2013 SXSW Panel PickerA Talk by Tim Falls, SendGrid Community Guy

Startup Accelerators: to DO or not to DO?

Monday, August 13, 12

the intended audience• startup founders, entrepreneurs

• tech / non-tech

• accelerators

• directors, mentors, investors, partners

• anyone interested in these topics:

• startup growth / strategy

• community

• mentorship

Monday, August 13, 12

what you’ll learn• startup accelerators defined

• state of the accelerator ecosystem

• is an accelerator right for your startup?

• pros and cons of participating

• making the right decision

• if you DO

• getting the most out of your accelerator experience

• if you DO not

• alternatives to the accelerator

• how/where to learn more

Monday, August 13, 12

this talk brought to you by...• personal experience

• interviews with the experts

• research

• general observations

• the letter “t”

Monday, August 13, 12

who am i?@timfalls on twitter

community guy @sendgrid

i lead the developer relations team

former associate @techstars

2009 - 2011

Monday, August 13, 12

email service in the cloud

infrastructure | deliverability | analytics | APIs

delivering billions of emails per month; over 50B to date

tens of thousands of customers - startups and non-startups

techstars graduate: 2009

who is sendgrid?

Monday, August 13, 12

Fall 2008 : 3 co-founders assemble, start building

May 2009 : enter TechStars, acquire first paying customers

August 2009 : launch at demo day

November 2009 : seed round = $750k

April 2010 : A round = $5M

January 2012 : B round = 21.6M

~50 employees

Aug 2012:

~100 employees

Boulder, Anaheim, SF, NYC, Providence, Portland, San Diego, London

~4B emails/month = 133M/day = 5.5M/hr = 90k/minute = 1500/sec

the story of an accelerated startup

Monday, August 13, 12

accelerator: what it is

community | mentorship | resources | inspiration | $

Monday, August 13, 12

state of the accelerator• list of startup accelerators: growing

• quality vs quantity

• profile of the accelerator startup: evolving

• maturity & progress

• business vs idea

• team vs opportunity

• the application and selection processMonday, August 13, 12

is acceleration for you?the good

the bad

who’s right?

who’s wrong?

asking questions

finding answers

making a decision

Monday, August 13, 12

tips & tricksif you do

before, during, after

if you do not

other options

resources

Monday, August 13, 12

questions, answers, discussion

Monday, August 13, 12