BC Tech’s Post

Navigate Your Startup's Success with Techstars Learn more about our Techstars Mentorship-Driven Accelerators and gain insight on tips and tricks when preparing your application. Find out if Techstars is a good fit to help accelerate your startup. S/o Ryan Kuder from Techstars Anywhere! Apps open at apply.techstars.com

I love Ken K.'s mindset of building a founding team of engineers as your starting 11. ⚽ The number isn't 11. Software teams aren't the size of a football team. But it's a great analogy to find your best starting team. For Devika, it was building teams in blocks of 4 and keeping the total engineering team at a mid-size of 24 -28. That way they could ensure they weren't too big and focus on quality of delivery. Focusing on quality and finding the best engineers for your starting team is the foundation for any startup/scaleup. If you are seeking to find your starting team of founding engineers or the next Principal Engineer to lead the growth and coding habits of your team, click on the "View My Website" link on my LinkedIn bio. To hear Ken's story of scaling Devika and helping build some of the country's leading tech companies listen to Episode 7 of ScaleUp Soundbytes. Link in the comments. #startups #techrecuitment #foundingteam #foundingengineer #football

Strategies for discovering early-stage Startups Seeking MVP Developers ▪️ Connect with VCs to build relationships; they often help startups find tech leaders after funding. ▪️ Join startup communities, network actively, and stay active on platforms like LinkedIn. ▪️ Check event listings like Web Summit for opportunities. ▪️ Attend AI and startup meetups, as well as hackathons. ▪️ Be active on Twitter to stay updated and connect with others in the industry. #VCnetworking #StartupCommunities #LinkedInNetworking #EventNetworking #TechMeetups #Hackathons

Working in a startup can be challenging, especially when most of the IT industry enjoys Saturdays off. But in a startup, Saturdays are often another day to push forward, learn, and grow. 🚀 It might seem tough, but it’s a great opportunity to show your strength and dedication. Every extra hour is a chance to learn something new, take ownership, and make a bigger impact. The hustle is real, but so are the rewards. 💪 #StartupLife #SaturdayGrind #LearningEveryday #SoftwareEngineer #GrowthMindset #TechLife #StrengthInChallenges #ContinuousLearning

Bootstrapping is great but it can be hard to think BIG Whilst Matthew Sarre and I love the freedom of not being beholden to investors with Jumpstart we often fall into a trap of making incremental rather than step changes. With impetus from our incredible team, we have forced ourselves to think bigger this year in 2 phases: 1️⃣ Making our core product more scalable, which we have done through the platform Hugo Hazard has built 💻 ! 2️⃣ Using this platform to build a new stream for junior software engineers in the most scalable way possible 📈 Speaking to many senior Devs and CTOs (literally just talking to Max Huckerby at innerworks.me this AM!), finding good software talent is one of the biggest problems early stage startups face. Launching this stream deserved something big... SO we’ve teamed up with AutogenAI to give talented engineers an insider's look at the challenges London's leading CTOs are solving. Join us on 27th Nov for: 📽 Demos from 3 top CTOS at some of London’s most exciting startups 📲 An opp post event to connect with CTOs + apply directly to roles you’re interested in 🍻Chatting with a bunch of impressive devs & founders (fuelled by beers + pizza) See the pic below for a flavour of what Jumpstart events look like! Tickets are free but spaces are limited. Link in comments to reserve your spot 👇 #Startups #Jumpstart #Softwareengineers

Applications for Antler Australia’s 12th cohort - starting August 5th, are now open! From business leaders to technologists and aspiring entrepreneurs, Antler helps launch and scale startups and invest at the earliest stage - pre-idea, pre-team, Pre-Seed.  Why Apply? 🤝 Personalised Mentorship: Learn from the best in the business through Antler’s advisor network of 600 leading operators, sector-focused communities, and our monthly socials across our locations 🌏 Global Network: Antler operates across six continents to help founders launch and scale high-potential startups that address meaningful opportunities and challenges. 🚀 Funding Opportunities: Antler provides a capital pathway from Pre-Seed to Series C, whether it be follow-on investment or leveraging their top-tier VC connections worldwide 🙌 Comprehensive Support: Whether it’s pre-idea, pre-team, or pre-seed, Antler backs the best founders from the beginning, helping them with co-founder matching, deep business model validation, initial capital, expansion support, and follow-on funding, and continues to support them for the life of their business. Apply here: https://lnkd.in/gmGzgjw6 Know someone who could be the next big thing in tech? Tag them or share this post!

There is always a “strategic cost of losing sight of your core customer in the relentless pursuit of growth,” regardless of your industry. This is a great analysis of what happened to one organization that forgot who their customers were and what they needed.

Must read, from one of the best in the business.

Sharing a post from Chris DeVore on the recent news from Techstars. As the former MD of Techstars Seattle (TS SEA), I was extremely fortunate to inherit leadership of one of the crown jewels in the Techstars network, which was brilliantly shaped by Andy Sack Chris DeVore & Aviel Ginzburg. It was an honor to back 44 founding teams. TS SEA has always been one of the top TS programs in terms of investment returns, founder NPS scores, and capital formation for our founders. The companies from my programs alone have raised over $80M since 2020 and continue to do so in the post-ZIRP era. TS SEA has been a cornerstone of the PNW entrepreneurial ecosystem for 15 years, providing community, mentorship, and access to capital for founders. It is well-loved by alums and the hundreds of mentors who have participated. And, in addition to the very strong and supportive cast of Seattle and PNW VCs who have invested their time, money, and energy in the program, TS SEA's founders have attracted capital from hundreds of VCs from around the USA and overseas. In short, though, TS SEA delivered on its promise to founders: it dramatically increased their odds of entrepreneurial success. So, the news that TS SEA is being shut down as part of a company-wide consolidation - other city programs have also recently gotten the axe - is both baffling and disheartening. It's baffling because it's a case where merit did not win out and because TS SEA has never been about the *quantity* of local VCs. The success of TS SEA lies in the *quality* of our people: our founders, our mentors, our local sponsors, and our investors. Collectively, they offer our founders and broader community unparalleled access to a global network of customers, experts, prospective employees, and investors. This, in turn, has yielded superlative results over the years. The news is disheartening because the departure of TS SEA will leave a substantial void in the local startup ecosystem. TS SEA and the other denizens of Startup Hall have consistently provided founders, especially first-time, under-networked, and under-represented founders, a wonderful launchpad on their entrepreneurial journeys. TS SEA has also served as a critical nexus in the PNW for founders, mentors, investors, and partners to come together on a friendly and supportive basis. I would go so far as to say that it is precisely in the secondary cities where the TS magic is the strongest. It's relatively easy to find mentorship and capital formation networks in the major US venture metros, but much less so once you leave the Bay Area, New York, and LA. If there is good news here, this resilient and tightly-knit community will almost certainly self-organize to preserve the relationships that have been formed over the past decade and a half. There is ample opportunity for a successor to fill the gap - strong local accelerators such as Techstars Seattle have proven to be immensely helpful to the entrepreneurial communities they serve.

This is definitely worth reading if you are wondering about the recent news out of Techstars.