Pros
Some very smart, connected people Great mission for Founders
Cons
- Really toxic culture. You might not see it immediately because the mission is amazing, but slowly but surely the kool -aid you've been given starts to taste of poison and you start to see what's really going on. - Some terrible managers/leadership - shocking behaviour reported to People Ops but they're too scared/incompetent to do anything about it. - A lot of nepotism - e.g if you worked at Zoll or Makerbot you'll be fine, maybe with new CEO it will change - There's a lot of Boulder v's the rest of the global organisation. HQ rolls out processes and material that is very Boulder-centric and they don't seem to care about regional nuances, cultural differences or language barriers. - They do not care about Corporates. They don't treat them like clients or customers, they expect them to fund the program, the equity and support non-revenue generating activity and other programs that have nothing to do with their accelerator. - Corporates are now saying "It's not Founder First, it's Techstars First". Whatever TS wants, TS does. - Accelerator model for founders is good, but TERRIBLE for corporates. - There's a lot of high-fiving and patting each other on the back for literally turning up to work - so bizarre! - They've also managed to convince 1,000's of people to mentor and work for free (or for very little e.g. the associates), with the amount they charge, this it's madness!