DreamIt Ventures Taps Startup Founders as It Expands Into New York: Tech News and Analysis « DreamIt Ventures, the Philadelphia start-up accelerator program, announced last month that it was launching a class in New York for the first time this summer.
Today, it shared a list of CEOs and founders who will sit on its first Entrepreneur Advisory Board, helping mentor the upcoming class. The board make-up is interesting because it relies a lot on new start-up founders and recent DreamIt alumni instead of seasoned veterans. The list of CEOs includes: Kerry Rupp, managing partner for DreamIt Ventures, said the program will still tap more experienced entrepreneurs and investors for 1:1 mentorships, which DreamIt will arrange later. But she said creating an advisory board of more freshly-minted founders is helpful for start-ups looking to learn from peers.
“We realized there’s a lot of value of bringing in peers who are just a couple steps ahead of the game,” Rupp said. Related GigaOM Pro content (sub req’d): Post and thumbnail photos courtesy of Flickr user hyunlab. Q&A: TechStars Founder David Cohen: Tech News and Analysis « TechStars founder and CEO David Cohen Of 39 startups that have participated in the three-year-old TechStars seed investing program, six have been acquired, five have failed, and 28 are still active in some form.
So far, it’s taken less than three years for the fund to make a return on each series of investments. If nothing else, you have to love that level of transparency. TechStars may not get the attention the clubby Silicon Valley-based Y Combinator basks in, but that’s partly by design. The incubator only operates in four U.S. TechStars just got a firm vote of confidence from the New York startup community: signing up an incredibly solid list of mentors for its incoming class of companies, including Dennis Crowley, Chris Dixon, Alex Iskold, David Karp, Zach Klein, Ben Lerer, Sam Lessin, Howard Lindzon, Avner Ronen, Tim Shey, Rex Sorgatz and multiple VCs from First Round Capital and Union Square Ventures.
GigaOM: What’s the TechStars expansion plan? New York City Gets a New Startup Incubator: Tech News and Analysis « While Silicon Valley startups have long enjoyed the benefits of the region’s history of entrepreneurial mentorship, with a number of seed programs and incubators focused on helping to the next big idea, New York City startups have historically had to go it alone.
But now, the Entrepreneurs Roundtable is looking to change that by launching a new startup incubator that will inject some funds into promising New York-based startups and provide guidance over a three-month period this summer. It’s the latest in a wave of start-up help for local entrepreneurs, who now have a number of options. The Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator program will run three months this summer, from June through August, and will conclude a demo day and investor pitch at the end. The 10 startups selected to participate in the program will each receive $25,000 and free, collaborative office space for the summer. In exchange, the program will get an 8-percent equity stake in participating startups.