Category: Techstars
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!
Startup Bootcamp, the Denmark TechStars Global Affiliate, is having their first Investor Day on 11/9/10 from 9am – 1pm.
The ten teams that are going through the program will each be presenting their companies using the TechStars eight-minute pitch format. If you are near Copenhagen on 11/9/10, register now.
Andy Sack, who runs TechStars Seattle, has been all over the Seattle entrepreneurial scene in the past few years. I’ve known and worked with Andy since 1995 (I was on the board of his first company – Abuzz – which was acquired in 1999 by the New York Times) and am awed by the amazing things he’s doing in Seattle these days, including Founder’s Co-op, RevenueLoan, and of course TechStars Seattle.
On November 11th, Andy is hosting TechStars Seattle Demo Day. As is my custom, I’ll be in attendance. But, as a special bonus, he’s also hosting an Open Angel Forum at 7pm on the night before (November 10th) with Jason Calacanis. We did this in Boulder this summer the night before the TechStars Boulder Demo Day and it worked out great so I’m hoping this becomes a regular tradition.
Info on the two events and how to register are listed below:
November 10th – Open Angel Forum, 7pm: Join Jason Calacanis, Andy Sack and many other angel investors for the first meeting of the Seattle chapter of the Open Angel Forum! There will be food and drinks while hearing 5 minute pitches from 6 start up companies. We’re planning for plenty of fun and time for networking – even a poker game. Register online here: Angels, Entrepreneurs, Service Providers.
November 11th – TechStars Investor Day, 9am: Ten exciting new companies from the TechStars class of 2010 in Seattle will give short eight minute presentations highlighting the business and investment opportunity. The style is fun and entertaining, it’s a different kind of pitch event that includes amazing opportunities for networking as well. This event is invitation only and registration is required. Please email kayla@techstars.org if you’d like to attend or if you have any questions.
I’m officially in the daily deal business. Check out my new “Brad Feld’s Amazing Deals” store and shop online for some outdoor gear from Giantnerd.com.
Rather than simply observe new things, I like to use them. I’ve been keeping an eye on the daily deal phenomenon and have had an opportunity to explore it in more detail mentoring Deal Co-op, a TechStars Seattle team. Deal Co-op is in the program via Alabama and has been running a profitable online deal company for the last three years. During one of our weekly mentoring meetings, they told me they could turn anyone with good business contacts and an online audience into their own Groupon. They asked me if I knew anyone that fit the bill, and I told them I did… me!
Deal Co-op thinks that daily deal marketing is best served at local levels, with more targeted distribution. I’m interested to see if they are right. My first deal features $50 in credit from Giantnerd.com for $25. Giantnerd is a Boulder based company that specializes in “Social Shopping” for outdoor apparel and gear. You can shop online at Giantnerd.com, so anyone reading this blog can taking advantage of the offer.
I’ll have more offers coming up soon, so sign up for the email alert list, and keep an eye out for more Amazing Deals.
With the release of our book “Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup“, my co-author David Cohen and I are taking the show on the road. Next week is Palo Alto on Tuesday, Los Angeles on Thursday, and Seattle on Friday.
In most cities, we are doing four separate events:
Pitch More Faster: Several emerging local companies will present their companies to me and several other local VCs. They will provide direct and specific advice to each company on how to improve their pitch and/or their business. This is an invite only event.
TechStars For An Hour: If you’re interested in learning more about TechStars or possibly applying, this is a great chance to come and learn about the program from me and David Cohen (TechStars CEO). We’ll talk about the results so far, what it’s all about, how it works, and much more. The event is also great for angel investors and venture capitalists who would like to learn more about how the TechStars program works, and how to get involved. These are open but limited attendance events – you need to pre-register on Eventbrite (links below).
Angels In The Architecture: A group of local angel investors, me, and a few angel backed entrepreneurs will discuss the role of angels investors in the VC / angel ecosystem. This is an invite only event.
Evening Entrepreneurial Meetup: We will have a party at night – venues will vary by city. These will be open events – sign up on Plancast (links below).
The tour is being sponsored by Cooley, Silicon Valley Bank, Microsoft, and Rackspace. We’ll be holding most of the day time events at one of their offices and we deeply appreciate all of their support. We’ll have plenty of good stuff to give away along with interesting people to meet and spend time with, including many of the people that contributed to Do More Faster.
If you are interested in attending, get sign up info via the Do More Faster Plancast, the Do More Faster Facebook page, or the Do More Faster Twitter account.
In the mean time, the sign up links for next week’s events follow. Since space is limited, please don’t sign up unless you are planning to attend.
Palo Alto: Tuesday October 12
3:30pm – 4:30pm: TechStars For An Hour
7:00pm – 9:00pm: Do More Faster Book Tour Kick Off: Gordon Biersch Brewery
Los Angeles: Thursday October 14
3:30pm – 4:30pm: TechStars For An Hour
7:30pm – 9:00pm: Do More Faster Evening Meetup (also knows as Two Guys and a Book and Beers): The Den of Hollywood
Seattle: Friday October 15
3:30pm – 4:30pm: TechStars For An Hour
7:00pm – 9:00pm: Do More Faster Evening Meetup (aka The Easy): TechStars Seattle
Of course, if you bring a copy of the book, David and I will happily sign it.
I’m mentoring one of the TechStars Seattle companies that is working on a white label “Daily Deals” platform. I’m trying to come up with a few local Boulder deals to do where I can sell units of 100 of more. If you are a local Boulder merchant and want to play around with a new daily deal product, drop me an email and we’ll see where it goes.
TechStars is coming to New York City. The first program runs from 1/10/11 to 4/8/11. Applications are open now. The NY mentor list is stunning and includes the following:
Phin Barnes (First Round Capital), Alex Blum (KickApps), Matt Blumberg (Return Path), Brad Burnham (USV), Jeff Clavier, Dennis Crowley (FourSquare), Chris Dixon (Founder Collective), Roger Ehrenberg, Darren Herman (The Media Kitchen), Jennifer Hyman (Rent The Runway), Alex Iskold (Adaptive Blue), David Karp (Tumblr), Zach Klein (Boxee, Vimeo), Evan Korth (NYU/HackNY), Mike Lazerow (Buddy Media), Ben Lerer (ThrillList), Sam Lessin (Drop.io), Joey Levin (MindSpark, IAC), Howard Lindzon (StockTwits), Eric Litman (Medialets), John Maloney (Tumblr), Dave McClure, Hilary Mason (Bit.ly/HackNY), Jeremie Miller (Telehash), Howard Morgan (First Round Capital), Charlie O’Donnell (First Round Capital), Eric Paley (Founder Collective), Raphael Poplock (ESPN), Alex Rainert (FourSquare), Avner Ronen (Boxee), Naveen Selvadurai (FourSquare), Justin Shaffer (HotPotato), Tim Shey (NextNewNetworks), Andy Smith (Daily Burn), Rex Sorgatz (Kinda Sorta Media), Jon Steinberg (BuzzFeed), Vinicius Vacanti (YipIt), Albert Wenger (USV), Fred Wilson (USV)
David Cohen, who is relocating to NY for January to March of next year, and David Tisch (I’m encouraging him to change his name to just Tisch to save me the brain damage of “which David”) will be running the program. When we went about setting up the NY program, we evolved our funding model to be as inclusive of the local VC / angel community as we could. We’ve created a long term funding model, which I expect David Cohen will write about at some point, that we implemented in TechStars Seattle and will be rolling out to Boulder and Boston this year. As a result, the investors in TechStars NY include many local financial investors such as:
AOL Ventures, DFJ Gotham Ventures, FirstMark Capital, First Round Capital, Foundry Group, IA Ventures, Jove Ventures, Lerer Ventures, RRE Ventures, Social Leverage, Village Ventures, Zelkova Ventures, Peter Hershberg, Josh Stylman, David Tisch, Nate Westheimer, and Kal Vepuri.
When David first talked to me about his idea for TechStars in 2006, if you had asked me if we’d have Boulder, Boston, Seattle, and NY programs up and running by 2010 I would have chuckled (a real chuckle, not my evil laugh chuckle.) The Seattle program is crushing it already and I’m excited to go spend time up there. And I can’t wait to see the NY program start cranking.
We’ve got a few other interesting pieces of TechStars news coming over the next month – look out for them! And, if you are an entrepreneur interested in the TechStars NY program, apply now so you can come to TechStars for a Day on 11/20/10.
The last two episodes of the Founders 2010 series are up.
Episode 11 is called Hard at Play. Special guests include Howard Lindzon (StockTwits CEO), David Brown (one of the co-founders of TechStars), Rob La Gesse from RackSpace (and the sponsor of this video series), Lewis Gersh (Metamorphic Partners), Josh Fraser (Eventvue co-founder – TechStars Boulder 2007), and scenes from the annual ping pong tournament.
“Hard at Play” The Founders | TechStars Boulder | Episode 11 from TechStars on Vimeo.
Episode 12 is called Demo Day. It’s a double episode as it’s the grand finale of the TechStars program and the beginning of the rest of the lives of the companies that participated in TechStars this summer. It’s a winner – just watch it.
“Demo Day” The Founders | TechStars Boulder | Episode 12 from TechStars on Vimeo.
This week’s special guest are Jeff Clavier from SoftTech VC and Rob Hayes from First Round Capital. Among other things, you get to hear Jeff define the Three Asses Rule and Rob explain what happens after you finish the TechStars program. As a special bonus, there’s a cute clip of me near the end watching the incredible record tennis match between Isner and Mahut. And some funny running footage. And a glider. And Ari Newman and how sandpaper and rubbing alcohol intersect with the fundraising process.
“People Product Market” The Founders | TechStars Boulder | Episode 10 from TechStars on Vimeo.