On March 10^th, we visited Dave Cohen [ Twitter ] at Techstars. He gave us a lot of insight into why the founders chose Boulder and why he decided to stay. Techstars started in Boulder in 2007 and is a mentor-driven approach for an accelerator. This is a very highly selective program, with only a 1% acceptance rate. It is a 3-month (90 day) program and they provide the business with seed money to get them started. For Techstars, when they meet the founding team, they want to know the source of their passion, not necessarily the idea. Also, their moddo is “team, team, team, market, process, and idea.” Idea is only thrown into the mix at the end to emphasis idea is the lowest priority in their selection criteria. This just shows Boulder’s character and mindset towards the community and entrepreneurs.

Techstars started when the the founders got together in a pizza shop to pick a place to go. They literally wrote their votes on a napkin and then came to visit Boulder and fell in love with it.

For Dave, he really liked the feel of the small town and the community. Dave has a very long-term view to help the startup community in Boulder, and is choosing to stay to fulfill that. Through Techstars and various other activities, Dave has been very active in the community and with other entrepreneurs to promote confidence in their ideas and to “act like what you want to become.”