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With 18 programs worldwide, and an alumni list of successful companies in the hundreds, getting your company into Techstars is likely to give your business the boost it needs to get to the next level. Since fewer than one percent of companies that apply actually get in, it’s best to be as prepared as you possibly can be during the application process, as well as know exactly what to expect.
Applications for the Fall 2015 class in Chicago are open, and with the final deadline of April 30 fast approaching, it’s time to get rolling. Two Techstars alums, as well as Managing Director Troy Henikoff, gave us their advice and tips for going through the program.
Laser-focus on the problem
What problem is your company solving? It’s one of the most fundamental questions you’ll have to answer, but it’s also one of the most important ones you’ll end up having to defend over and over. Desiree Vargas Wrigley, CEO of GiveForward, is a 2010 graduate of Techstars (then Excelerate Labs) and she emphasized being able to hone in on that one thing and do it really well.
“It was the first time we had to consistently say what we did in an easy to understand way over and over again,” Vargas Wrigley said. “We knew it could be confusing to explain every idea we’d ever had, so by keeping conversations on our one focus, it allowed us to demonstrate our mission better.”
Identify your market opportunity
Techstars isn’t for those companies in the idea phase. Managing Director of Techstars Chicago Troy Henikoff emphasized that companies should be farther along in their process. “We’re looking for companies that have proven product market fit, that have demonstrated some traction in what they’re doing,” Henikoff said. “We’re not looking for ideas, we’re looking for companies.”
Prove how you’re getting revenue and customers
Once you’ve identified that opportunity, you need to be able to prove how you’ll generate revenue and how you’ll get and keep customers. “It’s better for you to come prepared and know the numbers of your business,” Tangiblee founder and 2014 class alum Eliad Inbar said. “You have to be able to defend every assumption you’ve made.”
It’s all about the connections
Three months may not seem like much time to make strides with your startup, but a lot of the value is in the connections you make. “When you are in Techstars you become part of the Techstars network for life, even if this company fails,” Henikoff said. “That network contains over 550 companies over 2,000 mentors and over 1,500 investors. It’s the world’s largest interconnected network of entrepreneurs investors and mentors.”
Be prepared to learn from your peers
You’ll gain an incredible amount of value from mentor and investor connections, but you also may learn a surprising amount from your peers. Vargas Wrigley explained that other companies in the program often asked questions or had pain points she hadn’t thought of, which helped her to anticipate issues.
Answer all the questions — and don’t slack on the video
Two, one-minute videos don't seem like much time to present your business, but this part of the application process is incredibly important.
“The first thing I do is watch the videos,” Henikoff said. “The best ones are 59 seconds and they’re meaningful. That’s your opportunity to communicate about the people and about the product. It’s not about high production quality, it’s about high communication quality.”
“Put effort into making it stand out,” Inbar said. “They’re betting on your team. They can’t know this early if you’re going to succeed, so you want to make sure you explain clearly not just the business, but how your team is so good.”
It may just be that extra push you need
“It’s really the best decision we’ve ever made,” Inbar said. “Especially being from Israel, it accelerated every aspect of the business. It accelerated our relationships with mentors, our understanding of marketing and sales, and how we understand product.”
Vargas Wrigley echoed that sentiment, explaining how instrumental Techstars was in obtaining later funding. One of Wrigley’s mentors became her first angel investor, which she said led to many of the other angels that invested in that round. “As a first-time founder, there’s so much that you don’t know that you don't know. When you go through an incubator like Techstars that has seen so many companies come through, some succeed and some fail, they really have a great recipe for what you need to know at this stage of your business and how to push you in the direction that makes the most sense. For us it was a gamechanger. We would not be anywhere near where we are right now if it wasn’t for Techstars."
“It’s a really hard three months. It’s really, really intense," Henikoff said. "You have to be willing to put in the effort, but if you put in the effort, you’ll get out 10 times what you put in.”
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