Techstars Boulder & welcoming Shay

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I’m sitting in Avanti, adjacent to the Boulder Theater, hiding in a back corner because I can’t seem to get a quiet, undisturbed spot to write this post. Downtown Boulder is filled with Techstars people here for Foundercon: alumni, executives, staff, mentors, and previous managing directors. I can’t walk 5 feet without seeing someone I haven’t seen in years. On Monday, over 30 ex-Managing Directors, unofficially called Techstars Mafia but officially called the Techstars MD Emeritus, gathered to share tips and help each other grow our funds (most of us run funds now, with a few operators and 2 bankers). It feels like déjà vu. With David Cohen back as CEO, hopeful, cautious optimism is the shared sentiment, with a sprinkling of other complex emotions for this org that we all loved. Love. 

At the center of the optimism for me is the relaunch of the Techstars program in Boulder I’m thrilled to share that we’ve found that leader: Shay Har-Noy is joining as Managing Partner of Techstars Boulder.

Shay (pronounced shy, but he’s definitely not shy) has raised capital, built teams from scratch, scaled products to millions of users, and experienced both the highs and lows of startup life. As Managing Partner of Techstars Boulder, he’s focused on helping founders navigate those same challenges — from finding product–market fit to building resilient teams to scaling without losing their edge. He brings both deep operating experience and strong ties across the startup ecosystem, here in Colorado and globally.

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Joining Matchstick

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I have some news.

After two years of soul-searching, experimentation, and saying no to everything, I’m finally saying yes. I’ve joined Natty Zola, Ryan Broshar, and Shannon Shroyer at Matchstick Ventures. Like a moth to the flame (pun!), I’m getting back into venture capital. 

That’s pretty much my news, short and sweet. However, I’ve had several people ask me how I’ve thought about this next chapter in my life (looking at you, Alex!) – so if you want to learn more about why Matchstick, and how I got here, keep reading.

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Presenting Denver NWSL!

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I can’t believe it. We did it, we really did it.

A little less than 2 years ago, I joined Ben Hubbard, Tom Dunmore, and Jordan Angeli at ForDenverFC, an effort to bring women’s professional soccer to Colorado. And today, that dream is realized! 

My story began with the nudging of a friend Jaclyn Hester, who suggested I watch the Angel City documentary. In that video, there’s a scene where Abby Wambach is interviewed about receiving the ESPY Icon Award, next to Kobe Bryant and Peyton Manning. She laments that instead of feeling pride in what her accomplishments have brought her, she felt rage at not entering into retirement with a similar financial situation as Kobe and Peyton. While she didn’t begrudge them their success, she couldn’t understand why she didn’t have similar opportunities as those two, in spite of similar career accomplishments. And honestly, I got angry. Angry for Abby, angry for female athletes, and just angry for women in general. Any woman who sees that video should be angry. So I started digging. 

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Exciting News for the Colorado Startup Ecosystem

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Back in March, I wrote about the departure of Techstars Boulder, and on the back of the Foundry announcement, it became clear that we, as the Colorado startup community, needed to evolve and step up. For those of us who have been around a while, we remember what it was like in the early days – we knew how magical it was. People, whether representing themselves or representing different entities, got together to help the founders succeed. From mentors to law firms to CU to individuals to investors, we all participated.  We were small then and could fit into one room (hello Wolf Law!), everyone knew everyone else, and we often hung out socially and had a ton of fun together. But we all had one thing in common, we wanted to help startups succeed and believed that a rising tide raises all ships. 

But today isn’t like it was back then. Colorado is different. We are different. Those of us OGs are older now, there are awesome new people here, the startup ecosystem is bigger, and it needs to change and evolve. We, as a startup community, need to keep what made it magical but evolve to accommodate different times, markets, and talents.

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When frustration strikes, ask this simple question

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I have sat on many boards of directors, and since many, dare I say most, have been mediocre at best, I’ve become passionate about how to make them highly functional. Because of this, I recently had a conversation with a founder CEO, let’s call him, Joe, who asked me how to get rid of a particularly problematic board member, let’s call him Alex.

“Well, I need more context. Tell me about Alex” I asked Joe, the CEO.

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Why your company values suck

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We’ve all heard how important company values are; they are the basis of the culture of our company and we spend hours upon hours writing them, agreeing on them, training on them, hiring against them, and putting them on walls. And secretly (or maybe not so secretly), we all roll our eyes and know they’re bullsh*t.

Here’s why.

Most companies put up aspirational values – ways they WANT the team to act – ways they aspire to behave. But for every minor infraction of those values, every time a leader doesn’t act in alignment with those values, it immediately discredits all of the values, all of the time. Employees immediately know the values statements are just lip service because even the leaders aren’t following them. Yet how can a leader align with an aspirational value 100% of the time? It’s impossible. I aspire never to yell at my kids, but the 314th time I’ve asked for the dirty underwear to be picked up – I’m probably yelling it.

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Next week is Boulder Startup Week!

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May 13th kicks off the 15th annual Boulder Startup Week 2024 – a volunteer-organized weeklong celebration and conference for startups in Colorado. It’s a free event (thanks to all the generous sponsors), with over a hundred sessions for every topic important to startups, and is designed to include anyone who wants to participate, while engaging the entire entrepreneurial stack.

Almost everyone I know in Boulder will be participating in some fashion, whether it’s presenting, attending, hosting, or sponsoring. The energy around town is palpable! There is a ton of great content, something for everyone so make sure you look through the whole schedule, and if you don’t see something that suits you, just come hang out. Serendipity is a powerful force when you put yourself in it’s flow.

I’m hosting 2 events and on 2 panels, so come find me:

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A reinvention of Techstars

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For the past 48 hours, I’ve been fielding texts, calls, emails, and mentions, non-stop, due to the post from Techstars about Techstars 2.0, the closing of the Boulder accelerator program and others in key cities, and the shifting of the HQ to NYC from Boulder.

Techstars has been slowly changing and adapting over the years, and yes of course some of that makes me sad. Many of the best moments of my career and life were in the magical early years there. Techstars has been such a gift, not just to me, but to all the early communities.  

We all bonded not just over the mission of the company, but over its values.  We lived, ate, and breathed the values of the company – and what made Techstars so remarkable was we believed we could not only create shareholder value, but instill VALUES alongside it.  Everyone close to the company, alumni and employees alike, they still carry those values and work to uphold them personally. And it’s why I believe the reaction to the news has been so strong!

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Bringing women’s professional soccer to Colorado

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In a post I wrote last year, I hinted at a couple of projects I’ve been working on – and I’m excited to share one with you now.

Along with my partners Ben Hubbard (the entrepreneur), Tom Dunmore (the professional sport and soccer expert), and Jordan Angeli (a previous NWSL player) – we’ve launched ForDenverFC – an effort to win a women’s professional soccer team expansion slot here in Colorado. This is Ben’s vision, joined by Tom, then Jordan, then me.

Why soccer? Good question – especially since I don’t know much about professional sports and my soccer career was limited to one season as a kiddo, one season on a club team in college, and a couple of seasons as a spectator when my daughter played.

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Go farther together

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If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.

African Proverb

I’ve always loved this quote.

Last week, I kicked off a program for venture-backable early-stage founders in Colorado.  I have 14 CEOs participating in 2 groups that meet every other week for 3.5 hours for 6 months. This program was designed to help them go farther together and is an experiment I’m running to see whether or not the framework I’ve developed can help them move the needle on performance.

That’s 14 founders of startups who believed in what I’m trying to do, who signed up for an experiment that takes significant time and effort on their part, with no guaranteed outcome.  When I let myself think about it, it’s humbling, daunting even, and I feel so incredibly lucky and grateful to have pulled such a winning lotto ticket. 

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