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TechStars really seems to be going for breadth, but I guess each location only has a class of about 12 startups per cycle. One thing that irks me about TS is t

TechStars really seems to be going for breadth, but I guess each location only has a class of about 12 startups per cycle. One thing that irks me about TS is that there are different managing directors for each location...I mean there has to be given the number of locations TS is now at, but it makes me question whether or not there is even a 'TechStars' culture that exists throughout the programs or if each city operates individually and do things differently from others. I promise I'm not trying to criticize TS, it's just a thought that came to my mind when I saw that they had opened another location.

JohnDotAwesome 13y ago
Yeah, breadth of geography. Which I think is super cool. Paul Graham advocates that a startup really shouldn't start outside of Silicon Valley, but that's total crap. Cohen and crowd want to spread their formula to other cities (I think they started in Boulder). When Tech Stars comes to Austin, no doubt it will further re-enforce entrepreneurship in our culture, and it will cause more people to want to start businesses. I think that's awesome. +1 to the breadth strategy for spreading the startup love!
btrautsc 13y ago
It feels more like their franchising. Find a local incubator/ seed/ VC opportunity with good local roots, and brand a program there for 3 months. It benefits both sides, TS portfolio grows and the local shop gets a big nod of legitimacy from outside their market. It adds momentum to the local scene, expands their portfolio with minimal costs, and hasn't seemed to drastically water down their image. Or maybe it has - I'm not quite sure... There are many times I would have loved to go through TechStars, but I feel that the key benefit of the program is the networking & 'friction' with other great entrepreneurs & the top VCs, I'm not so sure how it will keep scaling without degrading those key aspects. As in, I imagine it was easy to get the most high profile mentors or VCs to Boulder or NYC once/ twice a year. Now, they're supposed to hit up like 7+ programs? Different demo days...
- saryant 13y ago
  I'm not sure I'd call it franchising. Even with the recent TechStars Cloud class in San Antonio, about as non-startup a city as you can find, the program didn't seem to have any trouble attracting mentors and VCs. Demo day was packed with VCs from around the country and AFAIK a lot of the companies from the latest batch have had no trouble raising seed. (I'm not a TS alum, but I work out of the coworking space TS uses in San Antonio)
  - btrautsc 13y ago
    Point taken, maybe the wrong term/ my lack of specific knowledge. My personal thoughts though are in this industry (and this side of it), a huge advantage to TS & YC is relational. I'm not sure how well or how long relational scales.
- dandrewsen 13y ago
  I think that the more accurate term is horizontal expansion, rather than franchising.
- seats 13y ago
  The way that it scales is to not try and spread the 'most high profile mentors' to all cities, but to source effectively orthogonal sets of high value people that support each program. Horizontal vs vertical scaling as dandrewsen mentions.
untog 13y ago
it makes me question whether or not there is even a 'TechStars' culture Does there need to be? They're so widespread at this point that there is little incentive for me to apply for TechStars Austin- I'm in New York, so I'd just apply for TechStars NYC. If the two have different cultures it isn't going to affect me.
- btrautsc 13y ago
  If going through TS or 'having gone' through TS is supposed to improve the outcome of your startup (or ability to raise money/ get press), then yes. If investors/ press went to a disappointing demo day in TS-<insert city>, and they are invited to another demo day in your city, they may say, "Meh... dunno". If the quality is always top notch, no issue. If the culture of excellence scales outward, great. If you are going through to make great connections in your town & get great mentorship for your business for 3 months, great. But if you are attaching a brand that you intend to open doors/ get meetings/ etc, then the brand needs to stay consistently top notch. [I'm not saying TechStars is not consistently top notch, just saying culture (or maybe performance) across all programs matters]
- seats 13y ago
  It would matter if and when you relocate your startup to another city, or when you need access to a company or resource in another TS city. Differences are still possible while have a one consistent overriding culture, which is our goal. We want TS NYC to feel distinctive and especially suited for NY but there there is still a common denominator there that is the same as in TS London.
seats 13y ago
Our strategy is to have local differences and strong independent programs, but we definitely have a cohesive TechStars culture. I've spent time at most of the TS locations in the last 2 years and have invested in several teams from Boston, NY, Seattle, Boulder, Chicago. Our power is in having lots of individual actors and autonomy while still having a cohesive network between programs. I run a better program because of the time I've spent in each of these places.

JohnDotAwesome 13y ago

Yeah, breadth of geography. Which I think is super cool. Paul Graham advocates that a startup really shouldn't start outside of Silicon Valley, but that's total crap. Cohen and crowd want to spread their formula to other cities (I think they started in Boulder). When Tech Stars comes to Austin, no doubt it will further re-enforce entrepreneurship in our culture, and it will cause more people to want to start businesses. I think that's awesome. +1 to the breadth strategy for spreading the startup love!

btrautsc 13y ago

It feels more like their franchising. Find a local incubator/ seed/ VC opportunity with good local roots, and brand a program there for 3 months. It benefits both sides, TS portfolio grows and the local shop gets a big nod of legitimacy from outside their market. It adds momentum to the local scene, expands their portfolio with minimal costs, and hasn't seemed to drastically water down their image. Or maybe it has - I'm not quite sure... There are many times I would have loved to go through TechStars, but I feel that the key benefit of the program is the networking & 'friction' with other great entrepreneurs & the top VCs, I'm not so sure how it will keep scaling without degrading those key aspects. As in, I imagine it was easy to get the most high profile mentors or VCs to Boulder or NYC once/ twice a year. Now, they're supposed to hit up like 7+ programs? Different demo days...

saryant 13y ago
I'm not sure I'd call it franchising. Even with the recent TechStars Cloud class in San Antonio, about as non-startup a city as you can find, the program didn't seem to have any trouble attracting mentors and VCs. Demo day was packed with VCs from around the country and AFAIK a lot of the companies from the latest batch have had no trouble raising seed. (I'm not a TS alum, but I work out of the coworking space TS uses in San Antonio)
- btrautsc 13y ago
  Point taken, maybe the wrong term/ my lack of specific knowledge. My personal thoughts though are in this industry (and this side of it), a huge advantage to TS & YC is relational. I'm not sure how well or how long relational scales.
dandrewsen 13y ago
I think that the more accurate term is horizontal expansion, rather than franchising.
seats 13y ago
The way that it scales is to not try and spread the 'most high profile mentors' to all cities, but to source effectively orthogonal sets of high value people that support each program. Horizontal vs vertical scaling as dandrewsen mentions.

untog 13y ago

it makes me question whether or not there is even a 'TechStars' culture Does there need to be? They're so widespread at this point that there is little incentive for me to apply for TechStars Austin- I'm in New York, so I'd just apply for TechStars NYC. If the two have different cultures it isn't going to affect me.

btrautsc 13y ago
If going through TS or 'having gone' through TS is supposed to improve the outcome of your startup (or ability to raise money/ get press), then yes. If investors/ press went to a disappointing demo day in TS-<insert city>, and they are invited to another demo day in your city, they may say, "Meh... dunno". If the quality is always top notch, no issue. If the culture of excellence scales outward, great. If you are going through to make great connections in your town & get great mentorship for your business for 3 months, great. But if you are attaching a brand that you intend to open doors/ get meetings/ etc, then the brand needs to stay consistently top notch. [I'm not saying TechStars is not consistently top notch, just saying culture (or maybe performance) across all programs matters]
seats 13y ago
It would matter if and when you relocate your startup to another city, or when you need access to a company or resource in another TS city. Differences are still possible while have a one consistent overriding culture, which is our goal. We want TS NYC to feel distinctive and especially suited for NY but there there is still a common denominator there that is the same as in TS London.

seats 13y ago

Our strategy is to have local differences and strong independent programs, but we definitely have a cohesive TechStars culture. I've spent time at most of the TS locations in the last 2 years and have invested in several teams from Boston, NY, Seattle, Boulder, Chicago. Our power is in having lots of individual actors and autonomy while still having a cohesive network between programs. I run a better program because of the time I've spent in each of these places.