If you’re thinking of starting a company, or are still in the early stages of a start-up, think about spending your summer at TechStars in Boulder, CO. TechStars in a summer camp of sorts for entrepreneurs. You get some seed funding, constant attention from mentors and business experts, office space, and immediately placement into a community of likeminded souls (fellow TechStars entrepreneurs). What could be better?
I’ve written a lot about how mentors have changed my life. One of my mentors, Brad Feld, wrote a whole essay on the topic for my book My Start-Up Life. What’s awesome about TechStars is it connects you on Day 1 with a group of engaged mentors who will help make your idea a reality. I have yet to find another organization or opportunity that so seamlessly brings together highly screened entrepreneurs with highly screened mentors.
Last year, I lived in Boulder for a few months and worked with my friend David Cohen — the ringleader of TechStars — as he was putting together the inaugural summer. Along the way I became friends with many of the Boulder tech entrepreneurs. I have fond memories of my time there mainly because of the wonderful people who call Boulder home. Most of these people — the Foundry Group gang, Paul Berberian, Lucy Sanders, Ryan Martens, Niel Robertson, Jared Polis, Wendy Lea, and many others — are involved with TechStars.
You have 15 days left to apply. It’s exclusive: only the 10 best teams get in. What do you have to lose? Come hang out with my friends (and me) in Boulder this summer — submit an application today!
Oh – one more thing – I’ll be hosting the second annual Casnocha Ping Pong Tournament in Boulder sometime over the summer. All TechStars entrepreneurs are automatically entered!
Ben – I’m going to be in Boulder for a little over a month. Hopefully that pingpong tournament will be occurring when I am up there. I have confidence that I will take home the title 🙂
Hey Ben
I may be the only person on the planet still using hotmail but it was a great surpise, as a long time reader of your blog, to see this (which was tied to an image of your face):
http://tech.msn.com/products/articlepcw.aspx?cp-documentid=6485783&icid=tg6485783>1=40000
The head line was “Meet the Whiz Kids: 10 Overachievers under 21”.
I’m now running the Bard Center for Entrepreneurship in Denver, CO. Would love for you to come chat with our incubator start-ups when you are in CO over the summer if you have time in your schedule.
If you happen to be in town June 11, it’s our annual business plan competition. Brad Feld will be our keynote speaker. Let me know if you’d like a seat to see the show.
Not doing TechStars but going to Boulder Startup Weekend II this weekend, which should be fun. (Why on earth are they holding it over Easter weekend? I don’t know.)