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More About This Title Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup
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TechStars is a mentorship-driven startup accelerator with operations in three U.S. cities. Once a year in each city, it funds about ten Internet startups with a small amount of capital and surrounds them with around fifty top Internet entrepreneurs and investors. Historically, about seventy-five percent of the companies that go through TechStars raise a meaningful amount of angel or venture capital. Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup is a collection of advice that comes from individuals who have passed through, or are part of, this proven program. Each vignette is an exploration of information often heard during the TechStars program and provides practical insights into early stage entrepreneurship.
- Contains seven sections, each focusing on a major theme within the TechStars program, including idea and vision, fundraising, legal and structure, and work/life balance
- Created by two highly regarded experts in the world of early stage investing
- Essays in each section come from the experienced author team as well as TechStar mentors, entrepreneurs, and founders of companies
While you'll ultimately have to make your own decisions about what's right for your business, Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup can get your entrepreneurial endeavor headed in the right direction.
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David Cohen is the founder and CEO of TechStars. He previously founded and successfully exited several companies and is now an angel investor in over 100 Internet startups.
BRAD FELD is a managing director of Foundry Group, an early stage venture capital firm. He has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur for over twenty-five years.
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Preface.
About TechStars.
Theme 1: Idea and Vision.
Trust Me, Your Idea IsWorthless.
StartWith Your Passion.
Look for the Pain.
Get Feedback Early.
Usage Is Like Oxygen for Ideas.
Forget the Kitchen Sink.
Find That One Thing They Love.
Don't Plan. Prototype!
You Never Need Another Original Idea.
Get It Out There.
Avoid Tunnel Vision.
Focus.
Iterate Again.
Fail Fast.
Pull the PlugWhen You KnowIt's Time.
Theme 2: People.
Don't Go It Alone.
Avoid Co-Founder Conflict.
Hire People Better than You.
If You Can Quit, You Should.
Build a Balanced Team.
Startups Seek Friends.
Engage Great Mentors.
Define Your Culture.
Two Strikes and You Are Out.
Karma Matters.
Be Open to Randomness.
Theme 3: Execution.
Do More Faster.
Assume that You'reWrong.
Make Decisions Quickly.
It's Just Data.
Use Your Head, then Trust Your Gut.
Progress Equals Validated Learning.
The Plural of Anecdote Is Not Data.
Don't Suck at E-Mail.
UseWhat's Free.
Be Tiny Until You Shouldn't Be.
Don't Celebrate theWrong Things.
Be Specific.
Learn from Your Failures.
Quality over Quantity.
Have a Bias Toward Action.
Do or Do Not, There Is No Try.
Theme 4: Product.
Don'’t Wait Until You Are Proud of Your Product.
Find Your Whitespace.
Focus on What Matters.
Obsess over Metrics.
Avoid Distractions.
Know Your Customer.
Beware the Big Companies.
Throw Things Away.
Pivot.
Theme 5: Fundraising.
You Don’t Have to Raise Money.
There's More than OneWay to Raise Money.
Don't Forget about Bootstrapping.
Beware of Angel InvestorsWho Aren't.
Seed Investors Care about Three Things.
Practice Like You Play.
If YouWant Money, Ask for Advice.
Show, Don't Tell.
Turn the Knife after You Stick It in.
Don’t Overoptimize on Valuations.
Get Help with Your Term Sheet.
Focus on the First One-Third.
Theme 6: Legal and Structure.
Form the Company Early.
Choose the Right Company Structure.
Default to Delaware.
Lawyers Don't Have to Be Expensive.
Vesting Is Good for You.
Your Brother-in-Law Is Probably Not the Right Corporate Lawyer.
To 83(b) or Not to 83(b), There Is No Question.
Theme 7: Work–Life Balance.
DiscoverWork–Life Balance.
Practice Your Passion.
Follow Your Heart.
TurnWork into Play.
Get Out from behind Your Computer.
Stay Healthy.
Get Away from It All.
The Evolution of TechStars.
What Motivated Me to Start TechStars?
Why TechStars Started in Boulder.
How TechStars Came to Boston.
How TechStars Came to Seattle.
So YouWant to Start TechStars in Your City?
Appendix: The TechStars Companies.
About the Authors.
Acknowledgments.
Index.
