I formally declare year one of TechStars Seattle a huge success. I was absolutely blown away by the companies at Demo Day last week along with the reaction and support of the Seattle tech community.
John Cook at TechFlash wrote a great summary post titled My five favorite startup pitches from TechStars Demo Day. There’s been plenty of great chatter among the blogosphere and folks I’ve talked to. But what was really remarkable to me was the tone in the room during, around, and after demo day.
The Seattle tech and entrepreneurial community has really embraced TechStars. Andy Sack, who in addition to running TechStars Seattle, also runs Founders Co-op and Revenue Loan, did an incredible job of engaging a broad set of the Seattle entrepreneurial community in TechStars. TechStars wouldn’t have ended up in Seattle without Andy continually nudging, pleading, and demanding that we pay attention. Greg Gottesman from Madrona also deserves a special call out for encouraging us to bring TechStars to Seattle and working with Andy to make it happen.
There was plenty of other great press describing the event and the companies so I’ll leave it to you to look at it on TechCrunch, TechStars, BizSpark, and Xconomy. And, if you like interpretive dance as a way to understand the companies, take a look at the short video below.
Of course, the magic was in the 28 entrepreneurs that went through the program. To all of you, congrats on an awesome first year!