
Techstars holds first of two webinars on “Building Start-up Communities”
This session on Thursday featured a conversation with Techstars Co-Founders David Cohen and Brad Feld.
Were you one of the several thousand people from across the globe who tuned on Thursday for a one-hour virtual webinar hosted by David Cohen, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Techstars? The event featured the ideas of Brad Feld, another Co-Founder of Techstars, and the author of several books on building successful start-up communities.
It was partly a sharing of the knowledge that Feld has gained through multiple start-ups, his books, and The Foundry, a venture firm of which Feld is a Co-Founder. It also teed up a new program that will be featured next Thursday called the Techstars Start-up Community Partnership. To learn more about that new initiative, you can register for the webinar at this link.
Both Feld and Cohen moved to Boulder in 1995 and launched Techstars in 2006. Anyone who has read Feld’s first book titled Startup Communities knows that he advocates for putting founders front and center.
Explaining that the book used what he termed the “Boulder Thesis” as an example, Feld explained that the concept was built on four principles:
- Founders have to be the leaders of the start-up community.
- It is important to take a long-term view – at least 20 years.
- It is also important to “be inclusive of anyone who wants to engage.”
- Finally, communities must ensure that individuals engage over the long-term . . . on an ongoing basis.
Other thoughts that Feld advanced during the nearly 45-minute discussion with Cohen before the event shifted to Q & A included:
- He is not a fan of zero-sum thinking. “Denver and Boulder both win when either wins,” Feld said.
- Robust networking linkages are very important, not just cocktail parties.
- He believes in a healthy mix of people moving into a community while others depart.
- “No one should control start-up communities,” Feld said, adding, “It is a bottom-up phenomenon.”
- On the matter of angel and venture capital, he said, “It’s training your local community” to understand the importance of investing in start-ups. Cohen added that in most communities, there is enough capital, but it is not focused on the start-ups that are located there.
Like what you've read?
Forward to a friend!