Why Techstars #GiveFirst Died – Mentors Be Aware
This week, Techstars announced its new strategy, including closing the City Programs in Seattle and Boulder (etc) and moving their headquarters from Colorado to NYC. The announcements were well covered here in GeekWire, and a TLDR response from Chris DeVore, the current Techstars’ CEO responded here that criticized the DeVore blog as a “hit piece,” where my perspective as an outsider is that it was really just a history perspective.
Though the City Programs died this week, the Techstars #GiveFirst ethos died a long time ago… it’s just now being buried. That’s why I’m updating my LinkedIn profile with an end date as an All-Star Mentor for Techstars. However, I know new mentors will fill the gap of my exit, and TS won’t miss a beat as they hold onto a historical narrative of #GiveFirst and “supporting the community” that no longer applies.
BTW, #GiveFirst still applies in the community – just not as a TS value.
For background, I started as a mentor for the Seattle program in 2010, having been a five-time founder supporting the Seattle Ecosystem. I joined Startup Weekend in 2013. TS designated me an All-Star mentor a few years ago.
Our team sold Startup Weekend to Techstars in 2015. It was going to be part of their community development and give-back strategy. Sadly, it lost nearly all its momentum during COVID-19 – no in-person events during a pandemic, who knew!
In the early days, Techstars asked local mentors to support their local startup ecosystem with a #GiveFirst calling card. It was aligned with the founders at Techstars, and though we all knew Techstars would (and should) make $$ on our work, we were supporting the community. We wanted to give back, and mentoring was a good way to do so. As mentors, we were encouraged and allowed to invest in some of those early cohorts. We had a chance to have some “skin in the game,” even as small investors for cash and contributions of our time.
Then, way before the current CEO took over, that small portion of mentor investment was no longer available; that small equity stake was reallocated to TS corporate. It quietly disappeared as a new wave of mentors supported the next wave of growth and didn’t even know.
City programs also started recruiting startups from outside the region. Again, an excellent strategy to find the best startups you can recruit to your program. But, with minor exceptions, everyone knew they would return to their home cities after the program. So, “giving to support the ecosystem” and creating local jobs shifted away with that strategy as well.
When you slowly shift away from the community, the community no longer feels connected. Corporate Innovation pays the bills, and obviously, large corporate sponsors become the customers. Supporting the community was moved aside, but stayed on the narrative talk track as a legacy value.
Do corporations have a soul? I don’t think so (and don’t think they should). But it’s particularly true when the founders leave the company. Institutions go through drift as they grow. I appreciate the strategic choices a new CEO must make to grow the business, and sometimes, that means abandoning your past for a better/different future. Values will also change.
So Mentors:
If you’re supporting the startups great! Or if it’s good for your brand, perfect. But don’t be a mentor because of the #GiveFirst or community narrative; that’s a legacy value that won’t be unpacked with the moving boxes.
TS: One request: don’t ask your future mentors to #GiveFirst if they are just unpaid vendors. As you re-align your corporate strategy, make sure to align compensation to pay the people who support your portfolio. You’ve shifted from supporting communities to engaging with the communities with the most active investor ecosystems. One strategy contributes to the ecosystem, and the other extracts from the ecosystem. Seattle will be fine, so will the other cities.
Finally, if you’d like to spin out Startup Weekend… let me know, I know some people. It was a grassroots community program that won’t thrive in a corporate environment. That’s where the community is different – it is the customer.
2 Comments
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Martha Young
It had to be said and you said it so well: Seattle will be fine, so will the other cities.
Your writing has captured your witticism: If you’re supporting the startups great! Or if it’s good for your brand, perfect. But don’t be a mentor because of the #GiveFirst or community narrative; that’s a legacy value that won’t be unpacked with the moving boxes.
Marvelous last paragraph. Well said, Dave.
Gary Malcolm
Thanks for the context and appreciate the ‘real’ take away.