Massive congratulations to Erika Trautman of FlixMaster & Caren Maio of Nestio for making the Inc. Magazine’s Top 15 Women to Watch in Tech. I’ve worked with them both at TechStars and am happy to say they both deserve to be there.
There aren’t a lot of women in tech, especially founders. These two women are making a great example for the rest of us.
You go girls.
Today marks the 2nd Demo Day for the TechStars NYC class. They have continued to impress us, and I suspect today will be no different given the amount of funding that has already gone into the teams before the program even ended.
If you’re an accredited investor – you can watch the Demo Day Live Webcast. Tweet at me (@nglaros) and I’ll give you the login info.
If you’re not an accredited investor, Launch.is is live blogging it here.
Go teams GO!
For those that haven’t followed along yet, TechStars partnered with Bloomberg to launch a documentary on what it’s like to be a founder going through the TechStars program. The show was filmed in NYC (no, I’m not in it) and offers a glimpse of startup life in the program. The show airs weekly on Tuesdays at 9pm ET/7pm MT on Bloomberg. So join in and watch!
Forbes visited TechStars recently. I don’t know who was editing the video, but they apparently didn’t realize they left me in it. 🙂 Yep, TechStars has had quite the impact on Boulder.
I’ve been working with entrepreneurs for nearly a decade now – and most recently through my role as Managing Director for the Boulder office of TechStars. Its a role I love dearly – there hasn’t been a day since I started that I didn’t want to go in to the office.
TechStars has a mantra – Do More Faster. I think of it as focusing in on what matters, and eliminating or finding other ways to accomplish everything else. Its why you shouldn’t confuse busyness with productivity.
In the spirit of Doing More, Faster – Brad Feld & David Cohen (founders of TechStars) have come out with a crowdsourced book of shorts heard frequently around the TechStars program. The book is entitled – wait for it – Do More Faster, TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup. Each chapter is only a few pages long, focusing in on what really matters, written by mentors and entrepreneurs. Most of it is around lessons learned and advice on how not to screw it up. 🙂 I have a chapter entitled If you want advice, ask for money. If you want money, ask for advice. It’s the first time since college that I’ve been officially published. Woo hooo!
The book is available for presale now at Amazon. It would be a great gift to the entrepreneur in your life – so make sure you order it today! Yes, yes, I’ll even autograph it for you. (All of a sudden Flight of the Concords comes to mind…)
I actually got a speaking part in this one. Hilarious. I need camera training.
These come out weekly, but I’m a little slow to post them. Enjoy! As always, head to TechStars.TV to see all the other fun things going on in our office.
The Founders | TechStars Boulder | Episode 3 “A Community Party” from Andrew on Vimeo.
The Founders | TechStars Boulder | Episode 4 “Skills & Persistence” from Andrew on Vimeo.
TechStars has launched a new video series to highlight a couple of the companies going through our program. I even have a cameo or 2 in it! Check it out!
The Founders | TechStars Boulder | Episode 1 “The Selected Few” from Andrew on Vimeo.
The Founders | TechStars Boulder | Episode 2 “Orientation” from Andrew on Vimeo.
So I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve accepted the role of GM for TechStars Boulder this summer! I’ve been at it for 3 weeks now and I’m having a blast. The one question I keep getting is ‘How do we beat all the competition and get into TechStars?’. While I’m truly new to the program, I think I can share a little insight about what gets everyone excited.
1. The Team: If there are 2-4 of you, and you’re all rockstars, we get excited. Rockstars know how to execute. They’re bright, driven, creative, and have accomplish tons in a short period of time on this and/or past projects.
2. Hunger: Your team has to really want this – and communicate that with us. Walk the line of annoying. Just saying you want it doesn’t count, you have to show us by working your ass off to hit your milestones.
3. Idea: You’ve come up with something innovative, new, & exciting. While a good team will always trump a good idea, the combo is thrilling.
4. You listen: TechStars is a mentor-driven program. We try to surround you by the best and brightest to help accelerate your company. You have to know how to listen to input (sometimes negative), sort through the noise, and execute quickly on the best advice.
5. You Execute: I’ve said this in almost all of the above points too, but thought it imperative to call it out on its own. Millions of people have hundreds of good ideas. It’s not the good idea – it’s the ability to execute on a good idea that makes all the difference. Hell you can execute on a bad idea and that’s better than not executing at all. Learn how to get stuff done quickly, cheaply, and effectively and you’ll not only go far at TechStars, but whatever you do in life.
If you haven’t applied yet, you better hurry! Deadline is March 21st!
Nearly Nicole 