Once in a blue moon I fall in love with a person the moment I meet them. Usually, as in the case of David Cohen, founder of TechStars and all around starter kind of guy, it’s innocuous and blooms over a cup of coffee. We met at the very first Startup Weekend and I watched in amazement as he wrote more than 100 blog posts in a 72-hour period and still managed to be friendly and encouraging, sweating very little. We met a few days later to talk about TechStars, women in tech and the Boulder scene. This conversation reveals just a snippet of what this prolific entrepreneur and mentor has to offer.

Well, hello! What’s going on for you today? Trying to wrap TechStars things up? [note to readers: TechStars is a summer program.]

Yes, we’re getting there. Our big day is a week from Thursday.

Awesome. What’s going to happen then?

That’s our investor and demo day. About 100 VCs and angels, plus top media will be present to hear our ten teams pitch their ideas and demo their products.

I wish I could be there! For those people just hearing about TechStars, can you tell us what it is in a nutshell? How did the idea occur to you?

Sure. TechStars is a mentorship driven investment fund. We provide a small amount of seed capital to ten companies each summer. During the summer, we provide them with a “bootcamp” for startups where they learn from about 50 top serial entrepreneurs in a very focused way. We selected our ten teams from more than 300 teams that applied. As far as how we came up with the idea - the background is really that I was doing angel investment here in Colorado and learned quickly that those companies who have great mentors early on seem to do the best. I coupled that with my love of the Boulder community and of early stage tech startups, and there you go - TechStars was born.

So mentors. That’s one way to succeed as a startup (or at least get some footing in a fast paced world). What are some other ways startups get good grounding?

Well, finding people who’ve been there and have done that is the key. There are amazing people out there who love to help, so you have to find them. I think the other real key is to get your product out there and listen to your users. Release early and often, as they say. You learn a ton from just iterating while you’re young.

What’s the breakdown for gender and age?

Well, the average age of our 26 founders (for these ten companies) is somewhere around 25. We have great diversity in all areas except for gender. As you probably know, only about 1% of all web startups have female founders. We received only 7 applications out of more than 300 that involved a female. This was the case despite our efforts with organizations such as NCWIT who really tried to help get the word out to women. We want to do better here, but we refuse to sort for it.

Where are the Women, David?!

That’s always the question, Gwen.

Ha ha, I know. Well, you’re reaching (at least ten of) them in this interview. Do they need encouragement? Are they out there but just didn’t know about TechStars? Have you gotten any feedback from women about why they wouldn’t do TechStars for one summer?

Well, we asked that question of some local female entrepreneurs who did not apply. There was some talk about TechStars looking like a “boys club” early on. About 90% of the mentors in the program are men. But we have some amazing mentors such as Wendy Lea, Lucy Sanders, and Lee Kennedy. We actually took this feedback early on and really balanced the imagery on TechStars.org with an eye towards this. But I think the core of the problem is just that women are not starting IT companies as much as we’d all like to see.

Any speculation as to why that might be the case?

Well, NCWIT has published some tremendous studies on their site on this topic.
There is some thought that as an overall percentage, women simply don’t have the intense desire to take huge risks in their careers like this. Obviously, we all know many who have and who do. I would refer your readers to NCWIT to read those studies. I found them fascinating.

I just finished up BlogHer in Chicago, as you know. I saw a lot of talented, eager faces. Women are marketing themselves as tech savvy. So you would say it’s fear that may be holding them back?

No. Not at all. I just think that a much smaller percentage choose the path. It is still a bit of a mystery. Certainly, if anyone reading this has feedback on why women may not want to apply to something like this, I hope they contact me. I’m easy to find.

For sure. Well, let’s see how it pans out next year, now that the word is definitely out there and we’ve seen a lot of the fledgling companies begin to grow wings. What are the major pitfalls of launching a company over a weekend or summer? What are the benefits, as you’ve seen both of these events unfold?

I’ll take those questions independently.

Trying to launch a startup in a weekend with 80 people is hard. Nearly impossible in fact. I knew this before Startup Weekend, because I’ve been studying startups for a long time, at least in the tech space. The number one cause of failure for a startup is failure of the team. The team just blows up. Now the team didn’t blow up at the first Startup Weekend, per se. But certainly the team did not self organize efficiently.

As for doing it in the summer - we view these startups as just going down a path. This is just the beginning for them all, we hope. We hope to provide a strong foundation that they can use for the future. That includes the network, the advice, and the connections. It’s normally impossible as a first time entrepreneur without strong network connections to gain access to the kinds of people or resources a program like TechStars can provide. So that’s a huge benefit for our teams.

Any advice to those reading this at home and wondering how they can launch a startup of their own?

Yes! Put on your Nikes and just do it. There will never be a better time than now. Go find great mentors, and get your product in the hands of as many smart people as you can. Then listen, react, and repeat.

Awesome. A quick final question for you. I know you’re a hardcore blogger, as was evident from your 100+ posts (what was the final count?) at Startup Weekend. Do you think blogging is dead?

I think it was around 105 posts. I had no idea I had written that many. No, I don’t think blogging is dead - I think it’s an important part of the ecosystem on the net. But I do think that only 20,000 or so blogs really matter today. Those blogs all have very high quality content, are regularly updated, and include original intellectual thought. Not including mine, obviously.

Any final points or ideas you want to get out there into the world on another one of those non-consequential blogs?

Heh. Did I say 20,000. I meant 200,000.

Sure. Go start a company or join one that’s doing something cool and different. The heart of this country is innovation. Women bring a tremendous perspective to startups that we’d like to see more of on the web.

Thank you for the call to action, David!

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Readers, thanks for tuning in. Stay tuned for future episodes of Gwen Talks with Remarkable People. If you’re interested in becoming a part of TechStars, I can’t recommend it highly enough. Some of my best friends and mentors in Boulder have associations with this project that promises to grow each year.