Mentoring TechStars

I’m a huge fan of the concept behind the TechStars program and the innovating they’re doing on the traditional venture capital model. David Cohen and the team of mentors he’s assembled are world-class, and there are some really bright entrepreneurs working through the program this year. David called me recently to invite me into the program as a mentor and I couldn’t have been happier to accept. I’ll be heading to Boulder this summer to meet the teams and help them take their startups to the next level.

TechStars is one of a number of micro funds based loosely on the work Paul Graham is doing at Y Combinator that are exploiting the exceptionally low cost requirements to get a tech company off the ground today. Here in DC we have LaunchBox Digital run by my friend Sean Greene and his partners, Europe now has seedcamp, and there are no doubt others in the works elsewhere that we’ll hear about soon. Even the city of New York is getting in on the action.

Programs like TechStars are just scratching the surface of new models for early stage investing, and in particular there are opportunities to combine these programs with larger funds capable of following the seed stage. Paul Kedrosky and others have talked about the changing model for some time, but what do you think? How would you change the venture model?

Thanks, TechStars. Looking forward to seeing you all soon!

(see: Eric Litman at TechStars)

Category: Venture Capital || Tags: ericlitman, techstars, venturecapital, ycombinator ||