SendGrid offers a powerful and flexible cloud-based transactional email platform that enables companies and application developers to easily send and receive emails to and from their users, while enhancing their email delivery rates and providing rich analytics. The SendGrid platform easily scales to handle millions of users, providing access to world-class email infrastructure services, freeing developers from the hassles of managing the complexities of email servers and technologies.

Historically, companies have sent two categories of email to their customers and/or users: bulk emails, which are typically marketing messages sent out to their entire user base, and transactional emails, which are user-specific emails that update a particular user about changes activity in his/her account, provide purchase confirmations, send password reset notifications, etc. There exists a large and mature ecosystem devoted to outsourcing and optimizing the sending of mass- marketing emails to end-users. These emails are often regarded as spam by their recipients, despite the fact that most users likely opted-in to receive such emails when they registered for an account with the website sending these messages.

Interestingly, no such ecosystem has developed around transactional emails, despite (or perhaps because of) the greater challenges and message volumes associated with supporting an effective transactional email system in-house. As an example, it is estimated that Facebook alone sends well over one billion transactional emails to its users per day. Unlike mass-marketing bulk emails, transactional emails are seldom perceived as spam by end-users, and both the sender and the receiver have a vested interest in these transactional emails arriving at their destination.

Managing a transactional email system in-house results in increased costs associated with supporting the email system, while poor deliverability rates of an application’s transactional emails can decrease user engagement, site traffic and revenue.

Most web application developers are not proficient with mail server technology or the SMTP protocol that underlies it – the expertise required to deeply understand the email technology stack is very different from the HTTP/XML/HTML expertise that the average web developer possesses.

SendGrid moves transactional email functionality to the cloud and allows web developers to access sophisticated email processing capabilities through a simple API (application programming interface) that frees the developer from having to deploy, scale or manage an email server. SendGrid’s cloud-based email services enhance transactional email deliverability and scalability, while also providing rich analytics and enhanced email capabilities without requiring the developer to write custom email-specific code.

Integration with SendGrid is simple for the developer, requiring only a change of DNS settings to redirect outbound and/or inbound email through SendGrid’s servers. SendGrid provides a free entry-level demo account that allows a developer to send up to 200 emails daily free of charge. When customers move above the 200 emails/day limit, they are required to upgrade to a paid account, with monthly charges based on volume.

SendGrid was a graduate of the Boulder TechStars Class of 2009, and Foundry Group partner Ryan McIntyre acted as a mentor for SendGrid’s CEO and co-founder Isaac Saldana throughout the summer program. Following SendGrid’s “graduation” from TechStars, the company raised a $750k seed round in late 2009. Since their launch in the Fall of 2009, SendGrid has landed thousands of customers and has delivered nearly 1.2 billion messages on their behalf.

As we observed SendGrid’s rapid customer growth, which has occurred through word of mouth and without formal sales or marketing efforts, we made an offer to invest in SendGrid, and, thankfully, they accepted our offer to lead this round. We’ve got a long history of investing in the email ecosystem, most recently via our investments in Postini (acquired by Google in 2007) and Return Path. SendGrid is in many ways architecturally analogous to Postini (and shares Postini’s simple DNS-based deployment model), but instead of serving as an inbound email filter to enterprise email inboxes, SendGrid provides its cloud-based email infrastructure in the service of application generated emails sent to (and received from) users of a web-based application.

SendGrid sits squarely in the middle of our Protocol investment theme, which subsumed our Email, RSS and Implicit Web themes. We are excited to welcome the company to the Foundry Group portfolio and look forward to working with SendGrid’s founders Isaac Saldana, Jose Lopez, Tim Jenkins and the rest of the SendGrid team to build the company into a huge player in the email infrastructure market.

In the last several years, Boulder has been named #1 in Forbes’ “Smartest Cities in America”, #1 in Outside Magazine’s “20 Dream Towns”, #1 in Business 2.0’s “Top 20 Boom Towns”, and Best Overall in Men’s Journal’s “50 Best Places to Live” (three times in the last five years!).

It’s no surprise, then, that Boulder has experienced a significant renaissance among technology startups, especially in recent years.  But with that growth has come a noticeable pain point: a shortage of great technical/developer talent.  Just to be clear, this isn’t a knock against the local talent—the Boulder/Denver area has lots of really talented folks.  It’s just that the need is outpacing the supply.

Rather than just bemoan the difficulties of recruiting, a bunch of Boulder’s hottest tech startups have decided to tackle the problem head-on with a really innovative job fair aimed at out-of-state technical talent.  Companies like Aegis Analytical, EventVue, Filtrbox, Fuser, Gnip, HiveLive, Me.dium, Printfection, Rally Software, Return Path, and socialthing! (with more companies in the works) have pooled their resources to create a week-long job fair taking place October 27-31.

What’s unique about this job fair is that participation is by application only, and selected applicants get a free trip (airfare, hotel, you name it—no strings attached) to Colorado to meet with Boulder’s hottest startups and to check out the town.  That’s pretty hard to beat!

So, if you’re a rock star developer or software engineer and want a great way to check out Boulder, make sure you apply here!  Once you experience Boulder and have a chance to see our thriving tech community, we don’t think you’re going to want to leave.

While none of us attended CU, we’ve all adopted it as our “other school” and have become very involved with several different groups.

Silicon Flatirons – One of the most active entrepreneurial groups was born out of the law school. Yes, the law school. It’s called the Silicon Flatirons and it is made up of business leaders, financiers, academics, entrepreneurs and other folks interested in building a nerve center of thought leadership in issues in technology. The program was created by Phil Weiser, one of the most forward-thinking legal scholars in the country. In addition to having nationally-known guest lecturers, roundtable and educational programs for the community at large, the center has begun an ambitious program that will focus on entrepreneurship activities in the Boulder area. Specifically, a separate board on entrepreneurship has been created and we are quite active with it, with Jason serving as chairperson. Recent achievements include the creation of an “entrepreneurs unplugged” program whereby successful and nationally known entrepreneurs are interviewed in an “inside the actors studio” type format. Anyone in the community is free to attend. This board is also focusing on developing a campus-wide business plan competition as well as building out entrepreneurial-based curriculum for engineering, business and law students.

Deming Center for Entrepreneurship- Though its graduate program is relatively small, the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado at Boulder has consistently been recognized for having one of the top entrepreneurial programs in the nation. The Deming Center for Entrepreneurship serves as the business school’s hub of entrepreneurial programs and activity. Led by executive director Paul Jerde, the center benefits from an active advisory board of successful entrepreneurs, executives and venture investors. The Deming Center’s program combines an integrated academic curriculum with a “connected learning environment” that engages the broader entrepreneurial community to provide students with hands-on learning and mentorship. Fitting for an organization based in Boulder, the Deming Center’s programs have been at the forefront of integrating environmental sustainability with entrepreneurship. Examples of the center’s leadership include its international Cleantech Venture Challenge, the Sustainable Opportunities Summit, and Sustainable Venturing Initiative, as well as more traditional activities such as hosting the Mountain regional finals of the international Venture Capital Investment Competition and a number of internal business plan competitions.

Bard Center – Established through a grant from Denver businessman Richard Bard and his wife Pamela, the Bard Center for Entrepreneurship at CU Denver offers graduate level courses in business and entrepreneurship to students enrolled in the CU Denver system. Since its founding in 1996, the Bard Center has seen almost 2,000 students enroll in classes through the program and has awarded just under 500 certificates of entrepreneurship. The center is supported by a strong board of advisors, including Seth. In addition to the academic programs it runs, the Bard Center also sponsors a large business plan competition and supports a small venture fund to invest in student-initiated businesses. Under the stewardship of Kathy Kuntz (blog, LinkedIn) look for the Bard Center to continue to expand its influence in the Denver entrepreneurial scene.

National Center for Women & Information Technology – Funded by NSF, Microsoft, Avaya, Pfizer, Bank of America, and a number of other members of its workforce alliance, the National Center for Women & Information Technology is the pre-eminent national organization working to engage women more actively in the field of information technology and computer science. NCWIT believes that inspiring more women to choose careers in IT isn’t about gender parity; it’s a compelling issue of innovation, competitiveness, and workforce sustainability. NCWIT is housed in CU’s new ATLAS Building and has quickly become an important national program at CU engaged in promoting innovation in the computer science field. Brad has been chairman of NCWIT for the past three years.

All of us believe that a strong local university that has a culture of entrepreneurship is a key component of any local entrepreneurial ecosystem. We are proud of our involvement in the CU entrepreneurial ecosystem and hope to continue to engage it and help improve it over the coming years.

TechStars: If you are a frequent reader of Brad’s blog, you’ve probably seen some of his posts on TechStars. Brad’s not the only Foundry Group partner, however, who is involved. We are all mentors along with many other local and nationally known entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. It’s been great getting to know the TechStars teams and help build some interesting businesses. As part of our “evil plan” we figured that many of the teams would fall in love with Boulder and then decide to permanently relocate here. We’re happy to report that our evil plan is succeeding. We think it’s been important to the continued vibrancy of the Boulder community to not only grow, but to also import great entrepreneurial and software development talent. TechStars has also become a large hub of activity to stay in touch with the great Boulder community.

Boulder Open Coffee Club: Following on the success of Saul Klein’s creation of the London based Open Coffee Club, we decided to give a Boulder version a try. The premise was simple: get a group of people together who were all interested in technology, entrepreneurship and the like and have coffee every other week before work. The meeting would be short on agenda (e.g. “none”), but hopefully the energy of the group would prove to make for interesting meetings. There were a couple of challenges going in: 1) it was unknown whether the idea of a regular, non-agenda meeting with a bunch of people who may have never met would attract high-quality folks and be sustainable over time and 2) Jason, who took the lead in creating the group, doesn’t drink coffee. One year later, we are happy to report the BOCC is alive, well, thriving and growing in both quality and size. Jason, however, still sticks to fruit smoothies.

So what is the BOCC? It’s a regular gathering place for entrepreneurs, technologists, service providers, investors and voyeurs of all the aforementioned to come hang out and chat. Sometimes, someone raises an interesting topic (are patents evil? should Microsoft buy Yahoo!?), or perhaps comes with a problem (my company is experiencing “X” what do I do now?), or maybe uses the forum as the first time they pitch their new idea in public. And, of course, it’s a great place to meet new people and expand connections in the Boulder entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Perhaps the best quote from a regular BOCC attendee: “The great thing about these events is that you can just be yourself. Unlike the neighbor’s barbecue party, everyone here will not only ‘get you’, but they’ll probably even understand you, ask intelligent questions and create an engaging experience.”

We are already on our third coffee shop, as we’ve needed to upgrade in size. We’ve had several folks start companies together, find folks to partner with and one company even made a software sale to Foundry to help us manage our finance department. We look forward to seeing how this group continues to grow. An interesting note is that many other places that have attempted to start similar groups have not found the support that we have found in Boulder.

Colorado Governor’s Innovation Council: Last fall, Brad helped create and now co-chairs the Colorado Governor’s Innovation Council.  This is a group of about 30 local computer, telecom, and software technology executives and entrepreneurs who are working with key members of Colorado’s state government to help promote computer technology based innovation, entrepreneurship, and broadband throughout the state of Colorado.

Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado: As part of an international initiative to promote philanthropy among entrepreneurial companies, Brad co-founded the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado (EFCO) early 2007.  As of today, there are 20 member companies representing around 1,000 employees, including Foundry Group.  EFCO is a great way for companies, their employees, and their investors to give back to the Colorado community. If you are interested, please see our prior posting on EFCO for details.

Startup Weekend: Startup Weekend is an experiment that started in Boulder created by Andrew Hyde. The mission of Startup Weekend is to recruit a highly motivated group of developers, business managers, startup enthusiasts, marketing gurus, graphic artists and more to a weekend event in cities around the world that builds communities, companies and projects.  The concept is to create the building blocks for applications and companies in an extremely short period of time – specifically a weekend.  It started with the supportive, creative and talented community in Boulder, which is the only city to have hosted two weekends. All of us at Foundry have been supportive of the efforts.

The widely asked question of “what does it take to have a strong startup ecosystem?” generally is responded to in a variety of ways: good schools, plenty of engineering and management talent, services support and available investment capital. However the one trait that cannot be acquired is the culture of entrepreneurship. Boulder certainly has that culture and we are happy to be a part of it. Not to be outdone, of course, is our adopted University of Colorado’s role in all of this. In fact the University is a key anchor in all of this activity and in a future post we’ll dive into specific initiatives that we are involved with over there.

For those of you who don’t know, Ryan and I met in 2000 while at the California offices of Mobius Venture Capital, became quick friends and even started a band or two. (Shameless Plug Alert: Our band Soul Patch has recently released a new album. Check out the web site and buy on CDBaby, iTunes and Amazon. Become a fan on Facebook!). When the concept of the Foundry Group was born, one thing that the five of us agreed on was the need for one (and only one) office.

It didn’t take us long to decide that both the Boulder and Foundry Group opportunities were what we wanted to pursue with our careers, so, after a combined 27 years in Northern California, we sold our homes in the Bay Area and moved to Boulder in mid 2006. We’ve now been here almost 2 years. What have we learned?

Boulder is an entrepreneurially vibrant community. We were both surprised and encouraged by the sheer amount of startup activity there is in Boulder. It’s not just a by-product of having several good universities nearby; rather it’s really part of the culture and fabric of the community. I’d compare this to Ann Arbor, MI, where I went to school. Many people compare Ann Arbor to Boulder (without the mountains). While I see plenty of similarities, Ann Arbor is missing the ingrained culture of entrepreneurship (and associated risk profile) although it may have similar engineering and management talent.

Boulder is a supportive community. There really is a sense of community here. While there is a ton of activity, I don’t know if we’ve ever been to place that is as supportive in each other’s efforts. Instead of competition, there is collaboration. Whether it’s the Boulder NewTech Meetup, the Boulder OpenCoffee Club, Boulder Software Club, or TechStars, there is a general sense of community and responsibility to help the entrepreneurial community grow. I can’t say that I ever felt that sense of responsibility and “giving back” in the Silicon Valley that I feel here.

Boulder makes nationwide travel much easier. As national investors, it’s much easier for us to travel anywhere in the US from a central location like Denver. We’ve even been able to take day trips to New York, an impossible feat from the Bay Area, at least without a private jet. While an East Coast day trip is not the most fun one can have, our families appreciate us being home at night. And getting back and forth to Los Angeles and San Francisco, where we travel most frequently, is a relatively painless and efficient experience.

Speaking of travel, both Ryan and I (coincidentally) live on the same block in a neighborhood a few blocks away from our office. Our “commute” to the office is infinitely easier than our prior commutes in the Bay Area. The time saved can be spent on work or play, but either way, it’s not spent in the car. (For those voyeurs among you, you can check out our neighborhood by going to Google Maps and clicking “Street View”.

Being in Boulder helps focus our West Coast activities. There is no doubt that the volume of startup activity in the Bay Area dwarfs that of Boulder, and we have often been asked if we are concerned that we are missing out on opportunities by not having an office in the Valley. On the contrary, we consider being outside of the (sometimes provincial) echo-chamber of Silicon Valley to be genuinely useful. After experiencing life as VCs in the Valley for several years, we experienced a very real “time tax”, which resulted from taking meetings with entrepreneurs and executives we knew we were unlikely to invest in, but we felt were ultimately necessary to participate in in order to maintain our relationships with friends and colleagues in the area. Not being in California every day means we can opt out of that process. With our new location in Boulder, we still have our great networks and deal flow in California, but we have removed the Sand Hill Road friction from our day-to-day lives. When we do go to California to look at deals, meet with entrepreneurs or attend board meetings, we are better focused at the matters at hand and tend to have higher quality meetings, since those meetings have passed the “is it worth hopping on an airplane to meet face to face?” test.

Boulder’s culture encourages a healthy work-life balance. Boulder has an incredible amount to offer with easy access to mountains, hiking trails and natural beauty. People actually have time and focus to concentrate on things outside of work. It’s definitely a slightly saner pace. It’s not that people don’t work hard – they do – but there is a certain amount of balance that isn’t completely explainable unless you live here. For us, it’s meant that the hours we do work are more efficient and our brains are sharper.

So is Boulder utopia? No, nothing is. Ryan and I will “forever” tease our partners who told us that winters were mild in Boulder. Upon our arrival, we had the “opportunity” to experience the worst winter “ever” in 2006-2007. We’re also being told this winter is “below average,” which means that we’ve clearly brought bad luck with us. Either that or we were sold a bill of goods. More on that next year, I suppose. Also, we both miss some of the culinary options of the Bay Area, but we’d be in the same situation if we lived anywhere else but New York or Los Angeles (with apologies to Chicago). Finally, we must mention that the Denver Airport has the worst parking facilities in the world. They are regularly full, making for some tense moments pre-departure.

But in general, Boulder is a great place to live, work, play and (in Ryan’s case) raise kids. We’ve embraced our new hometown, and we look forward to continuing our integration into the community, both from professional and personal standpoints.