@March 20, 2024
Leaving Techstars
I left a post on LinkedIn the other day and wanted to expand some thoughts here. I recently left my post at Techstars after about 5 years of service. It’s rather bittersweet — I feel a tremendous amount of gratitude for the opportunity to have observed and contributed to such a cornerstone of the startup community but also recognised that it was time to move on.
Rearview
When I look back at my time at Techstars, I can’t help but be so incredibly impressed and proud of the work my team and I accomplished. We:
- Launched close to 100 new Accelerator programs across the world,
- Invested and graduated ~3000 new pre-seed companies (another 500 or so in seed/series A via the Ventures’ fund),
- Raised multiple institutional funds across Techstars Ventures, Accelerators, Advancing Cities, and special opportunity funds (SPVs),
- Crossed the $1B AUM mark,
- And brought in close to 10,000 new investors to the Techstars ecosystem
Infinite Gratitude
Obviously, none of this would’ve been possible without an incredible team — some, I had the privilege of convincing and hiring; others, I had the pleasure of partnering with from across the organisation. There are so many people I am grateful for. Biggest thanks goes to my senior leadership colleagues, Marie Moussavou, David Edwards, Bhavna Kumar, and Lauren Goglick; my team of investment managers, Katya Kohen, Diego Berrio, Ravid Chowdhury, Sebastien Grima, Fred Gray, and my portfolio capital formation professionals, Mike Fruzzetti, Taylor Pike, Eduard Steimle, Nandeet Mehta, and Ronan Roche. I’m particular impressed by the portfolio capital team — with its creation, we have helped raise an additional $200-300M for Techstars portfolio companies.
Additionally, I am forever grateful for the generousity of David Cohen, Nicole Glaros, Cody Simms, Jason Seats, Mark Solon, Sarah Bain, and Chelsea Rogers for the earlier years — while the Techstars investment engine has grown and evolved, I still remember the early days and the joys of the smaller team.
Finally, my biggest gratitude goes to the founders whom I was able to work and partner with. Working with founders is truly what makes investing as rewarding and interesting of a profession.
Team offsite, Feb 2023
What’s next?
By far the most common question I’ve gotten in the past few weeks. I’m not sure yet. This is the first time in my professional career where I’ve been able to take a break and I’d like to take advantage of that — catch up on some reading, reconnect with friends, and see what the next adventure is. I have a few ideas on a startup and a couple on funds… stay tuned.