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TechStars Seattle
Yesterday, TechStars announced that it is a launching a new program in Seattle. This will be the third program that TechStars runs – with the other two being in Boulder over the summer and Boston in the spring (we are currently accepting applications for the Boston program.) The Seattle program will be run this fall.
There’s been some great initial press on this including TechCrunch, ReadWriteWeb, PEHub, and Seattle’s TechFlash. Greg Huang – who writes for Xconomy (which has also done a great job of covering TechStars Boston) covered the launch well and had a nice follow up post linking the Boston and Seattle programs origins. It’s really satisfying to read the articles as pretty much everyone gets that a key part of TechStars are the mentors – and the Seattle mentors are just awesome.
After year two of the Boulder program, David Cohen (the founder of TechStars) and I spent a bunch of time in various venues – at bars and restaurants in Boulder, in the Bunker, in our conference room at Foundry Group, on a vacation in Italy together, and even in the presence of our wives (much to their annoyance) – talking about David’s long term vision for TechStars and how best to operationalize it.
TechStars Boston – which I wrote about when we launched it in February 2009 – was the first expansion. TechStars Seattle is the second. One decision that we made when we thought through a third city was timing and we decided to stagger the timing of the programs. So Boston is spring, Boulder is summer, and Seattle is fall. For those that are skilled at reading between the lines, that leaves winter open – for now.
It’s also super exciting to welcome Andy Sack to the TechStars leadership team. Andy will run the TechStars Seattle program while Shawn Broderick runs the TechStars Boston program. I’ve known and worked with Andy for around 15 years (and Shawn for about 20) – back when we were all first time entrepreneurs – so it’s really satisfying to be working together on TechStars.
And a huge thank you to the Seattle entrepreneurial community. I’ve spent a lot of time there the past few years and I’ve got several investments there, including Gist and Smith & Tinker (via Foundry Group), Impinj (via Mobius Venture Capital), and AdReady (via Intensity Ventures). Seattle is perfect for a program like TechStars and the response from everyone we’ve talked to about it has been dynamite.


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Brad,
I volunteer to lead Techstars Chamonix for the winter season…Or maybe Techstars Jackson Hole if you prefer to stay US based
Great news, David & Brad.
fyi although we haven't announced this yet, except to our friends (well, i guess this counts:) — Startup Trek TV has decided to setup in Seattle.
So… we look forward to boosting TechStars Seattle!
Let us know how we can help. We're moving there next week (12/21) and will be fully "up and running" by Jan 10th.
-steve bell | Startup Trek TV Inc
re: "TechStars Winter" – naturally this will have to take place in a warmer climate. I've already suggested TechStars Siesta Key — the only problem being that no one actually accomplishes anything other than a good tan and consuming too many margaritas.
Hah. How about we just go there together and enjoy ourselves with our wives?
That’s great Steve! I’ll introduce you to Andy Sack separately.
And there’s nothing wrong with that.
It'd be really interesting to collect some data and do an evaluation of the best mentoring practices and arrangements using these sites as a testbed.
We’d be happy to engage in a real academic study any time.
Terrific, would love to chat and think together about how to do this and if a randomized experiment in some sense is feasible. It's a study I've been thinking about and wanting to do for a while now. Actually I had the idea when listening to a podcast with David Cohen about the creation of TechStars.
Let’s talk next week – I’ll send you a separate email.
I volunteer to help take down test data for TechStars Siesta Key… =P
Austin has a great program already called Capital Factory – http://www.capitalfactory.com/. Good guys.
For a Tech Stars / Winter, my idea would be to take a look at Los Angeles, San Diego, and Austin.
The LA+Orange County region has grown a a powerhouse tech startup community, consuming 20% of US Venture Capital, vs Silicon Valley's 40%. San Diego should have critical mass of interest, too – they are home to quite a few semiconductor and telecom startups.
Austin is of course, a vibrant startup community as well; I think they were still in the top ten, in 2008 US venture capital consumption by region.
We'll be doing a swing through the southern half of the USA in late Q1 on a StartupTrek, interviewing entrepreneurs, so I'll scope out these and other possibilities.
Kim, I’ve always loved San Diego. Let’s chat re: how to make this happen.
-steve
While a possibility, I’d put San Diego in the “serious long shot” category. At least it’s warm!
I vote for San Diego.
This town few local VCs with any new investment funds. We now have 6 companies in no strings attached free incubator, EvoNexus. Check out http://www.commnexus.org/incubator/.
TechStars Seattle…
Yesterday, TechStars announced that it is a launching a new program in Seattle. This will be the third program that TechStars runs – with the other two TechStars Seattle…
TechStars Seattle…
Yesterday, TechStars announced that it is a launching a new program in Seattle. This will be the third program that TechStars runs – with the other two…
StartupTrek has "almost" interviewed San Diego startups 3 times this year. But we haven't yet been there "on the ground" to get a feel for the startup community.
The "home run" startup communities we found amd verified in Q3-Q4 would be led by Seattle, Portland, Boise, Denver, LA+Orange County, and the surprise powerhouse Boulder.
Outside of that, we're only speculating as far as the strength of the startup community today. But we will deepen and expand our coverage in Q1-Q2.
On the top of our short list, the aforementioned hot spots plus Salt Lake City, Marin County, LA+OC, Austin, Houston. And of course more Colorado, Seattle+Tacoma, major cities in Oregon, Silicon Valley, mid-state CA (Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura County), San Diego, and Las Vegas. Those are the leading suspects, W of Denver.
[...] TechStars expanding to Seattle http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2009/12/techstars-seattle.html [...]
[...] expanding to Seattle http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2009/12/techstars-seattle.html [...]
We’re psyched to announce that TechStars is expanding to Seattle. We’ll run our first program there in the fall of 2010.70-272 exam
We’ve found the perfect person to run the program in Seattle MB2-633 exam. Andy Sack will be the Executive Director there. Andy is already well-known on the local startup scene as co-founder and Managing Partner of Seattle-based seed fund Founders’ Co-op, guest lecturer in entrepreneurship at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business, and host of the weekly tech meetup Seattle Open Coffee. Andy has served as a TechStars mentor in both Boulder and Boston in the past, so he’s already intimately familiar with the program and how it works.642-415 exam
To me, the real story here is the way that the Seattle community has galvanized around TechStars. It’s really quite amazing and humbling. Just take a look at the Seattle mentor list for the evidence. Also, the way that the VCs and angels in Seattle have come together is simply awesome. The funding group 1z0-047 exam includes Bezos Expeditions, Buerk Dale Victor, DFJ, Founder’s Co-op, Ignition Partners, Madrona Venture Group, Maveron, OVP, Second Avenue Partners, Trilogy Partners, WRF Capital, Voyager Capital, Vulcan Capital and many prominent angel investors. Wow.
TechStars Seattle…
Yesterday, TechStars announced that it is a launching a new program in Seattle. This will be the third program that TechStars runs – with the other two…
[...] TechStars expanding to Seattle [...]
[...] TechStars expanding to Seattle [...]
[...] TechStars expanding to Seattle [...]
[...] TechStars expanding to Seattle [...]
[...] TechStars expanding to Seattle [...]
[...] complete acceptance into the TechStars community, which is ever-growing [...]
Mike, great point. This is one of our goals at IntenseDebate – we want to simplify your commenting experience. With this in mind, we enable commenters who have created IntenseDebate accounts to track comments made on a post via RSS readers, including NewsGator. …
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