

Announcing TechStars Austin - dandrewsen
http://www.techstars.com/announcing-techstars-austin/

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OldSchool
Anybody else seeing the technology startup business creeping ever-closer to
emulating an American Idol mentality? The "startup" seems to be getting
smaller and smaller. These are more like paid internships than "funding."

What is really going on here is some people with access to money and zero new
ideas throwing micro stuff at the wall to see what sticks. The best advice I
ever received was "don't take on investment if you don't need it." This
message consistently from a wide variety of successful people then running
anything from Angel-funded companies to post-IPO NASDAQ listings.

~~~
seats
"don't take money unless you need it" is not an unusual bit of advice inside
of TechStars either. One of the top companies in the last TS Cloud class is
bootstrapped and on fire - <http://drifty.com>

They could have raised tons of money but don't need to. Most mentors steered
them toward growing their business financing free.

Another way to look at seed stage investors is not that they are sprinkling
their money everywhere hoping something works but instead that the limiting
resource is they don't have enough time to pursue all their ideas and want to
back people who are working on things that align.

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aashaykumar92
TechStars really seems to be going for breadth, but I guess each location only
has a class of about 12 startups per cycle.

One thing that irks me about TS is that there are different managing directors
for each location...I mean there has to be given the number of locations TS is
now at, but it makes me question whether or not there is even a 'TechStars'
culture that exists throughout the programs or if each city operates
individually and do things differently from others.

I promise I'm not trying to criticize TS, it's just a thought that came to my
mind when I saw that they had opened another location.

~~~
btrautsc
It feels more like their franchising. Find a local incubator/ seed/ VC
opportunity with good local roots, and brand a program there for 3 months. It
benefits both sides, TS portfolio grows and the local shop gets a big nod of
legitimacy from outside their market.

It adds momentum to the local scene, expands their portfolio with minimal
costs, and hasn't seemed to drastically water down their image. Or maybe it
has - I'm not quite sure... There are many times I would have loved to go
through TechStars, but I feel that the key benefit of the program is the
networking & 'friction' with other great entrepreneurs & the top VCs, I'm not
so sure how it will keep scaling without degrading those key aspects. As in, I
imagine it was easy to get the most high profile mentors or VCs to Boulder or
NYC once/ twice a year. Now, they're supposed to hit up like 7+ programs?
Different demo days...

~~~
saryant
I'm not sure I'd call it franchising.

Even with the recent TechStars Cloud class in San Antonio, about as non-
startup a city as you can find, the program didn't seem to have any trouble
attracting mentors and VCs. Demo day was packed with VCs from around the
country and AFAIK a lot of the companies from the latest batch have had no
trouble raising seed.

(I'm not a TS alum, but I work out of the coworking space TS uses in San
Antonio)

~~~
btrautsc
Point taken, maybe the wrong term/ my lack of specific knowledge.

My personal thoughts though are in this industry (and this side of it), a huge
advantage to TS & YC is relational. I'm not sure how well or how long
relational scales.

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mkrecny
I did TechStars as a 'HackStar' in NYC in 2011. It was a great experience
where I ended up joining one of the portfolio companies full-time for the next
2 years. Originally I had applied as a solo-founder and was rejected on the
basis that solo-founders can't handle the emotional roller-coaster of doing a
startup.

Fast forward 3 years and I'm now a successful solo-founder and am launching an
incubator for individuals this Summer in NYC check out: <http://microha.us>.

~~~
orangethirty
How does free office space help develop a business?

~~~
mkrecny
Seriously?

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orangethirty
Yes, I am serious. I want to know how having an office space helps a business.
More so a tech startup. I'm not being pedantic, just genuinely curious and
interested.

~~~
chiph
Because the milk steamer at Starbucks is loud as shit.

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resu_nimda
Went to check out the application page, was greeted with a Sign Up modal (what
the hell is f6s?) that would absolutely not go away unless I signed in with
Facebook or LinkedIn (not going to dig into console hijinks for this). I just
wanted to look at the application. You can technically read it behind the
modal, but still. Getting really tired of these aggressive in-your-face Sign
Up tactics.

edit: Ok, the console fix is really easy, but I feel like I shouldn't have to
resort to that.

~~~
seats
Good feedback, thanks we'll modify.

We are using social sign up for applying, but you should have to click through
that to just see the application.

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seats
Late to the thread, sorry.

Jason Seats here, I'm running the Austin program and ran the last 2 TS Cloud
programs. Also co-founded slicehost and helped build Rackspace Cloud.

Happy to answer any questions here. Will also hit some of the existing
questions in thread.

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wikiburner
I don't know, I think PG's quote about TechStars here:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lcp0uZsY7k> @ 9:00

probably tells you everything you need to know.

~~~
seats
I'm replying to this comment on a forum that PG built, so he deserves the
courtesy of me being in his house.

Also I'll say that he was a phenomenal inspiration to Matt Tanase and me when
we started Slicehost. I've learned so much from his writing. The guy is a
giant. I had the great pleasure of meeting him one time at the YC office on a
random Rackspace visit that I tagged along on and I considered it to be a
'bucket list' item.

That being said, YC just has a different strategy than we do. And in addition
when you are talking about the act of creation there really aren't limiters,
so the net-net is that they can kick ass and we can too.

The most important point on the topic to me is the one he made at 9:30- "even
though we've funded a lot of startups it's still only a small percentage of
the total number of startups".

There is a lot of work out there to do on building great businesses. Given
historical evidence, not all of it is going to originate from Mountain View.

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reustle
A lot of tech is moving into Austin. I was just there for 2 months after being
in NYC for 2 years. Anyone going down from SF or NYC will be disappointed with
the public transportation.

~~~
chiph
To get around in Austin you use either a bicycle or a car/truck. There is bus
service, and a one-track commuter rail link, but if your expectation is
something like the connectivity of NYC then you will be sorely disappointed.

Personally, I'm holding out for the city to build sky gondolas.

~~~
reustle
I laughed the first time I heard the sky gondolas idea. I doubt it will ever
take off. Yes, having a car is just about required in Austin, I tried the bus
and it wasn't so great.

I would love to see them add more rail lines though.

