The TechStars office, sitting below street level in downtown Boulder, is affectionately referred to as “the Bunker” by those working inside. With its open floor plan and cheerful aesthetics the actual space belies the nickname, yet there is a garrison aspect to the organization as a whole, where the public watches as young startups begin the summer as relative innocents and exit the thirteen week program with the confidence and scar tissue of veterans. To gain some insight on this entrepreneurial metamorphosis RockyRadar spoke with Micah Baldwin, mentor to the program and VP of Business Development for Lijit Networks. Baldwin, a nationally recognized speaker on the subjects of startups and digital identity, provided perspectives on the practical, romantic, and hidden drivers that position each TechStars company for potential success.
In beginning, Baldwin sought to clear up a common misconception about the program and the mentors: “TechStars is not just about connectors, and how connectors can connect [a TechStars team to customers, partners, or funding sources].” Introductions and networking do take place, but for Baldwin the practical value of TechStars pivots on the work flow, captured regularly in a one hour meeting among Baldwin, Jason Mendelson (mentor and Managing Director at the Foundry Group), and the team they are coaching, The Next Big Sound. During these meetings the team reviews their activity for the last seven days and offers a plan for the next week. According to Baldwin, who has been actively involved in TechStars for the last two years, “at the end of an hour they have a clear vision of what they should be doing… the teams that are successful are the ones who make dramatic improvements every seven days.” While seemingly straightforward, Baldwin believes the outcome and output from these meetings hinge on two factors: The ideas and enthusiasm the team brings to the table and “whether Jason is motivated to get out of his chair and draw on the white board” – with the former serving as a key driver of the latter. It is through the marriage of creativity and experience, or entrepreneurial zeal and hard-won wisdom, that the group collectively decides how the team will deploy their precious hours and leapfrog rather than making incremental steps forward. “The difference with TechStars is that the mentors are about providing guidance on a continual basis. We are about making sure the companies are good enough so when there are connections, the connections are real.”
For Baldwin, the TechStars mentor/team relationship is an exercise in the Socratic Method, or “learning through asking guided questions. Good mentors steer a team toward a path and then let them figure it out on their own.” In this regard, he doesn’t believe TechStars is an incubator so much as “a Masters program in startups.” The difference between these two ideas is the degree to which teams are able to draw from the different management styles of a hundred different program mentors: “Most incubator programs tend to reflect its founders. But TechStars is not entirely about [Executive Director] David Cohen. Instead, it reflects the community in which it lives.” It was through this organic process that Mendelson, a lifelong musician, found his way to connect with The Next Big Sound, a web company that allows users to play music mogul, listening to and promoting unsigned bands. Baldwin chose the startup based upon his respect for individual members of the team. Each of the other nine 2009 classmates has similarly connected with a mentor or two, be it through personality or industry overlap.
Baldwin, who has pondered the subject of community extensively on his personal blog, believes the underlying culture of a given geography would likely have a huge impact on replicating the magic he’s witnessed in the Bunker. “In many ways, I think TechStars can only exist in Boulder. Here we excel in cooperative competition, where we are highly competitive but we’re just not cutthroat.” When asked about the debut of TechStars Boston, Baldwin is quick to clarify: he has yet to visit the Boston program, but expects it will “reflect Boston’s entrepreneurial spirit,” and will likely attract and graduate mentors and companies better suited to the East Coast style. For Baldwin, however, it seems clear that if TechStars has a secret sauce the recipe begins with a very specific Colorado zip code.
