Working with TechStars

Over the last few years, TechStars has indirectly touched my life in many ways: I was CEO of IntenseDebate, a TechStars graduate; I have invested in a few TechStars companies; I have met some incredibly great entrepreneurs that I continue to mentor and interact with years after the first introduction; I have met a large number of other mentors, and been mentored by many of them; and I have become part of a vibrant community of entrepreneurialism.  The impact on me has been profound.

The demonstration of the power of a vibrant entrepreneurial community was not lost upon the rest of the world, either.  As news of TechStars, its results, and its community-transforming effects spread around the world, TechStars’ founder David Cohen began to get large numbers of inquiries asking if TechStars could help create something similar in their community.

At the end of last year, David asked if I would help lead the effort to help grow other entrepreneurial communities.  I thought about it briefly before giving a resounding “yes!” answer.  Here’s why I jumped at the opportunity:

  • I’m a believer in the power of TechStars and the value it creates.  I’ve seen it first hand, and talked to a lot of people that I respect that have also seen it.
  • The people involved with TechStars are some of my favorite people.  It’s fun, stimulating, and rewarding to work with these folks.
  • The people outside of TechStars that I’ll be helping are some of my favorite types of people: they’re entrepreneurs, both young (mentees) and experienced (mentors).  I’ll get to be both student and teacher, often at the same time and from the same person.
  • I believe deeply in the cause.  I’ll go more deeply into this in a future post, but the short version is that I believe that in the long run, enabling people to be more able to create more value is the best way to improve society.  From a macro-economic perspective, the world would be far better off if we were all better entrepreneurs.
  • Rarely in my career have so many things that I’m passionate about been so coincident in a single job, and I’m very excited about this opportunity!

    Bring on the entrepreneurs!

    This entry was posted in Business, Economics, Entrepreneurialism, Personal, Philosophy. Bookmark the permalink.

    2 Responses to Working with TechStars

    1. David Duey says:

      That sounds like an amazing and fun opportunity! I can't wait to hear the details.

    2. Alex Farcet says:

      Tom, can't wait to get going on the good stuff! See you in a few hours in Boulder.

      -Alex Farcet

    Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    *

    You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>