As you may have heard, TechStars—the mentor-heavy startup helper founded in Boulder, Colorado—recently opened up a Seattle branch. But what you may not have heard or realized is that they see it as very much a TechStars “Northwest.” As such, they’re interested in getting some Portland people up to Seattle to participate. And mentorship? That’s something any number of Portland types could use.
Now, this could be your chance to get that expert TechStars advice and the chance to pitch VCs to boot. How? Well, TechStars Seattle just opened applications for the class of 2010.
Whoa whoa whoa. What am I asking you to get yourself into? Well, I think it’s something pretty cool. And it could really help your startup make it to the next level.
TechStars is a mentorship-driven seed stage investment program. We run a three month long program in Boston (MA), Boulder (CO), and Seattle (WA) once each year. We’re very selective – hundreds of companies apply and we only take about ten companies per city. These companies get up to $18,000 in seed funding, three months of intensive top-notch mentorship, and the chance to pitch to angel investors and venture capitalists at the end of the program.
And while Boulder or Boston may have been a little out of the way, Seattle is just up the road. So now you have absolutely no excuse to prevent you from throwing your application on the pile.
Just remember. When you’re accepted and mentored and successfully pitching VCs and funded and big time, you’ll get to come on back to Portland to hang out with us and share your success—and provide some mentoring for some Portland startups yourself.
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@Jmartens would love to set something up!
Gabe- Chris and Rick are right, you should live pretty close to the location. We have had some founders commute from nearby and recommend to others to not do that.
I’m assuming the model is the same, an intensive immersive program session where you live, eat, and breathe your startup.
From the TechStars FAQs
Hi Gabe – the expectation is that every company in the program works together in the same space for the duration of the session. There’s a *ton* of informal interaction along the companies and mentors outside of scheduled demo times, and these informal interactions are arguably more important + valuable that the “official” get-togethers.
Assuming I were to get accepted, do you think it would work to live in Portland and commute to Seattle for TechStars events, meetups, etc..? Not sure how often participants actually need to meetup.
you know what might be cool….getting an event together before the application deadline to share best application practices, etc. In other words, help each other so that we increases the chances of getting a Portland company selected.
Not sure if it would be a conflict or no, but Andrew…would you be interested in hold a workshop some time in Portland? Give us some tips on what TechStars is looking for, things to do/not to do when applying, etc?
Thanks for spreading the work, Rick – we’re super-stoked about the role TechStars can play in bringing more talent, money and attention to the PNW startup scene and PDX is absolutely “in the family” as far as we’re concerned.
Would love to do some events in Portland too (have roots, love you, the town and the community).