Techstars Atlanta 2021

#domorefaster

The best startup advice from experienced founders...one real-world lesson at a time.

Hey y'all!

I'm doing something a little different this year.

Instead of announcing my travel schedule to meet founders for my next Techstars class on Medium (like 2019 & 2020), I'm announcing it here...my personal blog.

For those who have subscribed to my blog for years, thanks for giving me a little leeway with this post - it's not my usual content. As you come across great founders over the next few months, please send them my way --> dave.payne@techstars.com.

If you aren't familiar with Techstars Atlanta or my work, please read on...

Techstars Atlanta is the only global accelerator south of NYC and east of Austin that doesn't have a vertical focus.

This means that we can accept startups from any geography and from any vertical.

Due to our placement on the map, we tend to focus our recruiting efforts on the American South, but we aren't bound by geography - 40% of the last class was based outside of the Southeast.

What's the right stage for startups to consider Techstars Atlanta? Of the fifty startups that have gone through Techstars Atlanta, here are a few data points...

Total capital raised prior to the program - $0 to $2 million.
Annual revenue prior to the program - $0 to $1 million.
Maturity of product prior to the program - Pre-product to fully-featured product.

But these are just data points.

What we focus on above all else...

Tenacious founders with unique insights

(regardless of traction, industry or location)

Each year for the past two years we've visited over a dozen Southeast cities and met with 1,000 founders to get down to a final class of 10 startups (here are the 2019 & 2020 classes).

Since the state of the world is a bit different right now, we are kicking off...

The Techstars Atlanta 2021 Virtual Southeast Tour

Each week for the next few months we'll meet with investors, super connectors & founders in all of the major Southeast cities, but instead of in-person meetings we'll virtually "visit" each city by having all of our virtual meetings for that city during the same week.

While Zoom calls aren't the same as sitting together at a local coffeehouse, this year we can "visit" 19 Southeast startup hubs...more than any previous years.

And, for the Atlanta startup community, I'll be hosting Techstars Atlanta Open Office Hours every Friday afternoon from 2:30 to 4 pm ET for anyone who wants to discuss what they are building in Atlanta. You can book time with me for those here.

2021 will be the sixth year that Techstars Atlanta has been running an accelerator in Atlanta. We now have a critical mass of mentors, investors & founders to help your startup make a year's worth of progress in just three months.

And btw...Atlanta is on fire right now (tweet courtesy of @RomeenSheth)...

Silvrback blog image

So please browse around the Techstars website to learn more about Techstars and browse around my blog to get a sense of my philosophy.

You can also hear directly from founders here, here, here & here.

Then I'd love to talk --> dave.payne@techstars.com

And when you are ready to apply, you can find the application here.

The Techstars Atlanta 2021 Virtual Southeast Tour

The best way to learn about Techstars and get into our program is to engage with us over the next few months. The best way to do this is to join a group session and/or setup a time to talk 1:1. To do that, please click on the links below.

Chattanooga, Tennessee
January 4th - 8th

--> Product-market fit workshop & Techstars Overview virtual group session is on January 7th from 12:30 pm to 1:15 pm ET. Register here.