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10 Tech Companies Joining Techstars LA: Half Have A Female Co-Founder

10 Tech Companies Joining Techstars LA: Half Have A Female Co-Founder

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Techstars is a worldwide network that invests in entrepreneurs. It was founded in Boulder, Colorado in 2006 by David Cohen, Brad Feld, David Brown, and Jared Polis. Through the Techstars Worldwide Entrepreneur Network, chosen founders and their teams connect to other entrepreneurs, experts, mentors, alumni, investors, community leaders, and corporate partners that will help their companies grow.

Techstars operates accelerators in Boulder, New York City, Boston, Seattle, Austin, Chicago, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Detroit, Minneapolis, London, Adelaide, Tel Aviv, Cape Town, Toronto, and Berlin. Fewer than 1 percent of the companies that apply to Techstars are accepted.

Techstars has accepted more than 1000 companies into its programs. Collectively, these companies have raised over $3.3 billion and have a market cap of over $8.1 billion. Program mentors include Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley, tumblr CEO David Karp, HubSpot co-founder and CTO Dharmesh Shah, and Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures.

Techstars is often compared to Y-Combinator, considered one of the most powerful accelerators in the world.

The Techstars Los Angeles Accelerator for the 2017 program kicked off this month and will conclude with Demo Day on Oct. 10.

From Techstars. Story by Anna Barber, managing director of the Techstars Los Angeles Accelerator. She was most recently GM and VP at Fingerprint Digital, and previously was founder and CEO of Scribble Press, a corporate lawyer, a McKinsey consultant and a co-founder of the US Air Guitar Championships. She grew up in New York City but has been an Angeleno for 17 years and has no plans to ever leave.

We had a simple thesis for Techstars LA this year: going long on LA and Southern California. Our hunt for great companies was focused on the rapidly expanding local startup ecosystem.

Outreach activities took our team from Pasadena to El Segundo, from Santa Barbara to San Diego and everywhere in between.

One-third of the eventual applicants were based in SoCal.  Throughout the selection process, we have been impressed with both the breadth and depth of talent in the LA area. Of the companies we ultimately selected, nine are local to Southern California.

Our class also reflects the diversity of Los Angeles. Half of the class includes a female co-founder, including three female CEOs, as well as diversity across a number of other dimensions. These teams are building great companies in e-commerce, media, retail, enterprise data, aerospace, AI, marketing and e-sports.

Techstars is a worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed. It’s worldwide, but also local, and we called on our local network for great referrals. LA investors Taylor Adams, Jesse Draper, Arlan Hamilton, Mark Mullen and Robyn Ward referred companies that will be joining Techstars. Many others supported our search.

Techstars LA joins two other programs in Los Angeles: the Techstars Music Accelerator and the Cedars-Sinai Accelerator, Powered by Techstars.

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