Business Incubator Series: Interview With Ken Kousky, CEO, MidMichigan Innovation Center, Midland, Michigan (Part 1)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

I am talking to Ken Kousky, CEO of MidMichigan Innovation Center, which is a privately funded, nonprofit organization working to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses in central Michigan. MMIC operates a 112,000 square foot business incubator with significant support from The Dow Chemical Company. The center operates with minimal staff and uses resources from around the region to create collaborative partnerships for the benefit of its tenants, virtual members, and aspiring entrepreneurs. >>>

Business Incubator Series: An Interview With David Cohen, Founder And CEO, Startup Accelerator TechStars – Boulder, Colorado (Part 7)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: Do you have any special initiatives at the moment?

David: We just launched the TechStars network, which is based on massive inbound demand for programs around the world that wanted to use this deep mentorship and community model.

We essentially just open-sourced TechStars, and we call it the TechStars Network. Over the past few years, I’ve been on probably about 100 phone calls with groups that were trying to do something like we had done, in their city. I’ve tried to be helpful. We’ve given them budgets. We’ve given them legal documents. We’ve given them our results. >>>

Business Incubator Series: An Interview With David Cohen, Founder And CEO, Startup Accelerator TechStars – Boulder, Colorado (Part 6)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

David: TechStars has a long-term view – a 20-year view. It’s not just about what these [entrepreneurs] do in their first companies. It’s about what the founders do after that.

Rob Johnson [of EventVue] is now in a high-level position at Gnip, a company in Boulder that’s doing quite well.

His co-founder, Josh Fraser, has partnered on a new company with one of the founders of IntenseDebate, which is the one that was sold to WordPress, and is doing a company called Torbit. They’re doing great. They’ll have some interesting stuff soon to announce.

You see the recombination of things. EventVue did a great job of blogging what they learned from the company and sharing it with the broader community. What they got were new opportunities back from that community. I think they’ll both be great entrepreneurs over the long term. >>>

Business Incubator Series: An Interview With David Cohen, Founder And CEO, Startup Accelerator TechStars – Boulder, Colorado (Part 5)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

David: One of the things that is I think unique about TechStars is our incentive structure. We are like a co-founder. So, the pitch to the entrepreneur is, If you could have a co-founder for 6 percent of your common stock who had this sort of network and this sort of access to capital, would you do it? That’s what we are. TechStars takes common stock. >>>

Business Incubator Series: An Interview With Paul Bragiel, Managing Partner, i/o Ventures, San Francisco, California (Part 2)

By guest author Irina Patterson and Mridula Velagapudi

Irina: What are the core benefits to entrepreneurs that you bring to the table?

Paul: My three partners have all started businesses that you know, and in total there are hundreds of millions of users. We started companies that did quite well, and [with i/o Ventures], we are sitting down and giving a lot of personal attention to the companies we work with.

We give them an amazing office space to work out of, and most important, we also bring in the best angels and mentors we know and get entrepreneurs access to people from YouTube, Yelp, Digg, and so on. They are all our personal friends, and they will come and hang out at our companies. >>>

Business Incubator Series: An Interview With David Cohen, Founder And CEO, Startup Accelerator TechStars – Boulder, Colorado (Part 3)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: What are your mentors’ relationships with the companies? Is there compensation involved?

David: No. No compensation. Many of them will go on to be investors or advisors long term. That’s the natural outcome. At the start of the program, the mentors work for free. The reason they do this is that they want their entrepreneurial ecosystem to be better. >>>

Business Incubator Series: An Interview With David Cohen, Founder And CEO, Startup Accelerator TechStars – Boulder, Colorado (Part 2)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: How many companies have you incubated?

David: We’ve now done 81 companies. We’ve operated for four years in Boulder, two years in Boston, one year in Seattle, and it’s our first year in New York. We’re not expanding anymore. If you add all those up, about 10 per class, you get to 81 as the current number. >>>

Business Incubator Series: An Interview With David Cohen, Founder And CEO, Startup Accelerator TechStars – Boulder, Colorado (Part 1)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

I am talking to David Cohen, the founder and CEO of TechStars.

Irina: Hi, David. Let’s start with a brief overview.

David: I’m the founder and CEO of TechStars, which is a mentorship-driven startup accelerator for Internet companies. Tech Stars funds 10 companies at a time in each of four cities each year. The cities are New York, Boston, Seattle, and Boulder. The mentorship program is three months long. At the end of the program, the companies get to pitch their ideas to investors. About 70 percent of the companies go on to raise outside capital after the program. >>>