5 ms·

Announcing the TechStars Network

53 points by ssclafani 16y ago

jsb 16y ago
My company is participating in the current AlphaLab (Pittsburgh) cycle. Although we're still learning all the details about what being in the Network will mean for us, I can't imagine that this will be nothing but good for us, our company and the AlphaLab program as a whole.
- sjs382 16y ago
  Great to hear AlphaLab is part of this. I've considered applying to the AlphaLab program before, but timing has always been an issue for me. Hopefully next time around! :)
  - jsb 16y ago
    Nice! Definitely do it. We've been so thrilled to be part of the program. I'd be happy to answer any questions or meet up sometime to talk about our experiences so far. Email's in the profile.
    - sjs382 16y ago
      Whats your startup?
      - jsb 16y ago
        Since you asked... check it out! http://www.deliriumapps.com http://www.deliriumapps.com (Shameless plug) We're looking for beta testers soon - ideally, you have an iPhone and use Highrise and/or LinkedIn a lot
- steveklabnik 16y ago
  Link about AlphaLab's involvement: http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2011/01/31/alphalab-now-part-of-techstars-network.html http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2011/01/31/alphal...
edw519 16y ago
I am a great admirer of TechStars and I think their book _Do More Faster_ was great, but frankly this scares me a little. When government contributes money (our money!) or fosters an environment in which we can blossom, great. When they try to do much else, not so great. I have trouble understanding how government resources can replicate the contributions of people who have actually done it, ie Techstars or yc. Entrepreneurship is something that is done and shared, not talked about or theorized upon. I sure hope Techstars influence can find a way to harness these resources without having the pontificators fuck it up. Good luck with that.
- cjoh 16y ago
  Government isn't contributing any money here. Government is serving as a catalyst, organizer, and a validator. See: http://www.startupamericapartnership.org/faqs http://www.startupamericapartnership.org/faqs In fact, the TechStars network is a membership based network of independently owned incubators. So you can look at Government as having this dialogue with TechStars: Gov: Hey, Techstars, we want to create more jobs. We think what you've done is interesting. We'd love for you do do something with our new project StartUpAmerica. We got a bunch of people involved. You in? TechStars: Sure, sounds interesting, what can we do? Gov: What do you think you should do-- how could you be the most impactful here? TechStars: Well, we could create a network to help create more techstars like organizations, and have them working together. Gov: Sounds good. We'll put you on the website. TechStars: k cool.
  - gyardley 16y ago
    Right, that's what the parent is worried about - not the money part, the catalyst, organizer, and validator part. As he said, When government contributes money [...] great. The TechStars Network sounds fine and all, but I really don't understand why it'd hitch itself to the broader governmental initiative, which on first glance looks both bureaucratic and problematic. For example, I read over on TechCrunch that Cass Sunstein is leading the associated regulatory review. That's like asking Bernie Madoff to supervise financial reform - the only thing I want from people like Sunstein is for them to be distracted elsewhere.
pchristensen 16y ago
I'm really enjoying the arms race between YC and TS. This is as fun as watching the browser wars, or Android vs iPhone, or Windows vs Mac vs Linux. Competition is driving everyone to be better.
- sgk284 16y ago
  I suspect from the outside it looks like an arms race, but as a TS founder from Seattle '10, it is not uncommon for TS/YC founders to hang out, give each other discounts (or free services), and otherwise be generally helpful. It's never really felt competitive. We're all just trying to succeed (and help each other along the way).
  - kenjackson 16y ago
    It seems like its everyone's best interest for their to be at least two very successful accelerators. Good luck to both.
  - pchristensen 16y ago
    Entirely tongue in cheek. I can't think of two more generous, internally driven group of people than the YC team and the TS team.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
jmtame 16y ago
"Strengthen commercialization of the about $148 billion in annual federally-funded research and development, which can generate innovative startups and entirely new industries;" i'm curious what exactly they're planning to do there. would they be funding the VCs already involved in university research commercialization, or are they going directly to the research groups?
ecuzzillo 16y ago
Pioneered by TechStars? Really?
- staunch 16y ago
  There's also this gem in their title "Funding and Mentorship from the #1 Startup Accelerator in the World" From the organization that blatantly copied Y Combinator, the #1 accelerator. Somebody has an inferiority complex.
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
  - vnchr 16y ago
    And Founder Institute wins on quantity
- ig1 16y ago
  What they pioneered isn't the seed accelerator concept, but rather a repeatable model for it. It's the difference between the idea for a burger bar, and Macdonalds developing a franchise model for it. YC have always stated that there can be only one YC and that's the global YC. TechStars have the position that they can design a playbook that allows their "magic sauce" to be replicated. Although they should (as they have done in the past) acknowledge YC's inspiration of their model.
elliottcarlson 16y ago
[gripe] Why do people think the highlighter type functionality is a good idea? I, as well as quite a few people I know, tend to highlight as we read to make it easy to read text in contrast and keep our place within a page...
- 100k 16y ago
  I do that too. Double clicking on web page text is sort of a nervous tick for me. On sites like the New York Times (and now TechStars, apparently) odd things happen when you highlight.
- JoshMullineaux 16y ago
  Interesting feedback and we have spoken to readers who do this. I will say that it is a minority of people who read like that and for those readers we've made it easy to disable the Highlighter functionality. We obviously want to do nothing to take away from the reading experience only add to it, making it easier to share and comment.
monkeyboy 16y ago
Their page title advertises Techstars as the "#1 Startup Accelerator in the World." I'm not sure what metric they are using, but that seems a bit disingenuous.
- pclark 16y ago
  Computer Scientists count from 0? :)

53 points by ssclafani 16y ago

jsb 16y ago

My company is participating in the current AlphaLab (Pittsburgh) cycle. Although we're still learning all the details about what being in the Network will mean for us, I can't imagine that this will be nothing but good for us, our company and the AlphaLab program as a whole.

sjs382 16y ago
Great to hear AlphaLab is part of this. I've considered applying to the AlphaLab program before, but timing has always been an issue for me. Hopefully next time around! :)
- jsb 16y ago
  Nice! Definitely do it. We've been so thrilled to be part of the program. I'd be happy to answer any questions or meet up sometime to talk about our experiences so far. Email's in the profile.
  - sjs382 16y ago
    Whats your startup?
    - jsb 16y ago
      Since you asked... check it out! http://www.deliriumapps.com http://www.deliriumapps.com (Shameless plug) We're looking for beta testers soon - ideally, you have an iPhone and use Highrise and/or LinkedIn a lot
steveklabnik 16y ago
Link about AlphaLab's involvement: http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2011/01/31/alphalab-now-part-of-techstars-network.html http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2011/01/31/alphal...

edw519 16y ago

I am a great admirer of TechStars and I think their book _Do More Faster_ was great, but frankly this scares me a little. When government contributes money (our money!) or fosters an environment in which we can blossom, great. When they try to do much else, not so great. I have trouble understanding how government resources can replicate the contributions of people who have actually done it, ie Techstars or yc. Entrepreneurship is something that is done and shared, not talked about or theorized upon. I sure hope Techstars influence can find a way to harness these resources without having the pontificators fuck it up. Good luck with that.

cjoh 16y ago
Government isn't contributing any money here. Government is serving as a catalyst, organizer, and a validator. See: http://www.startupamericapartnership.org/faqs http://www.startupamericapartnership.org/faqs In fact, the TechStars network is a membership based network of independently owned incubators. So you can look at Government as having this dialogue with TechStars: Gov: Hey, Techstars, we want to create more jobs. We think what you've done is interesting. We'd love for you do do something with our new project StartUpAmerica. We got a bunch of people involved. You in? TechStars: Sure, sounds interesting, what can we do? Gov: What do you think you should do-- how could you be the most impactful here? TechStars: Well, we could create a network to help create more techstars like organizations, and have them working together. Gov: Sounds good. We'll put you on the website. TechStars: k cool.
- gyardley 16y ago
  Right, that's what the parent is worried about - not the money part, the catalyst, organizer, and validator part. As he said, When government contributes money [...] great. The TechStars Network sounds fine and all, but I really don't understand why it'd hitch itself to the broader governmental initiative, which on first glance looks both bureaucratic and problematic. For example, I read over on TechCrunch that Cass Sunstein is leading the associated regulatory review. That's like asking Bernie Madoff to supervise financial reform - the only thing I want from people like Sunstein is for them to be distracted elsewhere.

pchristensen 16y ago

I'm really enjoying the arms race between YC and TS. This is as fun as watching the browser wars, or Android vs iPhone, or Windows vs Mac vs Linux. Competition is driving everyone to be better.

sgk284 16y ago
I suspect from the outside it looks like an arms race, but as a TS founder from Seattle '10, it is not uncommon for TS/YC founders to hang out, give each other discounts (or free services), and otherwise be generally helpful. It's never really felt competitive. We're all just trying to succeed (and help each other along the way).
- kenjackson 16y ago
  It seems like its everyone's best interest for their to be at least two very successful accelerators. Good luck to both.
- pchristensen 16y ago
  Entirely tongue in cheek. I can't think of two more generous, internally driven group of people than the YC team and the TS team.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

jmtame 16y ago

"Strengthen commercialization of the about $148 billion in annual federally-funded research and development, which can generate innovative startups and entirely new industries;" i'm curious what exactly they're planning to do there. would they be funding the VCs already involved in university research commercialization, or are they going directly to the research groups?

ecuzzillo 16y ago

Pioneered by TechStars? Really?

staunch 16y ago
There's also this gem in their title "Funding and Mentorship from the #1 Startup Accelerator in the World" From the organization that blatantly copied Y Combinator, the #1 accelerator. Somebody has an inferiority complex.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- vnchr 16y ago
  And Founder Institute wins on quantity
ig1 16y ago
What they pioneered isn't the seed accelerator concept, but rather a repeatable model for it. It's the difference between the idea for a burger bar, and Macdonalds developing a franchise model for it. YC have always stated that there can be only one YC and that's the global YC. TechStars have the position that they can design a playbook that allows their "magic sauce" to be replicated. Although they should (as they have done in the past) acknowledge YC's inspiration of their model.

elliottcarlson 16y ago

[gripe] Why do people think the highlighter type functionality is a good idea? I, as well as quite a few people I know, tend to highlight as we read to make it easy to read text in contrast and keep our place within a page...

100k 16y ago
I do that too. Double clicking on web page text is sort of a nervous tick for me. On sites like the New York Times (and now TechStars, apparently) odd things happen when you highlight.
JoshMullineaux 16y ago
Interesting feedback and we have spoken to readers who do this. I will say that it is a minority of people who read like that and for those readers we've made it easy to disable the Highlighter functionality. We obviously want to do nothing to take away from the reading experience only add to it, making it easier to share and comment.

monkeyboy 16y ago

Their page title advertises Techstars as the "#1 Startup Accelerator in the World." I'm not sure what metric they are using, but that seems a bit disingenuous.

pclark 16y ago
Computer Scientists count from 0? :)