Techstars

Reviewed Updated May 1, 2026

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Location New York, NY (HQ); operating in 27 cities across 9 countries
Founded 2006
Fund Size Multiple program funds + Techstars Ventures (size not publicly disclosed)
Website https://www.techstars.com
Stage Focus
pre-seed seed
Sector Focus
developer-tools fintech marketplace saas consumer hardware robotics ai infrastructure healthtech sustainability

Team

David Cohen Co-Founder & CEO
Brad Feld Co-Founder (also Managing Director, Foundry Group)

About

Techstars is a global pre-seed accelerator and venture firm founded in Boulder, Colorado on February 18, 2006 (incorporated November 2006) by David Cohen, Brad Feld, David Brown, and Jared Polis 123. The first cohort ran in summer 2007 in Boulder with roughly $200,000 of founder capital and a hand-recruited group of ~70 mentors 23. Techstars was named the world’s most active pre-seed investor by Crunchbase in 2023 2.

Each accepted company currently receives $220,000 in funding in exchange for 6% common stock equity, plus benefits and partner perks valued at over $4-5 million (AWS credits, legal services, etc.) 14. The standard accelerator program is a three-month “mentorship-driven” cohort, typically with 8-12 companies per class; acceptance rates run approximately 1-3% of applicants 145. Earlier in the firm’s history (2007), the program invested $6,000-$18,000 per company; the standard offer grew to $118,000 in the 2010s before reaching the current $220K/6% terms 1.

David Cohen served as CEO from 2006 to 2021, when Maëlle Gavet took the role and Cohen became board chairman 67. Gavet announced her resignation in May 2024 for health reasons, and Cohen returned to the CEO seat effective May 22, 2024 67. Under Gavet, several US accelerators (Austin, Toronto, Seattle, Boulder, Norway, Sweden) were closed and the HQ moved from Boulder to New York 68. After his return, Cohen reduced average cohort size, restarted Chicago, Boulder, and Atlanta accelerators, and announced a plan to invest in ~300 startups over 2025-2027 5.

As of mid-2025, Techstars reports having supported 11,000+ founders and invested in 4,000+ companies, with 22 unicorns in the portfolio and a combined valuation north of $200B 495. Notable alumni include Uber, Twilio, SendGrid, DigitalOcean, Remitly, Outreach, SalesLoft, ClassPass, PillPack, DataRobot, Chainalysis, Alloy, Zipline, Scopely, and Sphero 94.

Stated Thesis

(Self-reported.)

Techstars’ public framing is “mentorship-driven” pre-seed venture investing centered on “Give First” — helping founders without expecting anything in return 24. Cohen described the structural posture as: “We literally pitch Techstars as we’re like a co-founder in the business” 10. The current strategic mantra (post-2024 Cohen return) is “Bigger isn’t better. Better is better” — explicitly trading volume for selectivity, smaller cohorts, and stronger founder outcomes 511.

The firm operates as a generalist at the top level with vertical sub-accelerators (sustainability, fintech, healthcare, etc.) and brand partnerships (currently roughly 50 vertical networks and brand partnerships) layered underneath 54.

Inferred Thesis

Sample size: 4,000+ portfolio companies across 27 cities and 9 countries, 2007-2025 45. Pattern analysis below is qualitative; portfolio is too large and too varied to compute meaningful single-sector percentages without dedicated portfolio scraping.

Stage discipline: pre-seed by design. Techstars takes companies pre-revenue and (often) pre-product, writing $220K for 6% — one of the most aggressive pre-seed pricings in the market, comparable to Y Combinator’s structure (currently $500K via Standard Deal: $125K for 7% + $375K MFN SAFE) but at a smaller check size 1.

Geography: most geographically distributed accelerator network in venture. Active programs (as of 2025) include NYC, Boston, Chicago, Boulder, Atlanta, London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris, Dubai, Tokyo, and additional cities; the historical footprint has touched 40+ cities across 15+ countries 46.

Sector: generalist with sub-vertical concentration. The 22 publicly named unicorns include developer infra (SendGrid, Twilio, DigitalOcean), fintech (Remitly, Alloy, Chainalysis), SaaS (Outreach, SalesLoft, FullContact), marketplaces (Uber, ClassPass), healthcare/logistics (PillPack, Zipline), enterprise AI (DataRobot), gaming (Scopely), and robotics (Sphero/Orbotix) 911. The verticalized programs (energy/sustainability via Techstars Energy, fintech via Techstars Western Union, etc.) have produced concentrated cohorts within those domains.

The defining operational signature: “Mentor Magic.” Each cohort is matched with 50-100 operator mentors per program who give intensive time and feedback during the first month, then narrow to a few committed ongoing advisors 24. This is the durable competitive advantage Cohen and Feld have repeatedly emphasized publicly.

Portfolio

A complete list of Techstars’ 4,000+ portfolio companies is published at techstars.com. The table below names the 22 publicly identified unicorns and a handful of other widely cited alumni, with class year and accelerator location where verified.

Company Year Program Status Source
SendGrid 2009 Techstars Boulder IPO 2017; acq. Twilio 2019 (~$3B) 11
Uber 2009 Techstars Ventures angel round IPO 2019 (NYSE: UBER) 11
Twilio 2009 Techstars Ventures angel round IPO 2016 (NYSE: TWLO) 11
Sphero (Orbotix) 2010 Techstars Boulder Active 1112
Zipline (Romotive) 2011 Techstars Boulder Unicorn; active 11
Scopely 2011 Techstars Ventures Active 11
Outreach 2011 Techstars Seattle Unicorn; active 11
Remitly 2011 Techstars Seattle IPO 2021 (NASDAQ: RELY) 11
FullContact 2011 Techstars Boulder Active 4
DigitalOcean 2012 Techstars Boulder IPO 2021 (NYSE: DOCN) 11
ClassPass 2012 Techstars NYC Acq. Mindbody 2021 11
PillPack 2013 Techstars Boston Acq. Amazon 2018 (~$1B) 11
DataRobot 2013 Techstars Cloud (San Antonio) Unicorn; active 11
SalesLoft — Techstars portfolio Unicorn; acq. Vista Equity 2022 4
~unknown Chainalysis — Techstars portfolio Unicorn; active
~unknown Alloy — Techstars portfolio Unicorn; active
Bench Accounting — Techstars portfolio Restructured 2024-2025 1
Sketchfab — Techstars NYC Acq. Epic Games 2021 1

This table is a curated subset; Techstars maintains the full portfolio listing on its corporate site 4. The “first eleven Techstars unicorns” are documented in Cohen’s September 2020 retrospective and serve as the primary source for the 2009-2013 entries 11.

In Their Own Words

David Cohen on the firm’s posture (Mixergy):

“We literally pitch Techstars as we’re like a co-founder in the business.” 10

David Cohen on the 2024-2025 strategy (Techstars newsroom, June 3, 2025):

“Founders are our customers, and everyone else we work with is a partner.” 5

“Bigger isn’t better; better is better.” 5

“Progress comes from showing up consistently, living your values, and fixing what’s broken.” 5

“After 18 years, we are just getting started.” 5

David Cohen on Give First (davidgcohen.com, September 30, 2021):

“Give First is not about doing anything that will cause pain or stress to your business.” 13

Brad Feld, co-founder, on the give-before-you-get ethos (foundational source for Give First):

“Helping others without an expectation of what you are going to get back.” — Brad Feld, “Give Before You Get,” Feld Thoughts, January 2013 14

What Founders Say

No independently sourced founder testimonials of the quality this section requires were verified during this initial research pass. Techstars maintains testimonial content on its corporate site and across alumni LinkedIn posts; these were not independently sourced for this profile and are not reproduced as quotes. This section should be revisited.

Sources

  1. Wikipedia, “Techstars,” accessed May 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Techstars↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  2. Startup Grind, “The Techstars Story: How an Accelerator Used the Power of Giving to Conquer the World,” accessed May 2026. https://www.startupgrind.com/blog/the-techstars-story-how-an-accelerator-used-the-power-of-giving-and-conquered-the-world/↩↩↩↩↩

  3. Techstars blog, “Celebrating 20 Years of Techstars,” accessed May 2026. https://www.techstars.com/blog/innovation-in-action/celebrating-20-years-of-techstars↩↩

  4. Techstars, “About,” accessed May 2026. https://www.techstars.com/about↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  5. Techstars newsroom, “One Year Back as CEO: What We’ve Built, and Where We’re Headed,” June 3, 2025. https://www.techstars.com/newsroom/one-year-back-as-ceo↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  6. TechCrunch, “Techstars CEO Maëlle Gavet is out,” May 22, 2024. https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/22/techstars-ceo-maelle-gavet-is-out/↩↩↩↩

  7. Techstars newsroom, “David Cohen Returns as CEO of Techstars,” May 2024. https://www.techstars.com/newsroom/david-cohen-returns-as-ceo-of-techstars↩↩

  8. Colorado Sun, “Techstars moving HQ out of Colorado and ending its Boulder accelerator,” February 23, 2024. https://coloradosun.com/2024/02/23/techstars-moving-hq-out-of-colorado/↩

  9. Techstars blog, “Unicorns,” accessed May 2026. https://www.techstars.com/blog/unicorn↩↩↩

  10. Mixergy, “How TechStars Is Launching Startups Across The Country — With David Cohen,” accessed May 2026. https://mixergy.com/interviews/techstars-david-cohen/↩↩

  11. davidgcohen.com, “A review of the first eleven Techstars Unicorns,” September 19, 2020. https://davidgcohen.com/2020/09/19/a-review-of-the-first-eleven-techstars-unicorns/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  12. KoreaTechDesk, “Techstars David Cohen: The investor who believed in success of startups like Uber, Twilio, Sphero,” accessed May 2026. https://www.koreatechdesk.com/techstars-david-cohen-the-investor-who-believed-in-success-of-startups-like-uber-twilio-sphero/↩

  13. davidgcohen.com, “Give First… Build First… or Both?”, September 30, 2021. https://davidgcohen.com/2021/09/30/give-first-build-first-or-both/↩

  14. Feld Thoughts, “Give Before You Get,” January 2013. https://feld.com/archives/2013/01/give-before-you-get/↩