And the Techstars Boulder 2014 schedule is out!

The first thing you’ll notice is the dates are very different than normal.  Historically we start in May and end in August, but this year I’ll be in NYC helping our new MD there, Alex Iskold, until June.  So Boulder will start a little later, and end a little later.  Good news is if you come to Boulder early, you can still enjoy some of our fabulous summer before hunkering down for the most amazing/productive/insane/connected/challenging/accelerating experience of your life.

Applications Open: March 17th
Early Application Deadline: April 13th
Final Deadline: May 4th
Program Starts: July 15th
Program Ends: October 10th

Also, I’m doing 15 min open office hours for teams interested in learning more.  Sign yourself up here!

I’ve spent the last year working hard (read *blood, sweat and tears*) on Techstars in NYC as Managing Director, and I’ve set in motion a lot of changes to help radically improve our program and ecosystem there.  This includes radical changes to how we run our mentorship program, how we engage with the larger community, things we can do to help the community as a whole bond and gel towards the single goal of making the entrepreneurial community in NYC the best in the world… and others.

But one of my challenges, since Day 1, is that I don’t permanently reside in NYC.  We knew since I joined that my time was temporary, as I have 2 small children and run the Techstars program in Boulder.  I’ve been commuting almost weekly since I joined, and furthermore moved my family out there for 3 months during the last program.

Well today, one of the best changes we’ve made is hiring Alex Iskold, former CEO of GetGlue to join me in NYC.  I’ll be there through the next program again, helping make sure that Alex doesn’t make all the silly mistakes I made my first time through (we are a mentorship driven program after all).  I’ll still be involved during the next 6 months, and will be moving to NYC again for the next program, but I’m transitioning the day to day and long term care and feeding to Alex.

Alex is amazing, he’s been rated one of our top mentors in NYC, he has an insatiable appetite for making this awesome.  I couldn’t be happier to work alongside him and am thrilled at the potential for the future in NYC.

It’s going to be a fun year for me!

First of all, I’m thrilled to say that I’m looking forward to another great class in NYC in 2014, as I’ll continue to head efforts there.  We’re committed to another 4 programs in NYC, and it just keeps getting better.  Plus I’m about to make some changes that will enable the teams to get even more out of the program.  Next program dates will be announced soon.

I’m ALSO thrilled to say that I’ll be running Techstars Boulder in 2014 too.  Boulder has been my home for 13 years, and while it was good to take a year off and learn from the amazing Luke Beatty, I’m excited to be back (and we wish Luke the best of luck!).

So you’re about to see a whole lot more of me…

Yesterday we made final decisions for the next TechStars NYC class.  It was absolutely gut wrenching.  We had over 1700 applications, we narrowed it down to about 40ish, and then picked the final class from there.  It took us FOREVER to decide this round – lots of debates back and forth between myself and Eugene.  There were so many teams we fell in love with, there were so many projects we fell in love with, and I think today I just realized what my least favorite part of my job is.  SAYING NO.  I absolutely hate telling an entrepreneur no, I really want to help all of them.

I take these decisions very seriously – and for those that were not selected for this next class – know that I love what you’re doing, I think you have what it takes.   I deeply and sincerely thank you for your time and energy.  And my best outcome for you (other than landing in another TechStars program!) is that you kick total ass and prove my decision wrong.

While this should be a joyous day for me… looking forward to what the future holds… today I’m going to just be sad and disappointed for a while.

I’ve been serving as Interim Managing Director for TechStars NYC since November-ish while we look for a permanent replacement there.  Well today, I’m thrilled to announce that after interviewing over 35 candidates, Eugene Chung from NEA has agreed to join us as the permanent Managing Director for TechStars in NYC.

We have a rule around TechStars, that when meeting candidates, the meetings would get better and better.  And with Eugene, he just continued to impress with each additional meeting.  His passion for the space is undeniable.  His insight into the market is envious.  His energy and enthusiasm are inexhaustible.  I’m extremely excited about the opportunity to work with him and learn from him.

I’ll still remain in NYC for this next program, working alongside Eugene as he gets up to speed on the TechStars way.  So those joining us for this next program will have TWO managing directors (plus David Cohen will be there for a month, and Brad Feld is spending a whole week with us as well).

But watch out NYC, he’s a hugger! (I’m from Boulder, we hug trees.  Eugene hugs founders.  It’s great)

Welcome Eugene!

We just completed TechStars for a Day in NYC, and I was overwhelmed with the number of requests from teams that wanted to come but didn’t get an invite.

Don’t worry!  If you didn’t get an invite, it’s not a cut.  It was simply a reflection of how much time and mentors we had at the event – I wanted to make sure we connected with each team there.

Anyhoo – we’re down to the last week for applications, and if you’re looking to get into TechStars, (or any program really), we’ve put together a SkillShare class.

For those in the NYC area, come in person!  It’s this Tuesday, Jan 15th at 530pm. For those that can’t be there in person, we’re attempting to livestream it (and there will be a recording of it on SkillShare).  It’s $5 to attend, but we don’t keep any of it.  100% goes to HackNY.

Click here to learn more and to enroll.

I’m spending about 95% of my waking hours right now on TechStars – reflected so in this blog!  Bare with me as I get through this.

Early application deadline for TechStars NYC is tonight at 11:59:59 ET.  I’ve complied an awesome list of reasons why you should apply TODAY and not wait until the final deadline.

TechStars for a Day Opportunity!
Applying by tonight makes you eligible for a TechStars for a Day invite.  TS4AD is a 3 hour min-camp, featuring a handful of awesome speakers, alumni, and mentors.  It lets you get a small glimpse of what TechStars is really like, hopefully you’ll walk away with great feedback on what you’re doing, new ideas on how to think about things, and maybe even a contact or two.  This year’s TS4AD features some amazing people including Ben Lerer, Joel Spolsky, Patrick Keane, David Cohen, Alexandra Wilkis Wilson, Jay Levy, David Tisch, Ben Siscovick, me, and more.  It’s a power-packed few hours, designed to add value to your startup and let us get to know you better.

I need time to get to know you
The earlier you apply, the more time I can spend on your application, watching your videos, perusing your website, playing with the demo, etc.  25% of our applications come in the last day – and if you do the math, there’s no way humanly possible I can get through them all with any sort of quality.  I end up skimming and skipping – and that’s just not how you want me interacting with your application.

You need time to prove what you’re capable of
If you’re paying attention, you know that an awesome team is our #1 criteria.  One of the critical aspects of the team is selecting a team that knows how to execute like mad.  Execute Execute Execute!  If you apply early, you can prove to us how quickly you can execute.  I remember working with the founders at Orbotix, before they had even conceptualized Sphero.  Every day, they’d show me a new device they built to show off their talents.  So go thee and execute – get your alpha launched, get users, improve your design – show me that you can build this thing you say you can build.  Pro:tip – A little used feature of the application is the ‘update’ capability.  Simply by sending an email to appupdates at notes.accelerato.rs from the email that was used to create the application, you can update it with any progress you’ve made.  I go in frequently and look for which applications have been updated with great stuff.

So stop reading this blog post and get your damn application in already!  http://apply.techstars.com

Part of the TechStars application lets you link to a business video and a team video.  I love watching your videos because they give us more insight on who you are and the vision of your product.  Videos often are my favorite part of the application.

So here are some tips to make sure creating a video is time well spent.

1.  Do it in < 1 minute.
Last year, I read over 1200 applications in about 10 weeks, most of those coming in the last day or two.  Most of those applications had videos, many of them had two videos (the team video and the business video).  So do the math with me.  Let’s say there was a total of 1500 videos in total that I had to watch (I’m probably not off by a ton).  And each video averaged 2.5 minutes (some were 15 minutes or longer! very few were less than 2 minutes).  That’s 3,750 minutes of videos, more than 60 HOURS of videos… and that’s just watching the video, it’s not reading the app.  If you’re video is longer than 1 min, I probably won’t watch the whole thing.  I’ll skip around trying to find the good part.  Or if its longer than about 2.5 min, I probably won’t watch ANY of it.  It’s just takes too long to load and it will be impossible for me to find the good part.

How long do TV commercials last?  30 seconds.  They get only 30 seconds to convince you to buy the product.  Treat your video(s) like a commercial. 

2.  Demo your product!  There’s no better way to communicate the value of what you do better than a demo.  And 1 minute is perfectly long enough for a good demo.  Use the biz video to demo.  Don’t worry about login/password… just dive right into the good stuff.  I see lots of people use Presi and similar type applications to highlight what their idea is.  And that’s okay if you don’t have a product yet.  But if you do have something to show, DEMO IT.

3.  Be creative.  Use humor, or at least show some personality.  Be bacon, not white bread.  I watch a lot of videos.  Entertain me.  It helps when I’m on my 900th video and my eyes are crossing.  You don’t need humor to have a good video, but it’s amazing how much more I like a candidate when they make me laugh or show me some personality.  I’m a sucker for creativity.  Plus, it shows me you can think creatively, which is critical for entrepreneurs.

4.  Keep it simple.  Know what a really well produced video tells me?  That you’re a FinalCut Pro ninja, NOT that you have a great startup.  Don’t worry about all the fancy production quality stuff – in fact, it’s the wrong place to spend your time.  Just stand in front of your webcam or use your smartphone.  I’d rather see you spend your time executing, getting traction, and proving out the value.  Keep your video simple and easy and save the hard stuff for executing on your startup.

5.  Include the password!  I can’t tell you how many times I get a video that’s password protected, but the applicant didn’t include the password.  I’m probably not going to email you for it either, I’m just going to skip it (see tip #1 above at how many videos I have to watch).

‘Till next week when we’ll cover The Team section…