Venture With Mo #001: David Cohen on investing globally, the history of Techstars, the culture of give first, building startup communities and the future of early-stage investing

Venture With Mo

English - November 13, 2020 10:21 - 27 minutes - 15.5 MB
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Next Episode: Venture With Mo #002: Christopher Aw on how venture funds work, opportunities in South East Asia, liquidity events, advice to angel investors, and how to select a fund

Episode Overview

We kick off this journey with none other than the renowned David Cohen, where we discuss:

Investing Globally

What it means to build startup communities

The history of Techstars

Techstars Anywhere and remote programs

Lessons learned creating a community of entrepreneurs

Give first, the culture of paying it forward

The future of early-stage investing

About David

David Cohen is the Founder and Managing Partner at Techstars, the worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed. David has been an entrepreneur and investor for his entire life. He has only had one job interview in his career, successfully got that job but then quit shortly thereafter to start his first company. Since then, he has founded several companies and has invested in hundreds of startups such as Uber, Twilio, SendGrid, Pillpack, Classpass, and FullContact. In total, these investments have gone on to create more than $100B in value.

Prior to Techstars, David was a co-founder of Pinpoint Technologies which was acquired by ZOLL Medical Corporation (NASDAQ: ZOLL) in 1999. You can read about it in No Vision, All Drive. Later, David was the founder and CEO of earFeeder, a music service that was sold to SonicSwap. He also had what he likes to think of as a “graceful failure” in between.

David is the co-author (with Brad Feld) of Do More Faster; Techstars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup. David also enjoys reading non-fiction books and playing 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. You can find David tweeting at @davidcohen and blogging on the web at DavidGCohen.com.

About Techstars

Techstars is the worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed. Since 2006, Techstars has invested in more than 2,200 companies that today have a combined market cap valuation of more than $29 billion.

Resources
Techstars: https://www.techstars.com/

GiveFirst Podcast: https://givefirst.techstars.com/

Brad Feld: https://twitter.com/bfeld

Moisey Uretsky: https://twitter.com/moiseyuretsky

Digital Ocean: https://www.digitalocean.com/

Startup communities: https://www.amazon.com/Startup-Communities-Building-Entrepreneurial-Ecosystem/dp/1531886035

From good to great: https://www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Some-Companies-Others-ebook/dp/B0058DRUV6

Do More Faster: Techstars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup: https://www.amazon.com/Do-More-Faster-Techstars-Accelerate/dp/1119583284/

No Vision All Drive: What I Learned from My First Company: https://www.amazon.com/Vision-All-Drive-Execution-Techstars/dp/1119632803/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=no+vision+all+drive&qid=1568093211&s=books&sr=1-1

Connect With David
Web: https://davidgcohen.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidgcohen/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidcohen