Raz Acquires Sendblue

I'm beyond excited to announce that Sendblue has been acquired by Raz. This milestone is a huge step toward providing a seamless experience for business messaging.

When I first thought of Sendblue, I was shocked by the fact that nearly every communication channel could be automated and accessed via API, except for iMessage. I searched for something like "Twilio, but for iMessage", only to find endless threads of business owners begging for a solution or complaining there wasn't one. Driven by my curiosity and ambition, I set out to build what I couldn't find.

The journey to creating Sendblue was not straightforward. As an indie hacker and a bootstrapper, I spent years in the online community, immersed in the "Twittersphere" of founders trying to build, launch, and scale. My early days involved figuring out each step from scratch: pricing, building, support, marketing, and more. It was exhilarating and challenging at the same time.

I vividly remember sitting in my car in June 2020, nervously awaiting the first paid subscription after our free trial period. Seeing that Stripe notification come through was euphoric. I could barely believe it. From there, we kept growing, and each new hurdle offered another lesson. Sendblue became my first serious venture and my first shot at building something that mattered.

Growing Pains: The Scalability and Reliability Challenge

Scalability and reliability were always on my mind. Sendblue was a lifeline for our customers, and when service interruptions occurred, I would go to great lengths to keep things running, even if it meant biking across the city to troubleshoot. But as the platform grew, the demand outpaced what I could handle alone. With limited resources and staff, I relied on short-term fixes to keep us afloat.

A Realization: Scaling Requires Resources

Fast-forward to 2024. I hired a few employees, and we started to improve our reliability issues and develop new features, finally focusing on expanding and scaling. By this point, it became evident that capital was no longer a "nice-to-have". It was a necessity. Bootstrapping had its limits, and while Sendblue had matured into a full-featured iMessage API, reaching industry-standard reliability was out of reach without more significant support.

As I was considering funding options, one of our bigger clients, Raz, approached with an acquisition offer. I had long conversations with Raz's founders, and it became clear that their vision aligned perfectly with mine. They wanted to build the next generation of business messaging solutions, just as I did, and they had the team and resources to make it happen. With their expertise and well-connected network, the acquisition started to feel like the obvious choice.

Why Raz Was the Perfect Fit

The decision wasn't just about resources. Raz's commitment to a reliable, scalable future for Sendblue was reassuring. Raz also shared my view of the future of messaging: one that moves businesses beyond SMS to communicate over iMessage, WhatsApp, RCS, Telegram, and other platforms. Our combined goal is to ensure that any business, anywhere, has access to the messaging platforms they need to talk to the customers they serve.

What This Means for Sendblue's Current Users

Current users will still have access to Sendblue, though we plan to deprecate shared plans to maintain a reliable infrastructure. We're entering an era where reliability will drastically improve, new integrations will roll out, and we'll be able to meet customers wherever they need us. With integrations spanning HubSpot, Salesforce, GoHighLevel, and more, Sendblue will integrate into our users' ecosystems, giving businesses the flexibility they need to use our service from anywhere.

Lessons Learned and Looking Forward

Reflecting on Sendblue's growth, I hardly recognize the code I wrote four years ago. The platform has matured, and so have I as a founder. If I could go back, I'd focus more on solving the right problems instead of getting caught up in what I knew best. As Alex Hormozi says, "Your business is probably not suffering from the piece that you are good at." I see the truth in this now more than ever.

Looking ahead, regulation for business messaging is becoming more complex, and we're uniquely positioned to offer solutions that navigate these challenges. By combining our strengths with Raz, we're ready to lead in compliant and versatile messaging for businesses in a space that's getting increasingly complicated.

The Raz and Sendblue partnership is about scaling up. We're committed to creating a future where iMessage and other messaging channels become indispensable business tools. In many ways, the journey has only just begun.

A Heartfelt Thank You

Our growth wouldn't have been possible without the support of our amazing team, community, and early supporters. You trusted us to bring something new to the world of messaging, and we're beyond grateful for that.

Thank you for being part of the journey. We're excited for all the great things ahead, and we can't wait to keep building something incredible together.

• Nikita