TechStars Loves NY!

This morning we announced that TechStars is opening it’s 4th (and final) program in New York. As readers of this blog know, I’m a huge fan and supporter of TechStars (and, along with my Foundry partners, an individual investor each of the TechStars programs in Boulder, Boston, Seattle and now New York City).

For those unfamiliar with the program, TechStars is a mentor driven accelerator for start-ups. Founded in Boulder and now running programs in Boston and Seattle, New York will be the final US city to which we take the program (we feel the model of having non-overlapping terms is the best way to maximize the success of each city program). Working with TechStars companies for me has been an absolute blast. The teams bring an energy and enthusiasm that is infectious and the progress that they are able to make over a 3 month period is nothing short of amazing.

The New York program continues the tradition of bringing together promising startups with an unbelievable list of mentors (who really make the program). New York mentors include people like Alex Blum of KickApps, David Karp of Tumblr, Eric Litman of Medialets, Howard Lindzon of StockTwits, Avner Ronen of Boxee as well as investors Dave McClure, Fred Wilson, Roger Ehrenberg, Brad Burnham, Jeff Clavier and others.  The New York program will be run by David Tisch – a well known local entrepreneur and angel investor. TechStars founder David Cohen will be temporarily moving to New York to manage the program along side of Tisch. It’s the access to these mentors and the time and energy that they put into the program that really make the experience a worthwhile one for the companies involved.

Our goal with each of the TechStars programs is to have a significant portion of the funding from the local community. The people and firms that are participating with us in investing in the New York program include well known local venture firms and angel investors (FirstMark, First Round Capital, DFJ Gotham, AOL, IA, RRE, Village Ventures, Social Leverage, and more). Many will be participating as mentors as well as investors.

It’s an exciting day for TechStars and for the New York tech community. Applications for the New York program are now open – check it out!