Terry Gold to lead Techstars accelerator in Australia

BOULDER — Tech entrepreneur Terry Gold will lead an accelerator program in Australia that was announced in January by Boulder-based Techstars.

Techstars Adelaide, in the city by the same name, is focused on robotics, drones, Internet of Things, big data applications and sensors, Gold wrote in a blog posted Wednesday.

The program, starting in July, will connect 10 startups from all over the world to an established Techstars network of community leaders, founders, mentors, investors and corporate partners that can provide access to advanced technologies and research. They will also collaborate with accomplished leaders working to advance the capabilities of a host of technologies being developed by the defense and security industries.

Gold, who co-founded and was chief executive of Boulder-based tech firm Gold Systems Inc., moved to Australia last year to be entrepreneur-in-residence at Jana Matthew’s Centre for Business Growth at the University of South Australia.

Gold’s ties with Techstars goes back to its beginnings, when Brad Feld and David Cohen launched its first accelerator program in Boulder during 2006.

“I missed the start of the Silicon Valley startup wave, but here in Adelaide there is a startup community on the cusp of great things,” Gold said in his blog. “It is being fueled by world-class universities drawing people here from all over the world, as well as the home-grown talented people who want to start something of their own. … Just as there is a diversity of people, I see great diversity of startup ideas and technologies. And that’s before you talk about the hundred billion defense technology dollars that will flow in over the coming years.”