In the #GiveFirst spirit, Techstars supports those who have served our country by hosting Patriot Boot Camp. PBC is an intense three-day program that educates and mentors active service members, Veterans and their spouses to innovate, build technology companies, and create jobs. Essentially, they get a mini Techstars experience.
The next PBC will be held at the Goldman Sachs headquarters in New York City from May 16th to 18th. You can learn more about the program at their website or check out this video from last year’s event.
Patriot Boot Camp alumni are building great business. A couple great examples are Dave Cass and Dave Parker with Uvize (accepted into the Kaplan EdTech Accelerator, powered by Techstars and recently funded by FG Angels), and Gregory Coleman with Nexercise (accepted to the Techstars Chicago).
Do you know a Veteran, active service member, or military spouse who could benefit from a miniature Techstars experience? Please encourage them to apply here. The deadline to apply is April 4th, 2014, tonight, at midnight Eastern time.
TechStars Patriot Boot Camp is an intense three-day program that will educate and mentor Veterans and Service Members to innovate, build technology companies, and create jobs. TechStars hopes that participation in the Patriot Boot Camp will be the catalyst for Veterans and Service Members to kickstart their company, find co-founders and advance as entrepreneurs. Veterans, spouses of Veterans, Service Members, or companies comprised of 50% or more Veterans are encouraged to apply to our second annual July 17-19 event in Washington D.C.
As an interesting note, participant Tak Lo from Patriot Boot Camp 2012 is now an Associate at TechStars in New York City and a participating company from Patriot Boot Camp 2012 – Nexercise – was recently accepted into the inaugural program of TechStars Chicago.
This event is made possible by awesome sponsors SoftLayer, Kauffman FastTrac, Slice of Lime, PivotDesk, Silicon Valley Bank, SendGrid, Galvanize, and George Washington University. The biggest thanks are due to these veteran entrepreneurs for their service to our country. Do you know a Veteran or Service Member that could benefit from a miniature TechStars experience? Please encourage them to apply.
TechStars is running an event called the Patriot Boot Camp in Washington D.C. from July 18-20. About 75 veterans who are active or aspiring entrepreneurs have already been accepted and will be attending.
During this three day event, they’ll get a mini TechStars-like experience. The number of people who have stepped up to offer to mentor these veteran-formed companies is just awesome. Todd Park (US CTO) and Aneesh Chopra (Former US CTO) are delivering a keynotes, along with Paul Bucha (Medal of Honor Recipient) and many others. LivingSocial will be welcoming these veterans to their office for a tour and to meet the team and hear their inspiring story. And there will be a ton of one-on-one mentoring during the event by some fantastic mentors. I’ve included the full list of mentors as a thank you to them for “giving first” at the bottom of this post. But of course the biggest thanks are due to these entrepreneurs themselves, for their service to our country.
While the entrepreneurs who are participating have already been selected, there is still a chance to show up and support these veterans in D.C. and see their mini “demo-day” next Friday, July 20th. Perhaps you are an investor or maybe you just want to try and help these companies in some way. Whatever the case, there are seats remaining at this finale of the Patriot Boot Camp which is open to the public.
You can learn more and register here.
The TechStars Patriot Boot Camp is made possible by sponsors: Kauffman Foundation, Kauffman FastTrac, SoftLayer, Silicon Valley Bank, Georgetown University, and Prediculous. And Taylor McLemore of Prediculous has also put in an incredible amount of work on this event on a volunteer basis.
Finally – thank you, thank you, thank you to all the mentors helping out next week:
Aneesh Chopra, Former US Chief Technology Officer
Donna Harris, Startup America
David Cohen, TechStars
Jared Polis, TechStars
Jason Seats, TechStars
Kwasi Asare, Moodlerooms
Nicole Glaros, TechStars
Al Doan, Missouri Star Quilt Co.
Allen Gannett, EmployInsight
Austin Evarts, GoChime
Brad Harrison, BHV
Brian DeWitt, SocialThing
Bobby Ocampo, Grotech
Charles Kelly, Silicon Valley Bank
Chris Ennis, Function Interactive
Chuck Cullen, Grotech
Chris Onan, Galvanize
David Mandell, Pivot Desk
David Sandrowitz, The Fort
Don Rainey, Grotech
Edward Barrientos, Brazen Careerist
Eric Koester, Zaarly
Evan Morgan, Revolution Growth
George Solomon, George Washington University
Glen Hellman, Driven Forward
Hannibal Bray, Infraredx
James Chung, George Washington University
Jeff Reid, Georgetown
Jeremy Gocke, Fliptu.com
Jerry Johnson, RLJ Equity
Jim Booth, Orbotix
Jim Brinksma, Visible Arbitrage
John Casey, George Mason
Josh Emert, GoChime
Justin Fishkin, Local Motors
Katie Rae, TechStars
Katya Vasilaky, TroopSwap
Kelley Hilborn, SoftLayer
Larry Broughton, Broughton Advisory Group
Lawson DeVries, Grotech
Leslie Jump, Sawari Ventures
Mark Drapeau, Microsoft
Mark Spoto, Razor’s Edge Ventures
Matt Talbot, GoSpotCheck
Matt Thompson, TroopSwap
Michael Kelley, Arc Angel Fund
Michael Mayernick, Spinnakr
Nathan Day, SoftLayer
Nick Wichert, VETransfer
Nola N. Miyasaki, Oklahoma State University
Patrick Riley, Global Accelerator Network
Paul Berberian, Orbotix
Paul Ford, SoftLayer
Paul Laurence, Cooley
Phillip Dyer, Broughton Advisory Group
Porter Montgomery, Category One
Rami Essaid, Distil
Ray Jefferson, Leadership Consultant
Richard Moxley, Razor’s Edge Ventures
Rob Painter, Razor’s Edge Ventures
Sean Stone, Silicon Valley Bank
Shai Goldman, Silicon Valley Bank
Shaun Johnson, Boston Startup School
Smith Wood, Seneca Corporation
Timothy Ericson, Zagster
Tony Huynh, TroopSwap
Tuan Pham, Silicon Valley Bank
Vivek Malhotra, VMD Systems
Will Kern, TroopSwap
Zack Nies, Rally Software
TechStars Patriot Boot Camp is an intense three-day program that will educate and mentor Veterans and Service Members to innovate, build technology companies, and create jobs. TechStars hopes that participation in the Patriot Boot Camp will be the catalyst for Veterans and Service Members to kickstart a company, find co-founders, and advance as entrepreneurs. Veterans, spouses of Veterans, or companies comprised of 50% or more Veterans are encouraged to apply to the July event in D.C. and 75 qualified applications will be accepted.
The deadline to apply is June 24th, this Sunday at midnight Eastern time. Apply now!
If you have questions or want to help out as a mentor, drop TechStars a note.