Techstars Boulder gears up for first virtual demo day

BOULDER — Typically, Techstars Boulder’s demo day, the culmination of months of business development by 10 startup firms and their mentors, is a raucous affair with thousands of friends, colleagues and investors packed into the Boulder Theater for a night of pitches. 

With the coronavirus still raging across the nation and stay-at-home orders in effect in Colorado, a typical demo day format is just not possible this year. But the show must go on. 

Techstars staffers and event organizers are gearing up for the Boulder-based startup accelerator’s first virtual demo day. 

SPONSORED CONTENT

Business Cares: May 2024

As Mental Health Awareness Month unfolds in Colorado, it serves as a reminder of the collective responsibility to prioritize mental well-being.

“Part of the program is putting together a really compelling pitch to the community and investors,” Techstars Boulder managing director Natty Zola told BizWest. That hasn’t changed.

Rather than pitch live, Techstars participants will record short video presentations that will be released publicly April 30. Investors will then have three weeks to view the pitches and connect with founders.

“We think this is actually going to be pretty cool,” Zola said. “One of the problems with our original demo days is that if you [couldn’t make it to the Boulder Theater] on the day of the event, you couldn’t [view the pitches]. Now [investors] will have access to the videos and can watch them whenever they want.”

Techstars Boulder program manager Malte Witt also noted that virtual pitching is a new skill set that might become increasingly important during and after the current coronavirus crisis. 

The current cohort has had “a unique benefit in workshopping how to deliver the most powerful pitch in this virtual setting,” he said. “Usually we wouldn’t be coaching companies on that at all.”

Techstars Boulder’s 2020 class, the 14th cohort, faced unprecedented challenges over the last month.

“One thing I really have to give the companies credit for is that they’ve been super resilient,” Zola said. “For entrepreneurs, resilience is just so important” even during situations that don’t involve a global pandemic. “They’re rolling with it and building their businesses despite everything that’s been thrown at them.” 

The first half of the 13-week accelerator unfolded as it normally does with mentors and founders meeting in person. Then, in mid-March, program leaders realized they were going to have to start evolving in real time if the 2020 class was to be a success.. 

“It was definitely a challenge for us, but we’ve come through pretty strong,” Zola said. 

Despite the success of the virtual accelerator, Zola said it was a blessing for the cohort to have had at least a portion of the program occur in person.

During the first seven weeks, “we did a lot in terms of teaching them how to run their startup,” he said. “A lot of great content happened early on in the program and the companies at least got to meet their mentors in person.”

While “there’s something special about meeting in person,” Zola said, Techstars and its participating companies — many of which are headquartered hundreds or thousands of miles away from the program’s homebase in Boulder — are well-versed in teleconferencing and virtual communication.

In fact, since 2017, the organization has run an all-virtual accelerator program called Techstars Anywhere. 

“This is nothing new for us,” Zola said of Techstars willingness to embrace virtual meeting technology.

The 2020 Techstars Boulder class includes four Colorado firms, all from Denver (company descriptions provided by Techstars):

• Beanstalk — Live and on-demand “mommy and me” classes.
• TermScout — Data-driven contract intelligence to help businesses review contracts better
• Demoflow — A complete demo enablement platform to streamline prep, presentation, follow-up and documentation across the sales organization.
• Best Shot — Helps clinics and patients with a platform to improve medication adherence for fertility treatments.

Other participants from out of state include:

• Charmed — Dating-advice app allowing friends to provide message suggestions.
• FITco — A growth catalyst solution for fitness centers in Latin America.
• The Accessory Junkie — Coveted. Curated. Connected. A new way to unlock the world of fashion.
• Sympatic — Enables health-care companies to safely share valuable data, providing audit logs and preventing data leakage.
• VideoPeel — Enables brands, retailers and agencies to collect and publish video reviews and testimonials.
• Warmly — Enables customer success teams to drive revenue leveraging the networks of their customers.

“The relationships in the class between the companies — one of the most powerful benefits of the program — are stronger than I’ve seen in any year in the past,” Zola said. “…They just seem really well-connected, and there’s a real familial aspect of this class.”