TechStars 2009 Demo Day in Mountain View – 9/30/09

We’ve just wrapped up our third year of doing TechStars and not only do we have some interesting companies coming out of Boulder, we also have a bunch coming out of our new Boston program as well. In all, we had 19 companies go through the program this summer. I expect at least 14 of the 2009 companies will eventually close their seed rounds, which is similar to the ratio we’ve seen in past years.

Last year we brought some of the companies with the most progress out to Silicon Valley and it was a big hit. So this year, we’re doing it again and we already have well over 100 investors registered to attend. We are taking about a dozen of this years brand new startups to Mountain View where we’ll be doing a demo day on September 30th. These are the companies who are currently raising money and that have substantial product and customer progress. We’ll also bring one or two companies from past years who are now raising follow on financing.

This isn’t your usual VC pitch event – these are fun eight minute pitches and attendees will get to see all the companies in the morning. We’ll wrap up with lunch and some networking.

If you are an accredited angel investor or VC, or if you know someone who might like to attend on the morning of September 30th, just drop me a note and I’ll be sure to get you an invitation to the event. Over 150 investors are already registered to attend as of today. I hope to see you there – it should be a fun day.

TechStars Boston – Investor Event coming up

TechStars Boston is proud to be hosting our first annual Investor Evening on Thursday September 10th. All nine of the TechStars Boston 2009 companies will be on hand, demoing and pitching their companies. The event will begin at 5:30 PM ET. Details regarding the location are included in your invitations. Food and beverages will be served.

This event is not open to the public (sorry!). Demand has been impressive, and the event will be standing room only. We have a hard cap on attendance due to the fire code. If you are not on the RSVP list, you will not be able to get in. Please (please!) do not show up without an RSVP asking to join us, as we will not be able to accommodate you – and you’ll end up very annoyed – and we don’t want that!

There are still a handful of spots still available. If you are an accredited investor, please let us know and we will get an invitation out to you pronto via email.

Eran Egozy

Eran is the co-founder and CTO of Harmonix Music Systems, one of the pre-eminent game development studios in the world, having developed over a dozen critically acclaimed music-based video games. Harmonix was founded in 1995 on the principle that non-musicians should be able to experience the sheer joy of music creation – normally something only afforded to accomplished musicians. Beginning in 2005, Harmonix developed Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero 2, fueling the explosive growth of the music games category to over $1 Billion in sales. In 2006, Harmonix was acquired by MTV/Viacom, and shortly after Harmonix launched the innovative, award-winning franchise titles Rock Band and Rock Band 2. In 2008, Eran and fellow co-founder Alex Rigopulos were named in the Time 100 — Time Magazine’s list of the one hundred most influential people in the world.

Eran is one of the mentors in our new Boston program. Eran worked with several of our companies this summer and did a session called “Harmonix: Lessons Learned.”

Eran not only invented Guitar Hero, but he’s a true Rock Star when it comes to working with startups. We couldn’t be happier to have him as one of our many awesome mentors here at TechStars.

Episode 12 of The Founders

Tuesday at noon, another episode of The Founders.

This weeks episode focuses on investor day which we had at the historic Boulder Theater.  David Hoffman references this post written by Vanilla founder Mark O’Sullivan.  The episode shows what investor day is like through the three companies.  Retel, Everlater and Next Big Sound did a fantastic job demoing their companies.  Some of the teams are still around Boulder, but many are traveling working on raising their rounds and working on partnerships.

The episode ends with a bit about community.  It has been absolutely amazing to participate in the thriving Boulder scene.  I personally want to thank everyone that came to demo day for their support.  Investor day isn’t the end, it is the beginning.

Practice Like You Play

This weeks The Founders focuses on the days leading up to investor day.   Jason Mendelson leads a session on negotiations.  The teams demo to almost 400 people at the Boulder New Tech Meetup.  Niel Robertson leads a session on Product Management and the episode caps off with a road bike ride up Sunshine Canyon with Natty, Nate and Seth Levine.  All in preparation for the big day.