10 Tips From a Techstars Alum to Make the Most of Your Program
It’s been a year since my co-founder Matt and I walked into the beautiful Cox Enterprises/Techstars office located on the top floor of the stylish Ponce City Market in Midtown Atlanta. I remember the buzz of entrepreneurs hauling in 27" Thunderbolt Displays in our respective company t-shirts and feeling like it was the first day of summer camp — the excitement marred with the groggy realization that you didn’t get enough sleep the night before. After months of contemplating whether Techstars was right for our company, all the while pressing forward with an elite selection process, the relationship building with our amazing MDs and planning for rapid growth had our engines pumping and ready to move faster than our minds could function.
What would come of the next 12 weeks was career altering for us. You enter Techstars with a plan for your product, but you leave Techstars with far more. The obvious perks are there: great leadership, access to an amazing network, guidance and fine tooth grooming of your company strategy. What I didn’t realize were the intrinsic values derived from being submerged in an environment of elite talent: the refinement of your personal skills, the family of like-minded individuals, the assistance of premier talent not on your payroll, and the iron sharpens iron effect of friendly competition.
I had heard from Alumni that I would miss the experience and to soak it up. That’s never been more real for me than it is today. So with that, here are ten tips for Techstars founders to maximize your experience:
1. Introduce Yourself
Entrepreneurs are competitive. You’ll likely show up with your guard up wanting to prove you belong there, and if you’re introverted, a mass room of strangers sharing a workspace could be awkward and intimidating. Remember that every person in your class is smart and there for a reason. You’re going to be living with these people for the next 12 weeks and will be experiencing the same trials together. No one outside of that room will fully understand these trials better than those in it. Stop and realize that you are surrounded by brilliance and can learn from those who are better than you at certain things. This experience is like Quora in the flesh. So whatever it takes, get to know each founder on a personal level and support them. That whole #GiveFirst thing isn’t a campy hashtag, it’s a battle tested mantra. Dive in and run with it — you’ll feel the benefits right away.
Suggestion: Get coffee each morning with a different founder to learn their story and strengths. Identify potential ways you might be able to augment their skills with your strengths.
2. Get Uncomfortable Fast, and Stay Uncomfortable
Prepare for information and task overload. When we showed up at Techstars, we were a team of 2 (we left Techstars with a team of 7), Matt and I were quickly overwhelmed and inundated with tasks. Welcome to the world of trying to run a business while also trying to leverage every last drop of value Techstars brings (and it’s a ton). Remind yourself that its a process, that Founders before you felt the same thing, and that Techstars is a machine that can help you become more efficient. Don’t lose sight of what’s most important for your business, keep your company goals top of mind and attack those with the support of the program. Most of all, stay uncomfortable. You have nothing to gain by hiding your vulnerabilities. Flip that on its head and let your insecurities drive your progress. Every company/founder is dealing with their own areas of weakness — address yours.
3. Prepare for the Madness
Mentor Madness is … well … madness. While it’s easily the coolest thing about the program, the matching process will consume you and set you back if you don’t take the recommended efficient approach. If your team is small, divide and conquer. This is speed dating, don’t talk about the weather, get to know each other fast. Do your research the night before on each mentor, lay out your goals, get right to the point of deriving value from the conversation. Mentors are freaking angelic. They donate their time and network (donate, as in, for free), to be ambassadors for your mission, to open doors, to guide you, and to accelerate you towards your vision. Treat the Mentors well, you could be meeting someone that will forever be in your life as a deeply meaningful relationship.
4. Prepare Yourself for Intro Offers
So here’s where the wheels came off for us. When I thought of meeting with 100 Mentors in two weeks, and ending up with 4–6 that we were matched with, I never accounted for the realization that Mentors you aren’t matched with are still every bit as interested in helping your business (did I mention that Mentors are angelic?).
You go through Mentor Madness and every night you research the next batch of Mentors you’ll be meeting with the next day, to set a plan for each conversation, meanwhile you also are immediately following up with each of the 10 Mentors you met with that day, oh and you have a company to run and were just AFK for 6 hours. Fast forward to day 4 of 10 and you now are realizing the power of the network, you have intro offers to connect you to really freaking amazing people, but you’re 3 days in the hole on intros and follow-ups. Emails and emails, great things upon great things happening, and you’re only in week 2. Breathe.
Set a plan for these intros, your Mentors will appreciate you not half-heartedly asking for them to make a connection that you’re currently feeling ill-equipped to follow through on. Go back to your company goals and ask yourself: where are we going, who helps us get there, when could I use this intro? Set expectations and schedule yourself for success, if you don’t you’ll quickly find yourself buried with unrealistic expectations that are humanly impossible to keep up with.
5. Don’t Overthink Your Elevator Pitch
As part of Mentor Madness, you’ll be asked to have your elevator pitch nailed to quickly jumpstart each meeting. There are other advantages to this exercise, namely that you have this down (you obviously should) and it’s a precursor for Demo Day which is much longer and much more polished.
I laugh when I think of my initial approach to mastering our elevator pitch. If you asked me to tell you what we did in 30 sec, I was golden. If you asked me to recite our elevator pitch, I sounded like that kid in the video above. I put an unnecessary mental blocker on myself. I was so uneasy about wanting to impress the MDs and show how ready I was, that I couldn’t get past the first five words.
Relax. You love what you do, it excites you — tell the story. Others can help you trim the fat and back it down to easy-to-understand terms, but ultimately that should make your life easier.
Don’t do what I did and have the expectation that each tiny word has to be rehearsed, focus on the “theme” of each sentence (i.e. what am I explaining in this sentence?).
6. Identify Allies
One of my favorite things about Techstars was the synergy formed with members in the cohort on a number of topics both personal and professional. I was going through a fundraise and could compare notes with another founder. I was wanting to switch our stack to ReactJS and had a resident expert there to help guide us. We got advice to upgrade our branding to Ellie (Vlipsy’s awesome elephant mascot) and were introduced to a crazy talented artist to bring her to life by a fellow founder. We found a critical key hire by talking to guest speakers after a Wednesday night Dinner/Founder Story.
This single point could form a list a mile long. By the end of the program there were friendships for everything. And, you leave program with those strong ties to help each other through your careers.
7. Founder Coaching is Legit — Leverage It
We had 6 amazing sessions with Founder Coaches — don’t call them therapists. I found this to be an incredibly valuable aspect to the program. It allowed me to optimize my daily and weekly life. I was able to discover techniques that would enhance my productivity and save me stress. To this day, I still have notes from those sessions on the whiteboard to the left of my desk and continue to optimize each week with tips from my coaches.
You’d be foolish to not try to actively extract every bit of info from these sessions. Lower your guard, admit what you suck at, and follow through on the notes of what to try between sessions. In six half-hour conversations, you can level up how effective you are every day moving forward.
8. Founder Stories are Can’t Miss
Every Wednesday prior to KPIs, we’d have family dinner and listen to a Founder Story. These are not only entertaining and insightful, they’re adrenaline to the entrepreneur’s dreaming mind. You hear highs and lows, and can apply so much from these into the culture and goals for yourself and your team. You have the opportunity to interact with and learn from elite talent. Not giving these your full attention would be like showing up to a concert and leaving before the headliner.
9. Demo Day is More Than the Show
For some programs, you’ll spend the last month preparing for Demo Day in a way you’ve never prepared for anything. This month is an exercise in reaching your full potential as an entrepreneur in storytelling and preparation. In a word, it’s grueling. It’s also fascinating and runs you through an actual process for public speaking, leadership, and becoming your company’s brand.
I’ve never prepared as much for anything as I did for Demo Day, and now a year later I feel with proper preparation the confidence to take on any speaking gig.
Start fast and go all in on Demo Day preparation. The faster you shape your pitch deck, the faster you can receive feedback and hone your story, work on your quirky mannerisms, and get on to memorizing the damn thing. If you’re not uncomfortable yet, you will be by this month.
10. Have Fun. Make Friends.
Enjoy the ride. I will care just as much about the success of my fellow alum as I do my own. You will meet incredible people, build relationships, and have continual support for the rest of your career.
Welcome to the family.
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