Techstars recently announced "Accelerators 2.0" — a strategic shift concentrating on major markets like San Francisco and New York while pulling back from cities like Seattle, Boulder, and Chicago.
I spent five years at Techstars, and the organization I left looks fundamentally different from the one I joined. When I started, the firm ran on a "city funds" model where individual accelerator managing directors raised local capital. Since then, Techstars built institutional funds, expanded from 30 to 50 programs globally, and crossed $1 billion in AUM.
There's a nostalgic pull toward the earlier, smaller Techstars. I had significantly more direct interactions with our founders back then, and I was available when they needed me most. But here's the thing: what got us here won't move us forward.
Maintaining high-quality local community engagement while building a global platform is, as a colleague put it, very difficult — dare I say impossible — to pull off at a global scale.
I'm optimistic about what comes next. Emerging investors and community leaders will fill the gaps left by Techstars' pivot, potentially serving local ecosystems even more effectively. Venture capital is inherently about calculated risks, and I don't think the possibility of failure should be disqualifying.
If this strategy works, it could empower tens of thousands of new entrepreneurs and innovators. That's worth swinging for.