Techstars Foundercon 2020
Wednesday, July 29, 2020
Breaking Down Gender Bias in Entrepreneurship
One set of barriers to increased entrepreneurship is the underrepresentation of women entrepreneurs. With women half as likely to become entrepreneurs compared to their male counterparts, the world economy is missing out on potential innovation and economic growth. Join us to learn about the gender biases that exist in entrepreneurship and the workplace and what can be done to help decrease the obstacles women entrepreneurs are facing.
Invitation to Founders: Holding the VC Community Accountable to Funding More Diverse Entrepreneurs
A few Black and Latinx Techstars Alumni are building a public coalition of founders to hold the VC community accountable to funding more diverse entrepreneurs in light of the conversation around racial inequity. Join the conversation to learn more about how to take action against racism and be a part of this movement.
Real Talk: Investor-Founder-Mentor Relationships
Where do most founders go wrong? Where do most investors go wrong? It’s all about how they build relationships. But what does it actually mean to build a relationship for fundraising? In this talk we will discuss how to successfully build long term business relationships and how that applies to fundraising and network building. As a group of seasoned fundraisers, we are going to dig into the bolts and nuts of what healthy founder-investor-mentor relationships and conversations look like overtime, as well as, discuss some of the challenges in the fundraising landscape. From congress, to building new funds for underserved regions, or building platforms to democratize fundraising, this group of speakers is dedicated to making fundraising more accessible and straightforward and will undoubtedly be sharing some gems!
Visit Zoom link above at time of event.
The Art of the Pivot
Everyone knows the adage that "all startups pivot," but how do you navigate it? How do you know when the time is right? What's the right way to pull it off? How do pivots play out? Hear about pivoting from Techstars founders who have successfully done it before.
Icebreaker Networking - Hosted by John Hill
Grab a coffee or drink of choice and join us for some fun catching up with the legend, John Hill, and the Techstars network! We'll be using Icebreaker, where you can meet other founders directly and share conversation topics.
When you're ready, join us here: https://icebreaker.video/events/XMnyI5KvdxbyQmQJqb76
Building Your Company Remote First
How do you build a company with remote employees from the very beginning? We'll talk with four Techstars Anywhere founders at different stages who are doing just that. We will discuss hiring, onboarding, culture, processes, challenges and benefits. If you've recently gone remote or are considering making the move to remote join us for this panel discussion.
Business as a Force for Good: Fireside Chat with Sameer Dholakia of Twilio Sendgrid
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Join us for a fireside chat with Sameer Dholaki, CEO of Twilio Sendgrid, where we sit down to chat about being a force for good through business. Sameer took Sendgrid public in 2017 and feels strongly that giving back is both the right thing and smart thing for companies to do. Learn from a CEOs personal experience with boards and tips on how to get it through.
We will be chatting about how to embed giving back into the DNA of your company and why setting aside equity is both a smart and right thing to do (now more than ever). This session will be focusing on helping founders better understand why/how to set aside equity as well as the models, tools, resources available to help them.
Fundraising as a Black Founder
Stories and discussion from Black Founders and CEOs on what it takes to raise capital as a black founder in a system that is stacked against you.
How To Navigate Co-Founder Relationships
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Research shows that 65% of companies fail due to team issues. Hear from founding teams that have navigated change and growth, and come out stronger.
This event will be held on Zoom, visit the Stream link above at time of event.
Thursday, July 30, 2020
Startup Communities: Discussion and AMA with Brad Feld
Join us for a live discussion with Brad Feld, co-founder of Techstars and partner at Foundry Group. Brad is also co-author of the new book, The Startup Community Way: Evolving an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem. In this new book, Brad explores what makes startup communities thrive and how to improve collaboration in these rapidly evolving, complex environments. Founders are the building block to startup communities around the world, and we need founders to grow innovation in regions around the world.
Join Brad to learn how Techstars founders and network can get involved in their local ecosystems and help move communities forward.
How to Navigate your Business in Uncertain Times as a Female Entrepreneur
Emerging evidence on the impact of COVID-19 suggests clearly that women’s economic and productive lives will be affected disproportionately and differently from men. Hilla Brenner and founders will provide strategies on how to cope with the challenges posed by this crisis.
Raising Capital in Uncertain Times
Given the current pandemic and looming recession, what have been some of the best approaches to raising capital during volatile times? Hear from Techstars founders on what's working right now.
What About Me as a Cofounder in the Long Term!?
The “CEO role” is somewhat easy to understand as the company grows: focus on fundraising, hiring good executives, and strategy. However, as a cofounder, we are wearing many different hats. What does this mean in the long term?
Startup Mergers & Acquisitions
Are you thinking about an exit in the next 12-24 months? Perhaps you want to create more strategic opportunities for your business and options for the future. Through a conversation that will cover standard strategic deal workflows and stories from founders who have successfully navigated an exit, learn how to prepare, where to begin, and what to avoid.
What I Wished I Knew Before Shutting My Company Down
Shutting down a company sucks. What sucks more? Fear of the unknown. The most common outcome for a startup is the shutdown or wind down. Yet it's rarely talked about. Learn lessons from the founder, investor, and legal point of view.
What Life is Like 5 Years After My Techstars Program
Natty Zola will revisit founders from previous classes to discuss what life looks like for them five years after they started their Techstars journey.
Keynote: Fireside Chat with Katica Roy of Pipeline Equity
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Katica Roy is a gender economist and the CEO and founder of Denver-based Pipeline, an award-winning SaaS company that leverages artificial intelligence to identify and drive economic gains through gender equity. Pipeline launched the first gender equity app on Salesforce's AppExchange. The Pipeline platform was named one of TIME Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2019 and Fast Company’s 2020 World’s Most Innovative Companies.
In 2017 Katica was named a Luminary by the Colorado Technology, in 2018 a Colorado Governors' Fellow, in 2019 a Top 25 Most Powerful Woman in Business and a Stevie Entrepreneur of the Year, Gold Award and in 2020, the Colorado Entrepreneur of the Year. She is also an industry entrepreneur, thought-leader, and frequent editorial contributor and speaker. Katica’s articles have been published by World Economic Forum, NBC, Fast Company, Forbes, Bloomberg, Huffington Post, Entrepreneur, The Hill, The Advocate, Salesforce, and Morning Consult. In 2019, her articles garnered over 1B impressions.
How to Get Started: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in the Workplace
Join us for an amazing panel where we will be discussing how you as an entrepreneur and leader can start your journey to implementing values and foundation that create a just, equitable and inclusive workplace. Diversity, equity and inclusion is not just the smart thing to do, it is also the right thing to do.
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