from UP Global programs to Techstars baked into the acquisition. “We would be equally happy if they went to a different accelerator after Startup Weekend,” Brown said.
UP Global programs have been a modest contributor of talent to Techstars prior to the acquisition. Nager said he knows of at least 18 teams that have either met a co-founder or formed a company at an UP Global event that later made it to a Techstars accelerator. Brown said UP Global programs could be a good source of new employees for Techstars startups.
Techstars has ushered 536 startups through its programs, which now run in Austin, Boston, Boulder (where the organization is based), Chicago, New York City, Seattle, Berlin, and London, as well as seven others it runs with corporate partners focused on specific industries such as digital health, robotics, and mobility.
Now with the title of chief community officer for Techstars, Nager said UP Global’s constituents should not be concerned about rising fees or other efforts to extract more revenue from its programs as a result of the acquisition by for-profit Techstars. “If you know Techstars, you know us,” he said. “You know that culturally, we’re so aligned. Our values are so aligned.”
The organizations sprung from a common source. Techstars’ first employee, Andrew Hyde, founded Startup Weekend in 2007, and it was Techstars companies that participated.
Brown echoed Nager’s assurances, adding: “Techstars has never been about profiting from entrepreneurs. We’ve never charged to go through an accelerator, and when we started in 2007, that was the model. … We always viewed it as, we’re going to invest in you.”
That’s why Techstars decided to drop fees for UP Global’s Startup Next program, a five-week prep-school for startups preparing for application to an accelerator.
UP Global sponsor Google For Entrepreneurs will continue funding Startup Weekend and Startup Next “and many of our current partners will be making the transition to supporting our programs as part of Techstars,” according to an UP Global post on the deal.
UP Global’s strong international footprint—it plans 1,000 Startup Weekend events in 120 countries this year, including in places like Iran and Syria, which aren’t top of mind for startup formation—will also aid Techstars’ expansion plans, which should accrue to the good of the Pacific Northwest. “Our region will now play a more significant role in Techstars’ global expansion, and also benefit from closer ties to the wider global innovation ecosystem that Techstars has been so instrumental in supporting,” writes DeVore in a post outlining Seattle’s key contributions to the deal.
Nager said the nonprofit model that took UP Global this far was the right one—particularly given the enormous growth the startup industry has undergone—even if it doesn’t serve the organization going forward.
“Seven years ago the world didn’t even really know what startups were,” he said. “The iPhone was just invented. Contextually, ‘startup’ was never spelled as one word. It was always hyphenated. We have a real word now. The private market has been able to also see the value that we’ve been able to create at those early stages. The nonprofit was really a great business model decision for us that allowed us to scale, have a big impact, prove our value, and I think declare a great victory for the entire entrepreneurial industry as it matures.”
