David Cohen Quotes
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People look up to Techstars because they get funded by Techstars; they go through the accelerator. What we do impacts what they do. What we care about we hope has a meta impact on those entrepreneurs and how they think about the world.
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Because one of the main jobs of a CEO is to set the vision and strategy for the company, I'm a big believer in making one of the founders the default CEO.
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Ultimately, we measure ourselves on the success of our investments.
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The best mentors present their opinions simply as data and not as direction.
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My attitude is there are at least hundreds of interesting startups that are going to get going in every year.
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Clearly, there is a gender imbalance when it comes to venture capital and entrepreneurship.
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Quality and a great product matters, in startups, and in accelerators.
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The Internet is full of choices, and nobody is going to make the choice to use a product that is hard to use or unattractive.
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Techstars is truly global; you'll see us continue to expand all our programs worldwide, including accelerators, our venture capital, as well as the UP Global programs including Startup Weekend, Startup Next, Startup Digest, etc.
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When we talk about Techstars, we think of it as this worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed.
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In the rare cases where I've had to cut a company loose, I just tell them why and wish them luck and hope they learn something from it. I don't spend more mental energy on it than I have to, and I try very hard not to hold a grudge or try to negatively affect them either. It's just done for me.
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For most people, their home is their most valuable asset. Yet most of us don't take care of it.
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If you're in a squeeze for capital and you have a solid, mutually beneficial relationship with a VC, your chances of raising will increase dramatically.
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Part of the thing that's magic about TechStars is it's about a community that wants to make itself better.
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I wish I had had more mentorship and more access, not only for capital, but the critical thinking.
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We've been publishing the TechStars data fully since the beginning on TechStars.com. For every single company, you can see if it's a failure, success, how much they raised. Entrepreneurs deserve that sort of transparency from accelerators, and it's not hard to do.
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I've just always been interested in moving past the keyboard and mouse.
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In innovation, you're trying to create something from nothing.
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What Techstars is fundamentally a global ecosystem in which entrepreneurs are enabled and empowered to bring new technologies to the market.
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The more you're real with people, and the more you let people help you, the more they get to understand how you operate as an entrepreneur. The stronger that relationship is, then the more likely there's a future together in that relationship.
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The rise of digital technologies has eroded boundaries: Anyone can participate, start a business, and reach a global audience.
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I've done a bunch of consulting; I've actually spent time in Singapore, England, Denmark, all over.
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I'm often asked what it takes to be 'Series A ready' in terms of metrics, progress, and traction. Unfortunately, there's no easy answer.
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If you're pitching to investors for the first time and expecting them to be so blown away by how thoroughly amazing your pitch is that they write a check on the spot - well, prepare to be disappointed.