July 2008
15 posts
The Elusive Andrew Hyde
Andrew Hyde is in charge of all things community at Techstars, and you will often see him with a device in hand—recording all of the memories being created this summer. But don’t be fooled into thinking that Andrew is just the ‘camera dude…’ because I am finding out day after day that there is so much more to this guy. For instance, I was showing Brett Jackson the t-shirts my team created...
June 2008
14 posts
WatchAndrew Hyde did an incredible job of capturing the first month of Techstars in this video. We’ve worked our asses off and I think it was very clear that all of the teams are making incredible progress from the demos last night. This is a sneak peek into what life is like in the Bunker (our collective offices at TechStars)…..enjoy!
Take Me Out To The Ballgame
A summer at Techstars is all about work. Ten companies are trying to get a shit ton done in a very little amount of time. So it’s important to have some fun. Play a nice round of ping pong. Get out and have a happy hour drink at the Rio. Charter a party bus with a keg to the Rockies and institute a Tequila-only shot policy. It’s all relative.
Techstars ‘07, ‘08, mentors...
A Soul Patch Revival
The Redfish Brewery rocked out on Saturday night with the “Sooner or Later” album release party for Soul Patch, a talented band that features local talent from two part-time venture capitalists, part-time rock stars, Ryan McIntyre and Jason Mendelson of the Foundry Group. Having only seen these two guys in a strictly professional setting, it was awesome to see them jamming out on stage and I was...
Finding Howard Diamond in the Rough
Our team had an invigorating meeting on Friday with Howard Diamond, and I use invigorating in the purest sense of the term. Howard is a bundle of energy and a fountain of ideas & information - and he immediately engaged our team. In fact, I quickly surveyed the room mid-meeting and found us all in similar postures: leaning over the table in rapt attention. Howard is also a money guy. He...
Ignighter in their Natural Habitat
It is an incredible experience being in a program like Techstars where all of the founders are driven, passionate, and completely committed to their businesses. Since we spend so much time together, we are also seeing each other display natural tendencies toward our businesses in public settings. For instance, Foodzie does weird things on the weekends like going to bbq competitions/pig races, the...
Hiking, Margs, and More Margs with SVB
Silicon Valley Bank hosted a hike up Mt. Sanitas followed by happy hour at The Rio yesterday evening. The turnout for happy hour far exceeded the hike (not a big surprise) but both events afforded me the opportunity not only to connect with some of the SVB folks, but also with fellow Techstars.
The hike was attended by me, Andrew Hyde, Peter Zhang of BuyPlayWin, and Andy Smith of Gyminee. Frank...
Crap Caaaaaanon!!!!
Since Techstars started, I admit I’ve been a little behind on the news, but I catch up each week by reading my subscription to The Week from cover to cover. Yes, for those of you who are asking, it’s actually a bound magazine that I physically receive via snail mail each Saturday {gasp}. Anyway, it gives a fantastic overview of everything that happened the previous week and does a...
Smart Women in Boulder
Forbes named Boulder the smartest city in the nation for the second year in a row. The editors found that nearly 53% of the Boulder population (age 25 and older) had at least a bachelor’s degree. The magazine qualified ‘Boulder’ as the Metropolitan area surrounding the city, including Longmont, Lafayete, etc. If they were to have surveyed Boulder proper, the percentage of college...
Paul Berbarian's Five Questions for Biz Ideas
Our team had the first official meeting last week with Paul Berbarian, our lead mentor. Paul has a great reputation in Boulder for being a brilliant entrepreneur and has founded at least 4 companies, the most well-known being Raindance (now Intercall), which he took public in 2000. Paul liked our idea (phew) as it specifically addresses some of the personal frustrations he experiences when trying...
Turtle Trouble
Some of you may know I am the proud owner of two turtles: a red-eared slider named Rudy and a Mississippi map named Rambo. Most 20-somethings yearn for dogs, cats, or maybe even fish when they go on a pet crusade. I wanted turtles. I think my issues started as a child when I owned some type of a water turtle. At that age, pets weren’t cool unless you could physically play with them so I always...
So back to the name of this blog....
In the second week of Techstars, Dick Costolo and Rick Klau from Feedburner were scheduled to meet with the companies to talk about how Feedburner went from being a teensy weensy startup to a killer acquisition target for Google. This is clearly a skill we’d all like to pick up for our individual businesses.
Dick was an incredible presenter and I loved his honest, no bullshit, oftentimes...
The rebirth of my blog
I started a blog when I lived in San Francisco and deserted it upon my return to Colorado to launch a business [insert: sigh of regret] because I thought the business blog would suffice. Now with the advent of the TechStars program and the start of the ‘new’ business, I am finding that my thoughts, revelations, and general commentary far surpass the constrains of our business blog....