Behind the scenes at Techstars – Week 4

Time is flying, mentor office hours is wrapped up and we ran a successful experiment by introducing a Retreat for all our companies and program staff on the outskirts of Berlin. (You can read more about Week 3 here) Monday - Mentors and Founder Story 100 Mentor Meetings today from 9 to 12.30 Christina Fonseca … Continue reading Behind the scenes at Techstars – Week 4

Behind the scenes at Techstars – Week 2 – Mentor Meetings

Following on from Week 1 Orientation, this is where we start to introduce the companies to our mentor network. This year we have scheduled 800+ face-to-face mentor meetings over three weeks. Mentoring is so critical to Techstars that our whole accelerator model is ‘mentor-driven’.  (I will write more about our Mentor process in a future … Continue reading Behind the scenes at Techstars – Week 2 – Mentor Meetings

How OKR’s help you succeed

Great companies and organisations are mission led. For example, at Techstars our mission is to help Entrepreneurs succeed. We use a performance management framework called ‘Objectives and Key Results (OKRs)’ to help us ensure we are all aligned to this mission. Whether it is OKR’s or another framework, most people in an organisation have some … Continue reading How OKR’s help you succeed

How to think about your network when it comes to startup success

Founders sometimes underestimate how a great network can help them succeed. In some cases, and in particular with deeply technical Founders with limited business experience, networking might seem like something that ’sales people’ did to gather business cards, travel around the world and enjoy long lunches at the companies expense. Not only is this wrong, but … Continue reading How to think about your network when it comes to startup success

Corporate Accelerators, this seasons must have accessory

It seems that EVERY corporate is now exploring, starting or investing in their own startup accelerator. For the last few months I’ve had too many ‘groundhog day’ conversations with corporates who ‘are thinking of opening a coworking space / startup accelerator’ and wondering ‘have you any advice?’ I politely smile and say "Yes - but … Continue reading Corporate Accelerators, this seasons must have accessory