TechStars adds new faces to leadership

BOULDER – The TechStars startup accelerator is adding new faces to its leadership, creating new positions and giving longtime leaders and mentors new roles.

TechStars alum and Filtrbox Inc. founder Ari Newman has joined TechStars and will be its “network catalyst.” Filtrbox was a member of TechStars’ inaugural class in 2007. TechStars helped Filtrbox raise $1.9 million in venture capital before Filtrbox was acquired by Jive Software in 2010.

Newman’s job will be to help keep TechStar’s increasingly far-flung network of entrepreneurs, mentors and investors remain in contact and maximize their value to each other, TechStars’ s chief executive and co-founder David Cohen wrote in the company’s blog. TechStars has helped launch more than 200 companies, he said.

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TechStars previously announced that TechStars Boulder managing director Nicole Glaros and Cohen are heading to New York City to run its spring session. Glaros will be interim managing director, and both will return to Boulder following the program’s conclusion.

In Boulder, Luke Beatty will join the TechStars staff as a Boulder managing director. Beatty has been a mentor for TechStars startups, and this summer was an entrepreneur in residence. Before TechStars, Beatty launched a startup that was acquired by Yahoo in 2010 and was Yahoo’s vice president of Communities and Local.

Longtime venture capitalist Mark Solon will become a general partner of TechStars. Solon is managing partner of Boise, Idaho-based Highway 12 Ventures, which has made investments in numerous Boulder companies such as Lijit Networks Inc., SendGrid Inc. and Orbotix Inc.

Solon will focus on capital formation, strategy and deployment of the $70 million that TechStars now has under management, according to the TechStars blog.