Jay Goldman

David Cohen is the founder and Executive Director of TechStars. David has a soft spot for technology startups and enjoys helping innovative early stage technology companies succeed. He also has a passion for Colorado and believes it’s a fantastic community for any startup.

• From Boulder CO
• I get asked to speak at a lot of stuff
• I hear more and more about Toronto
• I came here to check out the community and to meet some of the people who have applied to TechStars
• Started as a software developer/hacker/geek
• Did three startups
• Went to the darkside of investing
• I’ve bootstrapped, raised, and self-funded
  • Zoll Data Systems
    • Public safety data systems
    • Paramedics with pen-based computers
    • Dispatched about 50m ambulance calls
  • earFeeder
    • Music and RSS
  • iContact
    • Only revenue was selling the domain name to a new company
  • TechStars
    • Fourth ’startup’
• Boulder is known for:
  • Mork and Mindy
  • Skiing
  • Pot smoking
  • 125,000 people including students
  • Denver is 1m
  • Nestled right up against the mountains
• VC in Boulder
  • $311m in Q1 2008
  • $2500 available per person
  • $130m in Ontario spread across 13m people, so $23 each
• VC is broken!
  • Really it’s a chickent and egg problem
  • Entrepreneurs are waiting around for more VC to start
  • VCs are waiting around for companies to invest into
• VC is hard to get everywhere, not just here
• VC follows innovation
• Boulder had a strong telecom and data storage basis
  • Created a lot of entrepeneurs with money who stayed there
  • Created the angel economy that is the engine behind the startup world
• Angels aren’t just in it for the money
• Startups
  • Photobucket
  • Newsgator
• Techstars
  • Partners
    • Brad Feld, askthevc.com, feld.com
      • Invested in Harmonics who made Rock Band
    • Jared Polis
      • Blue Mountain Arts ($780m), ProFlowers ($477m)
      • Elected to Congress
    • David
  • Mentorship driven seed stage investment fund
  • It’s not just about the money – it’s about the network you get surrounded with
  • Bring 10 teams of (young) entrepreneurs to Boulder for the summer (out of 400 applicants)
  • Incredible mentorship experience
  • Matt Mullenweg, Jeff Clavier, Stewart Alsop, etc. all come in and spend time
  • Companies hang out and live together
  • 10k sq. ft. ‘bunker’ that everyone can work from if they want to
  • 40 sessions in 90 days on topical subjects
  • Companies pitch over and over during the summer and get better every time
  • Investor and demo day in Boulder and Silicon Valley (200 – 250 investors)
  • Goal at the end is to get just enough funding to get to the next point
  • Success:
    • Socialthing
    • Brightkite
    • intensedebate
    • Filterbox
    • 13 of 20 companies now angel or venture backed
    • 1 defunct
    • 2 positive exists (Socialthing, Intense Debate)
    • Under $600k invested in two years of the program so positive ROI to date
    • About 40 new jobs in Colarado
    • AOL office opening in Builder
    • 9 of the 20 companies stayed in Boulder (4 from there originally)
    • Boulder becoming known as a startup town
• Lessons
  • Don’t focus too much on VC. Just start executing.
  • Community can be more powerful than you imagine if it works together
  • Promote your community (blogging, speaking, etc.) when you promote your company
  • Mentorship is the scarce resource that matters (not capital). Surround yourself with the best.
• Twitter: dgcohen23, techstars