📅 || UPCOMING EVENTS
The big one this week is another edition of Inside a Techstars Accelerator. The headliner for the event is Mac Conwell, who has a remarkable story of how he got into VC. Other sessions include “How To Get To Product-Market Fit”, “From Big Vision to Relentless Execution” and more on fundraising. You don’t want to miss this one. RSVP here.
On Wednesday, I’ll also be my favorite live-audio session, Mock Investor Interviews. Learn how to navigate the follow-up call with an investor, after doing a pitch or receiving an intro. This is a fun and useful way to know what to do, and what to avoid when you get to the meeting. Set a reminder here.
🚀 || STARTUP OF THE WEEK
If you haven’t attended a Stonks.com event yet, you’re missing out. Considered the ‘Home for Demo Days’, Stonks is putting on incredible showcases of startups, allowing the audience (who are allowed/accredited) to invest live. Techstars Anywhere just held there Demo Day there and received over 10M in commits, Google, Launchhouse, 500 Startups, and many more are too. BTW, earlier this year Stonks raised 16M led by a16z. Get your own fundraise started on their platform.
🛰️ || FEATURED INVESTOR
I know how rare it can be for my hard tech founders to find investors investing in hard tech - so I am doing a special shoutout to Jai Malik today. If you’re a founder focused on new computing, AI/ML, energy, transportation, or various stages of manufacturing, then Jai at Countdown Capital is a must-know. Read more here, follow him here, or send in your pitch here.
🧠 || PITCH PRACTICE
Memorize your pitch. You're going to say it at least 2,000 times for the life of the company. Don't read off a piece of paper, be sure to pause, feel free to weave in "ums" and "what I mean is" to make it sound natural… but memorize it. You should always have a 10-second, 42-second, and two-minute version ready to go.
🏢 || TALKING TECHSTARS
Throwback to the time Nike launched a Techstars accelerator! How cool is this?! Not sure if you know, but we’ve done accelerators with Microsoft, Barclays, Peloton, Amazon, Honda, and many other corporations too. Even Disney! All that to say, if you work in a big company, or know someone who does - and you think they’d be interested in launching a Techstars powered accelerator, please introduce me! Would love to help set it up.
🎓 || BOOK RECOMMENDATION
Written by my former colleague, and friend, The Student Startup Guide is a ton of real-world advice for students launching a startup in college. The book answers questions like: how to balance classes, how to prototype on campus, where to find free legal services, or even I should even drop out of college? I’m humbled to also add that there is a chapter I wrote in there. Check it out, buy it for a student friend or sibling, and let me know what you think!
💸 || TWEET OF THE WEEK
Coincidentally keeping to the theme of fundraising, my top tweet over the last two weeks was this question. Go read about fundraising, and it’s woes.
