Words matter. These are the best David Cohen Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
I think just calling up a VC and saying ‘I want to pitch you’ is an enormous waste of time.
People look up to Techstars because they get funded by Techstars; they go through the accelerator. What we do impacts what they do. What we care about we hope has a meta impact on those entrepreneurs and how they think about the world.
My attitude is there are at least hundreds of interesting startups that are going to get going in every year.
I had done six or eight traditional angel investments and basically just thought it sucked.
If I had a do over, I’d indubitably start investing in startups earlier in life!
Deciding whether or not to bring in an outside CEO is one of the most gut-wrenching decisions that a founder will ever need to make.
You may have a small network, but growing that network has become easier with the use of social tools. LinkedIn, Conspire, even Facebook and Twitter allow you to grab branches that may have previously seemed out of reach.
In Boulder entrepreneurship circles, there is a genuine desire to see others succeed and a general belief that karma matters. There’s a sense that together we’re building something here, and that we’re all a meaningful part of it.
If you’re not working on something you’re passionate about, it’s a long, hard road.
We’re pretty broad as investors. Our thesis is work with great entrepreneurs that believe they can change the world.
The hot deal is often the one that does not work.
Clearly, there is a gender imbalance when it comes to venture capital and entrepreneurship.
I’m an investor in a lot of things that have to do with human-computer interaction.
Ultimately, we measure ourselves on the success of our investments.
Focusing on the right priorities can help you do more faster.
People are starting companies at young ages. They fail fast, learn a lot, and keep going.
I’m most proud of helping so many others achieve their dreams as founders.
Twilio is a great example of a company executing tremendously well on its vision and delivering a beautiful set of products that solves real problems.
Because Techstars is an intensely productive three-month program in which product development and iteration are primary goals, we’re constantly looking to streamline our program to help entrepreneurs avoid recurring obstacles.
We’re pretty broad as investors. Our thesis is work with great entrepreneurs that believe they can change the world. But there are specific areas that we get excited about – areas like hard tech, deep tech, companies that deal with really difficult technology, etc.
When fundraising, your network is critical. Leveraging it early and often is the key. Don’t make the mistake of waiting until you need money to engage sources of capital.
What Techstars is fundamentally a global ecosystem in which entrepreneurs are enabled and empowered to bring new technologies to the market.
I think there are ways that perhaps organic partnerships can occur in local geographies with groups that are extremely focused on their communities. That’s really how Techstars began, as a grassroots movement in Boulder, Colo., that happened to catch fire and expand around the world.
Aspiring entrepreneurs are often advised to work at a startup for a couple of years first, to understand what’s involved. But often, each company’s approach to success is very narrow. So my advice is, ‘Just do it.’
Our goal is simply to make entrepreneurship more accessible to everyone around the world throughout the entrepreneurial journey, from inspiration to IPO.
At TechStars, I have the privilege of working with hundreds of the best and brightest start-up mentors on the planet. We coach our mentors to take a Socratic approach and to provide data rather than decisions.
If you’re pitching to investors for the first time and expecting them to be so blown away by how thoroughly amazing your pitch is that they write a check on the spot – well, prepare to be disappointed.
We’ve been publishing the TechStars data fully since the beginning on TechStars.com. For every single company, you can see if it’s a failure, success, how much they raised. Entrepreneurs deserve that sort of transparency from accelerators, and it’s not hard to do.
I had to quit a ‘real job’ to start my first company.
I think entrepreneurs should demand transparency for startup accelerators.
I’m often asked what it takes to be ‘Series A ready’ in terms of metrics, progress, and traction. Unfortunately, there’s no easy answer.
We think of the Techstars product as not really the accelerator but the network. That’s what entrepreneurs should be valuing here. I think it’s the most undervalued thing that many entrepreneurs don’t get.
The two big startup killers are when there’s just no market for what you are doing, and team problems.
There are not enough female VCs in an industry so traditionally dominated by males. There are not enough female mentors who are actively engaged with female founders. We need women VCs and entrepreneurs to stand up, get loud, and help guide their peers.
I think the best developers can learn any language; if they are a good developer, they can learn whatever. But the raw talent, the ability to learn it and do it and demonstrate the ability is helpful.
