Jeffrey Donenfeld

Tag: techstars

  • Leading the Montreal StartupFest 2019 “Startup Accelerator Communities” Roundtable Discussion

    Leading the Montreal StartupFest 2019 “Startup Accelerator Communities” Roundtable Discussion

    At Montreal StartupFest 2019, I led a roundtable discussion on Building Startup Accelerator Communities, accompanied by industry colleague Tariq Haddadin of Techstars. Thanks to the StartupFest team for putting on a solid event!

    Discussion Notes: Montreal StartupFest 2019 – Building Startup Accelerator Communities Roundtable Discussion

    Led by Jeffrey Donenfeld of Boomtown Accelerators and Tariq Haddadin of Techstars

    Opening

    • Accelerator model and Accelerators Networks

    Round table

    • Local vs global networks
    • Startup partners (AWS, Google for Entrepreneur, etc.)
    • How your accelerator can be a part of the network and a catalyst for corporates
    • You are building a social network for your accelerator but more importantly for your companies and founders and alumni
    • GAN
    • Building a network for your accelerator (pipeline, investors, etc.)
    • How to use corporate relationships with accelerators to apply their network to your accelerator companies + alumni
    • Benefits of creating a global network of partners
    • Community events

    Managing founder<>Mentor relationships and setting expectations – do staff manage mentors or do you setup separate person for managing these relationships?

    • Asking questions rather than doing work. (Bob, Innova Corp)
    • Educating mentors on how to mentor effectively (Tariq) and setting up initial Mentor Madness meeting
    • Weekly update emails from Mentors on what they can do
    • (David F)Building mentors network through tiers. Give first and divide of giving vs selling (Jeffrey)
    • Hybrid local/remote mode (Alex Reid ) zoom meetings and quarterly reviews,  planned meetings – tech to engage folks
    • Mentor company vs mentor entrepreneur – mentor the person for longterm (robert)

    Connecting accelerators around the world

    • Look for synergies of founders for prioritizing connections (tariq)
    • GAN (Jeffrey)
    • Build local network first
    • Used to enhance dealflow synergies (jeffrey)

    Using network to build investor relationships

    • Rise of pre-venture community
    • Seattle angel conference, rockies venture club

    Corporate Accelerators

    • Corporate resources that an accelerator can’t necessarily provide (tariq) pushing give first
    • Learning how to deal with corporations (jeffrey)
    • (Vivek (loreal)) – do boomtown/techstars compete on comcast – find unique strengths for each program


    https://twitter.com/Jeffzilla/status/1148729065538383872
    https://twitter.com/Jeffzilla/status/1148684776653692928

  • Movers in the Rapidly Changing Startup World

    Movers in the Rapidly Changing Startup World

    These days in the tech scene, startups are everywhere – new companies developing new products or services, trying to make it to the bigtime. It seems like every week there’s a whole new host of companies out there. To stay updated on the landscape, here are a few resources I frequently look at:

    Startup Accelerators and Incubators I Pay Attention To:

    • Techstars – “TechStars provides seed funding from over 75 top venture capital firms and angel investors who are vested in the success of your startup, as well as intense mentorship from hundreds of the best entrepreneurs in the world.”
    • Y Combinator – “Y Combinator runs two three-month funding cycles a year, one from January through March and one from June through August. We ask the founders of each startup we fund to move to the Bay Area for the duration of their cycle, during which we work intensively with them to get the company into the best shape possible. Each cycle culminates in an event called Demo Day, at which the startups present to an audience that now includes most of the world’s top startup investors.”
    • Sequoia Capital – “Sequoia Capital is a venture capital firm founded by Don Valentine in 1972. The Wall Street Journal has called Sequoia Capital “one of the highest-caliber venture firms” and noted that it is “one of Silicon Valley’s most influential venture-capital firms”. It invests between $100,000 and $1 million in seed stage, between $1 million and $10 million in early stage, and between $10 million and $100 million in growth stage.” – Crunchbase. Of note – Sequoia’s tips on writing a compelling business plan.
    • i/o Ventures – “i/o ventures is an early stage startup program that focuses heavily on mentorship. We work closely with founders from product launch through the next stage of company development, sharing what has proven to work for product scaling, revenue growth and fund raising.”
    Co-Working
    • We Work – “WeWork is revolutionizing the traditional definition of work place by providing a collaborative and creative environment where innovative businesses and individuals can flourish. We provide all the basics, so you can focus your efforts on getting the job done.”
    • General Assembly – “General Assembly is a campus for technology, design, and entrepreneurship. We provide educational programming, space, and support to facilitate collaborative practices and learning opportunities across a community inspired by the entrepreneurial experience.”
    • The Summit SF – “The Summit presents an artisan approach to modern café culture; featuring Blue Bottle Coffee, offering craft beers and local wines, and serving conceptually creative cuisine – democratically priced. As a gathering place for like-minds, The Summit also functions as an art space called Peek Gallery, celebrating the connoisseur as curator and craft as art. … Located in the unique I/O Ventures incubation space, The Summit is home to 40+ telecommuters and numerous startups, which receive mentorship and funding from leaders in the tech industry. I/O Ventures is backed by the founders of seminal tech companies: MySpace, BitTorrent, etc. The Summit is their public living room.”

     Startup News and Support

    • Startup Threads – “Startup Threads is a merchandising service for startups. We want to make it easy for you to get the merchandise you need, so you can focus on the rest of your business. Let us know what ways we can serve you and we’ll do the work to make it happen.”
    • Startup Digest – “StartupDigest publishes the best articles, videos, and weekly event digests in 81 cities all around the world. Each digest is curated by a collective force of over 100 curators who are all founders, investors, or hackers themselves.”