by Brad Feld
Localytics (2009). Founded by Raj Aggarwal and Henry Cipolla, Localytics is a mobile engagement platform providing insights and tools to improve mobile app acquisition, engagement, and retention. Localytics has raised $70 million in capital, has more than 330,000 monthly visitors, and is deployed on over 2.7 billion devices. Raj (CEO) and Henry (CTO) remained with Localytics until 2017. They are now cofounding their next company.
Next Big Sound (2009). Founded by Alex White, David Hoffman, and Samir Rayani, Next Big Sound tracks mentions of bands and musical artists across music websites. The service calculates and graphs statistics over time and compares the data to that of other similar bands. Next Big Sound has been tracking data since June 2009 and creating reports analyzing over 486,000 bands. Next Big Sound raised $7.9 million in capital and was acquired by Pandora in 2015. Alex continues as head of Next Big Sound with Pandora; David worked at Pandora until 2017 and is now “traveling and tinkering.” Samir is taking time to relax, build, and figure out what’s next.
Occipital (2008). Founded by Jeffrey Powers and Vikas Reddy, Occipital created RedLaser computer vision software for smartphones (sold to eBay) and Structure Core Hardware for robots, drones, and AR/VR headsets. The company has raised $33 million in capital since 2011. Occipital remains an independent company, Jeff is still the CEO, while Vikas (cofounder) continues engineering and design.
Oneforty (2009). Founded by Laura Fitton, Oneforty is an online app marketplace for developers to share tools and services that enhance the impact of Twitter. Oneforty received $2.3 million in funding and was acquired by HubSpot in 2011. Laura continues to work at HubSpot as an inbound marketing evangelist.
SendGrid (2009). Founded by Isaac Saldana, Jose Lopez, and Tim Jenkins, SendGrid provides cloud-based email delivery services including shipping notifications, friend requests, sign-up confirmations, and email newsletters. The company provides link tracking, open rate reporting, tracks email opens, unsubscribes, bounces, and spam reports. SendGrid raised $80 million in funding, became a publicly traded company in November 2017, and was acquired by Twilio for $2 billion in October 2018. Isaac left SendGrid, founded Joy Labs, and is now the CTO of Techstars Studio. Tim retired, and Jose remains at SendGrid doing what he loves best, programming.
Sensobi (2009). Founded by Andrew Cheung and Ajay Kulkarni, Sensobi was a mobile address book that enabled users to record notes, set follow-up reminders, stay connected, and manage relationships. Sensobi received a small amount of funding and was acquired by GroupMe in 2011, when the app was relaunched as a mobile chat platform. Andrew is currently a technical lead at Signal Services and Ajay is cofounder and CEO of TimescaleDB.
Socialthing (2007). Founded by Matt Galligan, Ben Brightwell, and Brian DeWitt, Socialthing was an early social aggregator that let users manage multiple social networking feeds from a single web dashboard. Socialthing received $450,000 in funding and was acquired by AOL in 2008. Matt (CEO) is a serial entrepreneur and is currently cofounder and CEO of Interchange, Ben (CTO) is cofounder and VP of Web Development at Useful Systems, Inc., and Brian (COO) is product owner at Toyota Motor Corporation Australia.
TempMine (2009). Founded by Tom and Mike Monaghan, TempMine was an online temporary staffing marketplace. The company raised a small amount of funding but closed down. Tom is currently postmaster for email at HubSpot.
Vanilla (2009). Founded by Mark O’Sullivan and Todd Burry, Vanilla is community software that powers true engagement and growth on over 500,000 sites around the world. The company received $500,000 (CAD) in funding and what started out as an open source project and has become an enterprise-level product. Todd continues with Vanilla as chief product officer and Mark is senior engineering manager at Adobe.
Techstars companies funded after publication are listed on the Techstars website (www.techstars.com/companies/).
About the Authors
David G. Cohen is cofounder and co-CEO of Techstars, the worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed. David has been an entrepreneur and investor for his entire life and has had only one job interview in his career. He successfully got that job but then quit shortly thereafter to start his first company. Since then, he has founded several companies, mentored thousands of entrepreneurs, and invested in hundreds of startups, such as Uber, Twilio, SendGrid, Pillpack, Classpass, and FullContact. In total, these investments created more than $80 billion in value, thousands of jobs, and have deeply impacted the communities in which they are located.
David is a passionate startup advocate, advisor, board member, and technology advisor and shares his experience and insights on his blog at DavidGCohen.com. He is recognized globally as a thought leader in entrepreneurship and speaks on the topics of angel investing, Internet startups, and building local entrepreneurial ecosystems.
David was a competitive tennis player in high school and college and that experience has shaped his leadership at Techstars. The best doubles tennis players know the strengths and weaknesses of their partner, they “cover” for their partner, and they anticipate competitor moves so that they can adapt their strategy. Investing in startups is a team sport and has the same characteristics as tennis: the action happens fast, decisions need to be made quickly, and knowing the strengths and weaknesses of your team leads to better results. And, like tennis players, David embraces competition; otherwise, you’re just hitting against the backboard.
In his spare time (!) David enjoys reading nonfiction books and playing tennis. He is married to the coolest girl he’s ever met and has three amazing kids who always seem to be teaching him something new.
You can find David tweeting at @davidcohen and blogging on the Web at DavidGCohen.com.
* * *
Brad Feld has been an early-stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. Prior to cofounding Foundry Group, he cofounded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures. Brad is also a cofounder of Techstars.
Brad is a writer and speaker on the topics of venture capital investing and entrepreneurship. He’s written a number of books as part of the Startup Revolution series and writes the blogs Feld Thoughts and Venture Deals.
Brad holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Management Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Brad is also an art collector and long-distance runner. He has completed 25 marathons as part of his mission to finish a marathon in each of the 50 states.
Acknowledgments
Our heartfelt thanks to Amy Batchelor, Jil Cohen, and all of the spouses, family, and significant others who put up with the entrepreneurs in their lives.
Our thanks also go out to Ben Casnocha, a Techstars mentor since 2007. Ben made many wise suggestions for the first edition that we quickly heeded. And he did it from Chile, around the time of the major earthquake there in early 2010. We are grateful for him in many ways.
Our friends and amazing Techstars mentors Michael Zeisser and Paul Berberian both offered significant feedback about the structure of the book for the first edition. We think their input has made the book approachable and interesting, which is something that they both are as well.
We are also grateful to Amy Batchelor, David’s mother Ginger Cohen, and Brad’s mother Cecelia Feld for being such sticklers about the English language.
We also want to express our appreciation to David Brown and Governor Jared Polis for cofounding Techstars with us and for helping to shape what it has become.
We appreciate the tremendous support from Brad’s partners at Foundry Group: Jason Mendelson, Seth Levine, Ryan McIntyre, Chris Moody, and Lindel Eakman. While Brad and his partners get all the glory, without the hard work and behind-the-scenes support of a professional staff none of them could succeed over the long haul. Brad’s lucky to work with some of the best partners and staff in the business.
Thanks are also due to past Techstars interns Al Doan, Gregg Alpert, and Cory Levy, who read early drafts of the book and offered candid and useful feedback.
We are
very appreciative of the time taken and the insights provided by Phil Weiser, now Attorney General of Colorado.
Thank you to our early and consistent partners at Cooley, Silicon Valley Bank, and Google, as well as to the 60 other major corporations we work with to power innovation.
We cannot say enough about each and every one of the 10,000 Techstars mentors who donate their time and energy to help so many entrepreneurs. It is so gratifying to see what we have done together to have such a tremendous impact on our communities.
To the hundreds of Techstars employees around the world, we are grateful for your tremendous dedication to helping entrepreneurs succeed each and every day.
Pete Birkeland joined our team and provided the coordination for the second edition. In addition to a heavy edit cycle, he drove a rewrite of parts of the book along with a restructure of the beginning. We’ve loved working with him and are excited about working on Do Even More Faster with him.
Finally, thanks to all of the Techstars mentors and entrepreneurs who contributed to this book. You are the greatest!
Index
Abbott, Nate, 25–27, 307, 316, 317, 350
Accelerators. See Techstars accelerators
Accenture, 261
Achin, Jeremy, 191
Action, bias toward, 187–189
Adobe, 79, 353
Advice decision-making and, 145–146
friends versus mentors for, 66
investors and, 247–249
lawyers and, 267, 280–281
mentors and, 10–11, 66, 127, 146
Aggarwal, Raj, 197–199, 351
Agile software development methodology, 195
Aigboboh, Joe, 10, 234–237, 351
AIS, 52
Alibaba Group, 213
Allen, David, 161
Allen, Paul, 135, 340
Allis, Ryan, 33n
Alsop-Louie Partners, 59, 107, 243
Amazon, 68, 69, 111, 124, 235, 351
Anchor Point Foundation, 323
Anecdotes versus data, 157–159
Angel investors, 227–230 bait-and-switch tactic used by, 228
as a bridge to VC funding, 224
C-Corp structure and, 269–270
checking legitimacy of, 229–230
financing tradeoffs using, 85
first one-third of the money from, 265–266
fundraising from, 224
groups for, 224, 227–228, 230
Techstars and, 332
types of, 224
Angle, Colin, 55–58
AOL, 25, 199, 291, 293, 333, 350, 352
Apple, 29–31, 81, 197
Atlassian, 195
Audrey Capital, 29
Automattic, 29, 32, 38, 283, 351
Autonomous Technology Accelerator, 133
Avid Technology, 145
Baker Hughes, 56
Balanced teams, 107–109
Balance in work and life. See Work-life harmony
Baldwin, Micah, 17, 18, 111–113, 350
Batchelor, Amy, 135, 298, 299, 308, 323–326
Bauman, Nik, 115, 350
Behavior, deceitful or immoral, 129–131
Berberian, Paul, 63–65, 328
Bernthal, Brad, 273–275
Bike rides meetings during, 315–316
recharging using, 295, 317
Blankenship, Stephen, 349
BlockTeam Ventures, 351
Blogger, 34
Blue Bottle Coffee, 350
BlueMountainArts.com, 51, 52–53
Blumberg, Matt, 99–102
Blurb, 350
Boards of directors, 262, 263, 277, 278
Bootstrapping, 221 challenges with, 236
free tools and, 165–167
Occipital example of, 170
Pinpoint Technologies example of, 231–233
Boston Techstars, 35, 185–186, 336–338
Boxee, 50
Brightwell, Ben, 352
Brin, Sergey, 81
Broderick, Shawn, 194, 337, 338
Brown, David, 53, 81, 96, 138, 231–233, 332
Buffett, Warren, 14, 135
Burry, Todd, 80, 353
Calacanis, Jason, 230
Casnocha, Ben, 187–189, 255
C-Corp, 269–270, 274
Celebrations, 173–177, 328
Change continuous iterations for, 55–57
data and willingness to, 15
throwing things away and, 215–218
Cheung, Andy, 193–195, 352
Chikoore, Tom, 138, 350
ChoreMonster, 72
Cipolla, Henry, 351
Clavier, Jeff, 32, 239–241
ClearCam, 170
Cofounders advantage of having, 80–81
building balanced teams with, 107–109
complementary skill sets of, 108
conflict between, 83–86
examples of companies with, 81
importance of having at least one, 79, 104, 328
nontechnical, role of, 108
problem having more than one nontechnical cofounder, 107
requirements for selecting, 79–80
spouses as, 94–95
Vanilla example of selecting and working with, 79–81
vesting agreements for, 279–280, 283–285
vesting schedule and, 291–292
Cohen, David, 9, 60, 79, 80, 138, 263, 327, 308, 320 angel investors and, 227–229
doing more faster approach and, 3–5
email tips from, 162–164
everythingitis and, 33–35
execution and, 26
finding mentors and, 91–97
Foodzie and, 117
indispensable role and, 313–314
mentor manifesto of, 119–121
Pinpoint Technologies and, 81, 231, 232–233
randomness and, 75–77, 325
reconciling vision and focus and, 71–72
Techstars Boston and, 336–337
Techstars' cofounding by, 53, 331–333, 337
Techstars' future and, 342–342
Techstars Seattle and, 338, 339
“turning the knife” during fundraising and, 253–55
Cohen, Ginger, 158
Communication email tips for, 162–164
with mentors, 116
startup culture and, 125
Companies big, and startups, 213–214
characteristics of culture of, 123–127
growth of, 169–171
state laws covering, 277–278
structure of. See Company structure
when to form, 273–275
Company structure Delaware corporate laws and, 277–278
factors in choosing, 269–271
importance of setting up early, 273–275
liability issues and, 269–270, 273–274
wayward founder problem and, 274–275
Compete, 61
Competitive advantage do more faster approach as, 3–4, 5
shipping early for, 31
Competitors differentiating from, 197–199
finding whitespace and, 197–199
fundraising to beat, 232
ways to understand and relate to, 109
Conflict, between cofounders, 83–86
Cooler Planet, 205–207
Cooley LLP, 261, 279
Corbett, Sean, 45–46, 350
Corporate law, 277–278
Corporate Software, 139
Costolo, Dick, 191, 201–202, 207
Course Technology, 139–140
Create33, 111, 350
Critical mistakes, 328 adding too many features, 34
creating a product for which there is no market, 328
creating an environment for admitting mistakes, 139
developing a product without customer input, 4, 47
EventVue example, 176–177
hiring those less capable than themselves, 87
not filing 83(b) election forms by the deadline, 293
overlooking opportunity costs, 214
Crowdsortium, 43
Crystal, Darren, 37–38
Culture characteristics of, 123–127
diversity and inclusion in, 342–343
entrepreneur's responsibility for creating, 325
feedback and measured analytics in, 203
sustained mentorship in, 333, 341
vacations viewed in, 324
Customers critical mistake of product development without input from, 4, 47
feedback from, 108, 126, 184
finding what they love, 37–38
knowing your, 209–211
listening to, 43–44, 46, 68, 140, 143, 184, 209, 220
loans from prospective, 231–233
metrics for measuring behavior of, 203–204
product development and, 43
as revenue source in fundraising, 224
startup culture's focus on, 126
validated learning about, 155–156
DailyBurn, 13, 138, 183–185, 319, 349
Data anecdotes versus, 157–159
being suspicious of, 150
collecting as much as possible, 150
conflicts in, 146
constant revisiting of, 150
execution and, 138
Internet collection of, 203
mentors and, 10–11, 146–147
metrics for, 149–150
pivoting based on, 10
willingness to change based on, 15, 141, 144
Datarobot, 191
Deceitful behavior, 129–131
Decision-making cofounders and, 84