Techstars recently graduated its 3,000th company. We’ve helped our portfolio to raise $23.5 billion in total funding—and this year we’ll fund 700+ new companies through 54 accelerators around the world. As many in the startup world already know, mentors are a key element of the success of Techstars-funded companies. When I reflect on how we …
Happy new year everyone. Just before most of us rang in the new year, we successfully flew by a distant rock (Ultima Thule), one billion miles past Pluto and four billion miles from earth and, you know, took some photos. News of that did not reach earth until the new year, since the signal took …
When each of my kids is 12, I take them volunteering on a dad/kid trip with Globe Aware. This spring break it was Delaney’s turn. We just returned from a week in the Orisi Valley of Costa Rica. Like when I did this in China in 2013 with Andrew, who is now 16, I wrote …
Regarding the iPhone X vs previous models, so far I prefer TouchID to FaceID. TouchID is something I learned to forget about. I trained multiple fingers on it, so even if the phone was lying flat on a desk and not facing me face, my finger successfully unlocked the phone without me thinking about it …
There’s a phrase that I’ve been using more and more with startups that I’m working with closely. That phrase is “assume good intent.” I first heard this phrase in my office at Techstars and i’ve found it useful, so I wanted to share it. In any team or customer dynamic, if you start off assuming …
I’ve had a couple of situations lately where a portfolio company founder or CEO went dark on me. They just stopped communicating. Sometimes takes me a while to notice it. When I do, I usually check in with the person and just ask something like “Hey – I haven’t heard from you in a while, …