There was a time where there were two Techstars programs in the Pacific Northwest. And they were both firsts. Techstars Seattle was the first “West Coast” instantiation of the Techstars network — and the third program behind Boulder and Boston — and the first ever “powered by Techstars” program with Nike, here in Portland. Now, there are none. Techstars has made the decision to sunset the Seattle program.
Techstars Seattle, one of the first accelerators to emerge from the Techstars program and a longstanding institution within Seattle’s tech ecosystem, is shutting down.
Techstars will focus on markets “with the most robust venture capital communities,” according to a memo sent Wednesday by Techstars Seattle, obtained independently by GeekWire.
“We’ve found that entrepreneurs want to attend accelerators in the most robust venture ecosystems with the greatest access to venture dollars and talent, surrounded by other startups, and where they are most likely to succeed, which is why Techstars is refocusing its footprint to those hubs with the highest concentration of VC activity,” the spokesperson said in a statement that GeekWire shared.
Long-time Techstars Seattle managing director Chris DeVore shared a post containing his thoughts on the news, as well as some commentary on how this came to pass. It’s well worth the read. To wit:
We were saddened, but not completely surprised, by the recent string of bad news coming from Techstars’ Boulder headquarters. Headcount reductions and executive departures aren’t exactly news as we unwind 15 years of zero interest rates and the many asset bubbles those policies helped to inflate.
But we were caught off guard by the decision, announced just today, to cancel the flagship Seattle Techstars program. Not just because we created and led it for many years, but because Techstars Seattle is also the source of many of Techstars’ most successful and celebrated successes; Seattle program alumni like Remitly, Outreach and Zipline are regularly held up as evidence that Techstars can produce billion-dollar outcomes for both founders and investors, something that has happened less and less often in recent years.
For more information, read Chris’ blog post and the GeekWire post.
