by Brad Feld
The idea of mentorship is valuable to entrepreneurs throughout their journey, but it is difficult for startup founders to access mentors early on. Techstars was founded to provide mentorship at the beginning of an entrepreneur’s journey, when you are likely to lack confidence in your direction, unsure about the next steps, clueless about the data you need to collect and validate, or when you are working with a business model that is not aligned between your product offering and the market. That is where the magic of Techstars comes in. We have assembled people who have seen and experienced a wide range of startup issues and they are willing to invest their time and energy in you and your idea and commit themselves to helping you at the beginning of your journey.
Because mentorship is foundational to the early stages of startups, the chapters in the opening themes—Idea and Vision, and People—focus more on the role of mentors than the later themes, Legal and Structure and Work–Life Harmony. The chapters in those two later themes consist mainly of practical advice and sharing best practices or telling you things to be aware of as you build your company.
For people who are motivated to start a business, increase innovation within their organization, or accelerate entrepreneurial activity in their community, the ideas in Do More Faster can make all the difference in the world: the difference between being successful or not, making an impact or being irrelevant, putting your talents to the greater good or just getting by in life. We believe that entrepreneurship is ultimately a creative activity, but, instead of a potter’s wheel or an artist’s easel, your canvas is a business. The challenges to creating a business are significant, the emotions intense, and the end result exhilarating.
Do or do not. There is no try.
Appendix 1:
The Evolution of Techstars
We’ve been fortunate that Techstars has wildly exceeded our expectations. People around the world have noticed, and many have become interested in Techstars. Many of them have reached out to us for assistance. We have actively tried to help them understand and replicate our mentorship-driven and community-oriented model.
Since the beginning, Techstars has taken an open source approach. We have publicly shared our model seed funding documents, our results, and our philosophies about startups, many of which you have just read.
What began as a simple experiment—creating an accelerator to help entrepreneurs succeed—has now grown into a meaningful part of the startup ecosystem in the 30 communities that Techstars currently calls home. But Techstars has expanded beyond accelerators to work with corporate partners to drive innovation and with communities to create greater levels of entrepreneurship. What follows are a few of the stories of how Techstars started, why and how it has expanded, and what might come next.
What Motivated Us to Start Techstars?
We are often asked what our motivations were for starting Techstars. We strongly believed when we first started that there was a better way to help entrepreneurs. In a traditional venture capital firm, or angel investing, the investors provide the entrepreneur with money, but they want a lot of equity and the ability to influence and control the company from a board position. But there’s not as much hands-on mentorship, there’s little help, and there is not a network or an ecosystem through which the entrepreneur can bounce ideas, learn about mistakes others have made, or understand the ups and downs of starting a new business. David Brown mentions in Chapter 59, “Don’t Forget about Bootstrapping,” that we would have given anything to have a program like Techstars when we started Pinpoint Technologies in 1993. Techstars, as we have envisioned it, largely solves the problems that startup entrepreneurs face.
We also think that Techstars represents a better way of angel investing, because we are in daily contact with the startup entrepreneur. We understand who the founders are, their strengths and weaknesses, their aspirations, their response to failure, their fortitude, their analytical and reasoning abilities. We’re able to quickly step in and help the entrepreneur with thorny problems and shave months, weeks, or days off so that they can continue to focus on the most expedient and pressing issues, and not pursue tangents. Our approach provides entrepreneurs with a diverse group of mentors, not just a single investor who only has experienced entrepreneurship in their own way. And, of course, we provide a community of startup founders, one where people can learn from their contemporaries.
There are other big reasons that Techstars was born in 2006. We wanted to make a local impact, to see more interesting startups happen over time in Boulder. We thought that Techstars could bring both new talent and national attention to Boulder. We thought it would be a great way to engage the best and brightest people from all over the country to come to Boulder and experience why so many of us fall in love with it. And even though we started with a local impact in mind, we were surprised that we had people from around the world who wanted to participate in our programs, and we now have an international impact. We also thought our Techstars approach would fill a pipeline of lifelong entrepreneurs that we could nurture and invest in over time.
And finally, selfishly, we simply couldn’t think of anything that would be more fun than working on ten interesting new startups every summer. That was in 2007. Now, in 2019, our accelerators run year-round and we have the opportunity to work with close to 500 startups per year, which is awesomely fun!
One of the key differentiators of Techstars is that it is mentorship-driven. We bring together the most accomplished serial entrepreneurs and investors from around the world. Together, we focus on about ten companies that are selected from more than 1,000 that apply for each session. These mentors give freely of their time during the three-month accelerator; they help the startup entrepreneurs refine their business models, introduce them to early customers and partners, and assist them in raising capital from investors.
Why do the mentors get so involved and do what they do? Why does the whole town in every Techstars location rally around the startups that go through the program, helping them shape their products and promoting them broadly? Why do people in all our locations seem to ask, “How can I help?” It’s because in a larger sense, Techstars is really all about community. In Boulder—and all the other locations—we see startup communities emerge where there is a genuine desire to see others succeed and a general belief that karma matters. There’s a sense that together we’re building something here, and that we’re all a meaningful part of it.
And it comes back around. From the 2007 class of ten companies, five have already been acquired. One of those companies was Socialthing, which sold to AOL in 2008. When Matt and his cofounders sold Socialthing, they didn’t forget about the community that helped them to be so successful. They donated 1% of their equity to the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado (now called Pledge 1% Colorado) and, together with Intense Debate and Filtrbox, helped generate more than $100,000 for local nonprofit organizations.
To date, Techstars has 1,012 active companies, 159 acquired companies, and 183 failed companies. That’s only a 14% failure rate. But one of the things that we’re most proud of is the increase in mentorship throughout the entire entrepreneurial community in all our locations. We’ve created a culture of sustained mentorship, and because of this Techstars is going to be a force for some time to come. We hope that we can have a similar impact on future communities as we expand.
Techstars has wildly exceeded our expectations in so many dimensions. Simply put, it reminds us of every successful startup we’ve ever been a part of.
Dave Morin, Techstars mentor, speaking to the Techstars Boulder class of 2009. Dave helped launch Facebook’s Connect platform around this time, later went on to found Path, a social networking startup, and is now a partner at Slow Ventures.
Why Techstars Started in Boulder
Silicon Valley gets most of the press for having a strong entrepreneurial ecosystem, but Boulder is also a great place to start a new business. In fact, Boulder has many qualities that really set it apart from other geograp
hies. So, what makes it so great?
First, Boulder is incredibly supportive of entrepreneurs and there is a huge sense of community. Instead of competition, there is collaboration; instead of closed offices and meetings, there are open and welcoming companies and people. Whether it’s the Boulder New Tech Meetup, the Boulder OpenCoffee Club, Boulder Software Club, or Silicon Flatirons events, the entire community—including entrepreneurs, investors, students, service professionals, professors, and others involved in the startup community—share their knowledge and experience to help others. This sense of giving back is a key characteristic of Boulder, and there is no better example of this than the success of Techstars.
Starting in Boulder, our Demo Days are now held throughout the world.
Second, Boulder’s culture encourages healthy work–life harmony. Boulder has an incredible amount to offer the entrepreneur, with easy access to mountains, hiking trails, and natural beauty. And, because Boulder is a college town, there are vibrant intellectual, arts, music, and sports scenes—all within minutes of downtown Boulder. People have time to focus and concentrate on things outside of work. 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 residents, it means that the hours they do work are more efficient and their brains feel sharper.
Boulder is centrally located within the United States. Startups are increasingly national and international organizations. For anyone who has flown from San Francisco to New York, they know it’s not a fun trip. But you can take a day trip from Boulder 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 I can have, the couple of hours that it saves me (compared to Silicon Valley) means that meetings the day of arrival aren’t nearly as brutal. And getting back and forth to the Bay Area in a single day is a relatively painless experience.
Finally, Boulder is an ideal place to start a business because it is an entrepreneurially vibrant community. There are loads of startups in Boulder. The entire Front Range of Colorado has had many successful companies created; many of these entrepreneurs stayed along the Front Range and are now working on their next big thing. The community applauds these efforts and supports the necessary risk taking for creating new ventures. There are world-renowned universities in Fort Collins, Boulder, Denver, Colorado Springs, and Pueblo that have engaged with and integrated themselves into the fabric of the ecosystem. Along with the required service providers and angel and professional investors, there is a well-developed economy to help great entrepreneurs create great companies.
So, while Silicon Valley may get more press, there are other great places to start companies, such as Boulder. Come visit—I bet you won’t want to leave.
—Jason Mendelson
How Techstars Came to Boston
Since 2004, I have worked with multiple startups as an angel investor. My focus was to help entrepreneurs align their invention with their own intention, thinking that, if you get the very early stage right, then the rest will follow. Although I worked hard with each company founder and helped them align their product designs with the needs they were serving and with the energy that drove them to invent in the first place, the results were disappointing.
Any textbook on entrepreneurship will tell you that team is crucial, but I had to find this out for myself. I learned that one founder has a hard time sustaining the energy needed to make a startup happen. And I found that one main advisor is also not enough.
I first heard about Techstars when I was introduced to David Cohen in 2008. I was looking at investing in EventVue, a Techstars company, and I was curious to find out who and what was behind the program. And also, after my dismal foray into startups as an advisor, I wanted to learn about the ingredients to Techstars’ success. When I started talking to David Cohen, and later with Brad Feld, I felt like Techstars answered so many of the deficiencies I had experienced in my much-too-lonely journey with these entrepreneurs.
After our first meeting at the end of 2008, we all believed that Boston would be a perfect venue for an expansion of Techstars beyond Boulder. But a lot of different things needed to align in order to make Techstars Boston happen in time for a June 2009 start. The most crucial of these steps was finding a managing director, and we found an excellent one in Shawn Broderick. He then took the ball and worked out the rest, with help from David and Brad. In a remarkably short time, Shawn and the team found a location, finalized investors and mentors, and chose the nine companies for Techstars Boston 2009.
At the end of the program, the companies presented their products and plans in front of a packed room with over 300 people at Microsoft’s New England Research and Development (NERD) Center. As I listened to each presentation, I saw the alignment between the entrepreneur’s energy and their products that I had been seeking in my solo work. I saw teams of entrepreneurs supporting each other. I saw hundreds of people and investors in the audience ready to support these new efforts. And I felt really satisfied that all the reasons I had hoped Techstars would be a great fit for Boston had come true, and then some.
—Bill Warner
Hundreds of people attend a Techstars Demo Day.
How Techstars Came to Seattle
A number of people have asked me the story behind Techstars coming to Seattle. I first contacted David Cohen in January 2008. At that time, I had just started working on Founders’ Co-op and wanted to speak with David about his experience with Techstars. I thought that Techstars was on to something and I wanted to learn from what David was doing and consider doing something similar in Seattle.
Chris DeVore, my partner at Founders’ Co-op, and I decided we didn’t want to mimic a three-month incubator in Seattle. In our opinion, Techstars was occupying that market space pretty well. I opted to start Founders’ Co-op, a mentor-driven seed fund. When I spoke to David on the phone, he was kind enough to share some legal documents with me. Shortly after that call, I became a mentor for Techstars Boulder.
In January 2009, I learned that Techstars was expanding to Boston. I emailed David Cohen and Brad Feld and said that if they ever considered expanding to Seattle I would be interested in working with them. David and Brad both encouraged me to spend more time in the summer at Techstars to get to know the program. They said that they were interested in exploring the possibility of working together.
In May 2009, I went to my twentieth college reunion at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. While I was back east, I stopped by at the Boston Techstars 2009 orientation. It turns out that Shawn Broderick, an old friend of mine from the 1990s Boston technology scene, was the managing director there. Shawn asked me to speak to the incoming class of Techstars companies. I did—and I’m not sure exactly what I said—but as I spoke I choked with emotion. The weekend had already been a trip down memory lane for me—walking the campus at Brown already predisposed me to feeling nostalgic. But I wasn’t prepared for the raw energy emanating from the founders of the Boston Techstars companies. I decided then that Seattle needed a program like this and that I wanted to run Techstars Seattle. Now, I just needed David Cohen to be willing to open Techstars in Seattle.
In the summer of 2009, I made another two trips to Boulder in an effort to get to know the Techstars program and David Cohen better. After the second trip, David said that he was very interested in opening Techstars Seattle but didn’t want to make a decision until October 2009. He also wanted to get to know the early-stage technology scene in Seattle better. He went about meeting entrepreneurs and investors in Seattle and even came to a Founders’ Co-op LP meeting.
By September 2009, David told me that he had pretty much decided to expand to Seattle, but he wanted the community of entrepreneurs to drive the expansion of the program. In early November 2009, there was a series of dinners in Seattle between Matt McIlwain, Greg Gottesman, Brad Feld, David Cohen, and myself.
The next thing I knew, in a 24-hour pe
riod, Greg Gottesman and David Cohen both called and asked me if I’d be willing to run Techstars in Seattle alongside Founders’ Co-op. After talking to my partner, Chris DeVore, I enthusiastically agreed.
With the help of Greg Gottesman, I then approached the entrepreneur and venture capital community in Seattle and asked them to collaborate with us in supporting the launch of Techstars Seattle in August 2010. What happened was amazing! We received huge support from an incredible list of experienced entrepreneurs willing to act as mentors. In addition, nearly all the venture capitalists in the city elected to materially support Techstars in Seattle!
The list of investors includes:
Jeff Bezos Investment Group
Divergent Venture Partners
Draper Associates
Founders’ Co-op
Foundry Group
Ignition Partners
Linden Rhoads (University of Washington Center for Technology Commercialization)
Madrona Venture Fund
Maveron Venture Capital
Montlake Capital
OVP
Rolling Bay Ventures (Geoff Entress)
Second Ave Partners
Trilogy Equity Partners
Voyager Capital
Vulcan Capital (Paul Allen’s group)
WRF Capital
The Seattle startup scene has totally embraced Techstars and I think that the Seattle entrepreneur community is the big winner.
—Andy Sack
So You Want to Start a Techstars Accelerator in Your Community or Company?