SendGrid, Twilio and International Startup Festival Announce DOer Express Bus from NYC to Montreal

• Literally a startup accelerator, the DOer Express will feature realtime coaching and mentoring on the journey from NYC to Montreal
• Other event partners include Windows Azure and Bessemer Venture Partners
• Startups can apply for a free spot on the bus at: http://ahoy.twilio.com/bustomontreal

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Twilio (http://www.twilio.com), the market leader in cloud communications, and SendGrid (http://www.sendgrid.com/), the leader in email deliverability, announced today the inaugural DOer Express, a bus for entrepreneurs en route to the International Startup Festival in Montreal. The DOer Express, in partnership with Bessemer Venture Partners and Microsoft, will be leaving from New York City on July 11 and will transport 46 early stage startup founders while offering mentoring from top entrepreneurs, members of the startup community and technical advisors, such as Craig Kitterman, Technical Product Manager on the Windows Azure team at Microsoft. Startups can apply for a free spot on the bus at: http://ahoy.twilio.com/bustomontreal.

“We're excited to sponsor the DOer Express, giving developers the tools, focus, and wheels to help build some great businesses en-route to the International Startup Festival.”

“SendGrid has traveled the challenging road from a young startup with a vision to a category-defining technology company with tens of thousands of customers,” said Isaac Saldana, co-founder, SendGrid. “Our DOer Express Bus participation is made in the spirit of helping aspiring startups understand some of the opportunities and risks ahead and in sharing some of our own experience as we traveled the same path.”

The DOer Express will be leaving from New York City for Montreal early morning Wednesday, July 11, 2012, and returning late night Friday, July 13. Bessemer Venture Partners will also throw a kickoff event the evening of Tuesday, July 10, featuring talks from partners and other socializing and networking opportunities.

“Twilio is all about empowering DOers with great tools,” said Twilio CEO and Co-founder Jeff Lawson. “We're excited to sponsor the DOer Express, giving developers the tools, focus, and wheels to help build some great businesses en-route to the International Startup Festival.”

"The International Startup Festival brings the best and brightest startups from around the world to Montreal,” said Philippe Telio, Founder and Producer of the International Startup Festival. “Having a busload of these folks coming from New York is a dream come true, and companies like Twilio and SendGrid are once again demonstrating their commitment to startup ecosystems."

About Twilio

Twilio (www.twilio.com), the cloud communications company, is reinventing telecom by merging the worlds of cloud computing, web services and telecommunications. Twilio provides a telephony infrastructure web service in the cloud, allowing web developers to integrate phone calls, text messages and IP voice communications into their web, mobile and traditional phone applications. The company is privately held and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

About SendGrid

SendGrid is the leader in email deliverability. SendGrid’s cloud-based platform increases email deliverability, provides actionable insight and scales to meet any volume of email, relieving businesses of the cost and complexity of maintaining custom email infrastructures. The email delivery platform of choice for 40,000 web application companies and developers, including foursquare, Pinterest, Airbnb, Twilio and Path, SendGrid delivers more than 3 billion emails per month. Founded in 2009 and based in Boulder, Colo., SendGrid is backed by Foundry Group, Highway 12 Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners and several notable individual investors. For more information, visit www.sendgrid.com.

About International Startup Festival

The International Startup Festival (www.startupfest.com) is a 3-day event on the business of startups. Held in the historic Old Port of Montreal (July 11-13), it brings together industry veterans and fresh faces, creative thinkers, experienced entrepreneurs and technologists from around the world. Focused on hot sectors like mobility, gaming, social networking as well as cleantech, education, healthcare and more, it features startup pitches (including live elevator pitches in a real elevator!), inspiring keynotes, and hard-hitting seminars on every stage of the startup lifecycle from “back of the napkin” idea to champagne-popping exits. Our partnership with the Just For Laughs comedy festival, assures you will have fun doing business at Startupfest!