David Cohen Keynote
Presenter: David Cohen
David Cohen is the founder and CEO of TechStars. Previously, David was a founder of several software and web technology companies. He was the founder and CTO of Pinpoint Technologies which was acquired by ZOLL Medical Corporation (NASDAQ: ZOLL) in 1999. You can read about it in No Vision, All Drive [Amazon]. David was also the founder and CEO of earFeeder.com, a music service which was sold to SonicSwap.com in 2006. He also had what he likes to think of as a "graceful failure" in between.
David is a active startup advocate, advisor, board member, and technology advisor who comments on these topics on his blog at DavidGCohen.com. He recently co-authored Do More Faster with Brad Feld. He is also very active at the University of Colorado, serving as a member of the Board of Advisors of the Computer Science Department, the Entrepreneurial Advisory Board at Silicon Flatirons, and the Board of Advisors of the Deming Center Venture Fund. He is a member of the selection committee for Venture Capital in the Rockies, and runs the Colorado chapter of the Open Angel Forum. His hobbies are technology, software/web startups, business history, and tennis. He is married to the coolest girl he's ever met and has three amazing kids who always seem to be teaching him something new.
A summary of 12 chapters of his "Do More Faster" book.
Not planning on taking tons of notes.
- Venture Capital ($80M, lots of companies)
- Sounds like YCombinator
- Tips on what they've learned
- Stuff about TechStars
TODO
- Developers are the new investor
- They pick where they want to work. They decide where their talent goes, and who benefits from it
- TechStars is growing, and not just young folk
- TechStars is a mentorship
- TechStars had a reality show (wow!)
- Do More Faster
- Should be from the community
- 12 Tips:
12. Trust me, your idea is worthless - Tim Ferriss
- Everyone has tried to convince others of something
- 5 things they care about: team, team, team, market,
- Turn work into Play - Howard Lindzon
- If you're not doing something you love, change it.
- "Do or Do Not" - Brad Feld
- It's a frame of mind.
- Be determined
- "We will raise 1 million dollars" vs "We're in the market for 1 million in investment"
- "Be Tiny Until You Shouldn't Be" - Jeff Powers
- Occipital wanted to raise a bit of money, but then decided to stay tiny
- Bootstraped company themselves, and built the company on app
- "Look for the Pain" - Isaac Sandana
- "Avoid tunnel vision" - Bijan Sebet
- "Engage Great Mentors" - Emily Olson
- How do you find them? Everyone in this room.
- Everyone is an expert in something
- "Assume that you're wrong" - Howard Diamond
- "I'm wrong and need to get data to prove I'm right"
- "Be open to randomness" - David Cohen
- Initial funding for TechStars came from VC having "random days"
- Meet with anyone for 15 minutes
- "Show, Don't Tell" - Brad Feld
- Your product speaks more than your words
- Show the thing, don't talk
- "Quality over Quantity" - Andy Smith
- "Usage is like Oxygen for ideas" - Matt Mullenweg
