Here’s a chart of financings that happened inside the Techstars portfolio during 2020 vs 2019. 2020, of course, will likely be known as the year of the pandemic. There were 623 discrete financings totaling approximately $3.1B in our existing portfolio of 1,751 active companies in 2020. By contrast in 2019, there were 619 financings totaling …
One of my favorite new questions to ask is “Are you sure?” As I’ve been helping Techstars CEO Maëlle Gavet get up to speed, I noticed she’s been asking me that question quite often! I’m pretty certain that she asks many people at Techstars this same question too. When I’m asked “are you sure?”, it …
Recently, on my social accounts I said that my new years resolution was something that began with E. That was a fun little game, and here are the “guesses” that I received. Exhale. Emigrate to France. Eat crepes. Environment. E-sports hall of fame. E pluribus unum. Empathy. Electric Vehicle. Equanimity. Entertainment. Everest. E-Techstars. Exit. Enjoy. …
“Thoughtful leadership evolution in growing and scaling companies is healthy. It happens in strong, successful, mission-driven companies all the time. We’ve seen it over and over again in our own investment portfolio – and helped to mentor our founders through these strategic decisions and transitions. It’s all part of the journey.” Today, I’m thrilled and …
Back in April of this year I wrote “Are financings and M&A slowing down during the pandemic?” with the goal of sharing the Techstars view of how things have been changing given the events of 2020. Here’s an update to that data through the end of October, 2020. Remember, the graphs show when the activity …
I’ve had several conversations recently where the idea came up that advice is situational. And, for any often used piece of advice, it’s sometimes easy to give exactly the opposite advice. The hard part is deciding what advice (if any) to take in your situation. As I was saying this, I kept remembering a table …