
Announcing the TechStars Network - ssclafani
http://www.techstars.org/2011/01/31/announcing-the-techstars-network/
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monkeyboy
Their page title advertises Techstars as the "#1 Startup Accelerator in the
World." I'm not sure what metric they are using, but that seems a bit
disingenuous.

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pclark
Computer Scientists count from 0? :)

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elliottcarlson
[gripe]

Why do people think the highlighter type functionality is a good idea? I, as
well as quite a few people I know, tend to highlight as we read to make it
easy to read text in contrast and keep our place within a page...

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100k
I do that too. Double clicking on web page text is sort of a nervous tick for
me. On sites like the New York Times (and now TechStars, apparently) odd
things happen when you highlight.

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ecuzzillo
_Pioneered_ by TechStars? Really?

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staunch
There's also this gem in their title _"Funding and Mentorship from the #1
Startup Accelerator in the World"_

From the organization that blatantly copied Y Combinator, the #1 accelerator.

Somebody has an inferiority complex.

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vnchr
And Founder Institute wins on quantity

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jsb
My company is participating in the current AlphaLab (Pittsburgh) cycle.
Although we're still learning all the details about what being in the Network
will mean for us, I can't imagine that this will be nothing but good for us,
our company and the AlphaLab program as a whole.

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sjs382
Great to hear AlphaLab is part of this. I've considered applying to the
AlphaLab program before, but timing has always been an issue for me. Hopefully
next time around! :)

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jsb
Nice! Definitely do it. We've been so thrilled to be part of the program. I'd
be happy to answer any questions or meet up sometime to talk about our
experiences so far. Email's in the profile.

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sjs382
Whats your startup?

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jsb
Since you asked... check it out! <http://www.deliriumapps.com>

(Shameless plug) We're looking for beta testers soon - ideally, you have an
iPhone and use Highrise and/or LinkedIn a lot

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pchristensen
I'm really enjoying the arms race between YC and TS. This is as fun as
watching the browser wars, or Android vs iPhone, or Windows vs Mac vs Linux.
Competition is driving everyone to be better.

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sgk284
I suspect from the outside it looks like an arms race, but as a TS founder
from Seattle '10, it is not uncommon for TS/YC founders to hang out, give each
other discounts (or free services), and otherwise be generally helpful. It's
never really felt competitive. We're all just trying to succeed (and help each
other along the way).

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pchristensen
Entirely tongue in cheek. I can't think of two more generous, internally
driven group of people than the YC team and the TS team.

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edw519
I am a great admirer of TechStars and I think their book _Do More Faster_ was
great, but frankly this scares me a little.

When government contributes money (our money!) or fosters an environment in
which we can blossom, great. When they try to do much else, not so great. I
have trouble understanding how government resources can replicate the
contributions of people who have actually done it, ie Techstars or yc.

Entrepreneurship is something that is done and shared, not talked about or
theorized upon. I sure hope Techstars influence can find a way to harness
these resources without having the pontificators fuck it up. Good luck with
that.

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cjoh
Government isn't contributing any money here. Government is serving as a
catalyst, organizer, and a validator.

See: <http://www.startupamericapartnership.org/faqs>

In fact, the TechStars network is a membership based network of independently
owned incubators. So you can look at Government as having this dialogue with
TechStars:

Gov: Hey, Techstars, we want to create more jobs. We think what you've done is
interesting. We'd love for you do do something with our new project
StartUpAmerica. We got a bunch of people involved. You in?

TechStars: Sure, sounds interesting, what can we do?

Gov: What do you think you should do-- how could you be the most impactful
here?

TechStars: Well, we could create a network to help create more techstars like
organizations, and have them working together.

Gov: Sounds good. We'll put you on the website.

TechStars: k cool.

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gyardley
Right, that's what the parent is worried about - not the money part, the
catalyst, organizer, and validator part. As he said, _When government
contributes money [...] great._

The TechStars Network sounds fine and all, but I really don't understand why
it'd hitch itself to the broader governmental initiative, which on first
glance looks both bureaucratic and problematic.

For example, I read over on TechCrunch that Cass Sunstein is leading the
associated regulatory review. That's like asking Bernie Madoff to supervise
financial reform - the only thing I want from people like Sunstein is for them
to be distracted elsewhere.

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jmtame
"Strengthen commercialization of the about $148 billion in annual federally-
funded research and development, which can generate innovative startups and
entirely new industries;"

i'm curious what exactly they're planning to do there. would they be funding
the VCs already involved in university research commercialization, or are they
going directly to the research groups?

