A friend of mine (and a Techstars company), Jackie Ros from Revolar, emailed me a few days ago with a fantastic offer. Revolar makes a personal security device - it's like a little button that you can 'wear', and if you feel unsafe, it will call for help on your behalf. Jackie's email said "My …
While I do vote at every election, I have always stayed out of public conversation around politics. As a child, when the extended family dinner conversations turned to politics, it always resulted in anger and yelling, ruining the evening for everyone and dividing the family. I don’t remember constructive, curious conversations, only defensive and offensive ones. …
My friend Ryan Frankel is publishing a book, and he asked me to write an excerpt for it. I made some edits for this blog, but I thought I'd share it. ***** When I was in college in Gainesville, FL, on the weekends my friends and I would visit a nearby rock quarry that was …
I was recently asked by a founder, who was interested in moving to Boulder, what should he do and see while here to get a feeling for the town? I came up with this list. If you have other suggestions for how to spend a perfect weekend in Boulder, let's hear them! Hike Sanitas, it's …
Last week I had a conversation with one of my portfolio companies, one I hadn't spoken to in a while. He wasn't great at communicating over time, and honestly, neither was I. When I asked him how it was going, he broke down in tears and unleashed a torrent of issues on me. The biggest issue was …
I read this awesome post by Katie Womersley and I love it. The quick synopsis is that people who identify with a specific stereotype could cause them to do WORSE. I believe in diversity and think it makes all of us stronger, but I don't actually identify with 'being a woman in tech'. I have never liked the label, …
Continue reading Why the diversity conversation is so hard for me
As a female in tech, entrepreneurship, and investing, I'm often asked how we move the needle on diversity. We have all seen the data around why diversity is important (stronger companies, bigger bottom lines - not to mention that it's just the right damn thing to do). I got to where I am because I …
My friend John Bliss just shared with me this great study by DocSend on what they learned by studying 200 startups that successfully raised capital. The info in it is great, everything from sample decks to # of investors you need to contact to where to focus efforts. There are a few areas I disagree …
This is a bitter sweet post for me. The 2014 Techstars class was my last. After 8 programs it was time to tackle new challenges at Techstars. But I left the program in the great and capable hands of Zach Nies & Natty Zola, two people I've known for a long time that were made …
Today, Techstars announced that we have acquired UP Global, which includes Startup Weekend, Startup Week, Startup Digest, and Startup Next. But acquired isn't really the right word. It's more like merge. Or join forces. Or unite. Or, REUNITE. Like twins, separated at birth. Techstars and Startup Weekend share early beginnings. The idea was borne of Andrew Hyde, …
Continue reading Techstars and UP Global (aka Startup Weekend) UNITE!
Nearly Nicole 