you can too. Finally, listen for the P-word. I’m not going to tell you what it is because I don’t want to scare you off, but listen for that P-word that sounds painful to impose on a company, but that could have massive, massive growth implications for your business. All that and so much more coming up.

Three messages before we get started. First, do you need web design work? Go to launchtower.com. It’s run by Alex Champagne who has helped me with a lot of last minute projects at Mixergy. Now he’s running a design...

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