On a drizzly Tuesday morning in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood, the twelve graduates from the New York TechStars summer program took the stage to pitch their companies to investors and mentors. Though many of the startups hail from the city, some came from as far as Venezuela to participate in the New York branch of the business accelerator program.
Graduates of TechStars receive up to $18,000 in seed funding and the chance to pitch their companies to angel investors and venture capitalists on demo day. Some 1,200 startups applied for this summer’s program in New York. (TechStars held its first New York demo day back in April.) The program puts the startups together with mentors for three months to develop and improve on their business ideas, and to prepare the companies to attract investors. The program runs in Boston, Boulder, Seattle, and New York.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg dropped by between presentations to talk about the ways New York is nurturing its technology community. He also called the TechStars TV show, which features the first class of the program’s New York startups on Bloomberg TV, “our answer to ‘Jersey Shore’.”
Some of Bloomberg’s speech was a redux of his appearance at NY Tech Meetup one week ago, again talking about personally soldering circuit boards together for the first Bloomberg terminals. He reiterated the city’s business strengths, particularly as a hub for fashion and media. He also encouraged the latest class of TechStars graduates to grow
