Stay ConnectedIn the startup world, Give First means simply trying to help anyone—especially entrepreneurs—with no expectation of getting anything back. It’s the pay-it-forward principle that builds strong startup networks. Hosts David Cohen and Brad Feld—Techstars cofounders, lifelong entrepreneurs, and startup investors—talk with mentors and founders about what giving first looks like in action, and how it makes great entrepreneurship possible.
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Copyright: © 2019 Techstars
It took decades for Brad Feld to understand his depression and mental health struggles.
“There was a period of time, pretty deep into this depressive episode. … Work was fine. Business was fine, but I would describe it looking backward as the complete absence of joy. There was no joy in anything that I was doing in any way I was doing it.”
All the while, Brad was the founder of his own company while in his mid-20s, but he felt ashamed as the CEO because “the mantra that got thrown around for a while is that you can't show any weakness.”
Listen as Brad discusses his diagnosis and how it helped him respond to his anxiety and depression. Brad and David also talk about mental health in the startup community and how to stop the stigma, both broadly and in the entrepreneur space.
Also, don’t miss episode 20 of the Techstars Entrepreneur’s Toolkit, which discusses mental health issues facing entrepreneurs.
Follow David Cohen on Twitter @davidcohen
Follow Brad Feld on Twitter @bfeld
Listen & subscribe to the Give First podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more.
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If an entrepreneur takes a seed stage investment from a very large brand-name venture fund, they’re unlikely to get very much of the venture fund’s time. However, when it comes to emerging managers, this group often comes up with very specific ways that they believe they can help you, says Recast Capital Co-Founder and Managing Partner Courtney McCrea.
“To the extent that you're in the earliest stages of your development of your business, I would think that I would be looking for partners that could help accelerate the growth of my business, and often they are emerging managers in venture,” she says.
Listen as Courtney tells David how Recast Capital is trying to help add diversity to the sea of sameness within the emerging manager community, not just on gender, ethnicity, and authenticity, but also backgrounds and experiences.
Also, don’t miss Courtney sharing how Recast Capital was started as a #givefirst initiative and as a result, it has given back to them in ways they could have only dreamt about.
Follow Courtney McCrea on Twitter @courtneyrmccrea
Follow David Cohen on Twitter @davidcohen
Listen & subscribe to the Give First podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more.
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In this final ESG takeover episode, Dr. Mairi-Jane Fox, who helps lead ESG at Techstars, talks with B Lab Senior Manager of Community Engagement and Network Strategy Becca Quirk and Project Canary Co-founder & COO Will Foiles about what it really means when a business gets its B Corp certification and how it creates impactful changes.
“Inherently, becoming a B corporation forces a founder to look not just at what we are accomplishing today, but what we are working to accomplish,” says Becca Quirk.
Listen as Becca and Will describe the benefits of this certification for startup founders, such as thought leadership opportunities among the B Corp community, rigorous steps that showcase dedication to stakeholders, employees, and future investors, and a framework for solidifying the company’s mission.
Will and Becca also answer commonly raised questions from startup founders about how much time it takes to certify, and if it really is beneficial for early stage and small startup businesses.
Lastly, don’t miss Will, a Techstars Alabama EnergyTech Accelerator founder, telling us whether getting a B Corp certification is actually worth it.
Listen & subscribe to the Give First podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more.
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In this second ESG takeover episode, Dr. Mairi-Jane Fox, who helps lead ESG at Techstars, talks with Soona CEO and Co-Founder Liz Giorgi and UN-sponsored Principles for Responsible Investment Head of Private Equity Peter Dunbar about different aspects of engaging with investors, including investor diligence, transparent conversations, and discussing ESG practices.
First, Liz Giorgi explains the development of the candor clause, and how it benefits startup founders regardless of their identity. The candor clause helps facilitate open, honest conversations about investors' practices, and ultimately allows founders to make informed decisions about who they are taking money from.
“That kinda conversation is unparalleled in terms of building a better relationship with that investor and just really understanding who you're going into business with in the long run,” Liz Giorgi said.
Then, listen as Peter describes what it means for venture capital firms and investors when they become signatories of the UN PRI. Among other requirements, signatories generally work toward implementing six principles for ESG and responsible investing which founders can consider when pitching to them
“Given the requirements of being a signatory and the principles themselves, VC signatories should really be looking to engage with startups and founders on ESG topics and be actively considering them in their investment decision-making processes,” Peter said.
Follow Liz Giorgi on Twitter @lizgiorgi
Listen & subscribe to the Give First podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more.
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We all have a set of principles for how we live our lives. How well are those principles aligned across every facet, though? You might be environmentally conscious but it’s important to ask yourself: Where do you do your banking? Who holds your mortgage?
This is the driving point for author Sharon Schneider’s book, Handbook for an Integrated Life: A Practical Guide to Aligning Your Everyday Choices with Your Internal Compass.
“If you're just floating along on mainstream American culture, my friend, … you're getting a very me-first, maximize-benefit-for-yourself all-the-time approach. This idea of taking your value and being conscious about how you integrate it into every area of your life for everyday people really became the genesis of the book,” said the Integrated Capital Strategies founder.
Listen as Sharon highlights a few of the 7 principles for an integrated life in the book, and how #givefirst and living integrated isn’t always about spending money but intentionally looking at all the places you can live into that value.
Also, don’t miss Sharon talking about her experience in Techstars’ Excelerate Labs program in 2012 and how it was a valuable contributor to her career that blends entrepreneurship, business ownership, philanthropic and social change strategy, and impact investing.
Follow Sharon Schneider on Twitter @sharonschneider
Follow David Cohen on Twitter @davidcohen
Listen & subscribe to the Give First podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more.
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In this first ESG takeover episode, Dr. Mairi-Jane Fox, who helps lead ESG at Techstars, talks with Sustaio founder and CEO Olivia Pedersen and SVT Group CEO Sara Olsen about the benefits and the how-to of measuring ESG impact for early-stage start-ups.
“It's a responsible business practice to manage your carbon effectively and make sure that you're taking responsibility for the impact and the externalized cost that your company is creating,” said Olivia Pedersen.
Listen as Olivia and Sara give tangible, actionable advice to startup founders on how they can measure their company's impact. Also, don’t miss the six questions for implementing impact measurement and management.
Listen & subscribe to the Give First podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more.
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Martin Schilling said he would never work in finance. However, after two years of scaling N26 Group, a large European fintech company, he left with a wealth of knowledge that he needed to share. So he wrote “The Builder’s Guide to the Tech Galaxy” with several leading tech builders.
“It is, in essence, a give-first book because together with my co-founders, we are deep advocates of scaling up the European tech ecosystem. Why? Because as startup builders, we are the pioneers of our times. We are the inventors of the 21st century to a certain degree, and we will need to build millions of future jobs.”
Listen as Martin describes the global tech ecosystem, its current needs, and the future development of startups and scale-ups through mentoring and knowledge. “The book, as well, is meant as an encouragement for those to really go out and dare to build startups,” Martin shares.
Also, don’t miss David and Martin chatting about the tactical resources in Martin’s book, such as developing a clear startup North Star and building a great team, and how Star Trek is related to startups and Techstars!
Follow Martin Schilling on Twitter @MSchilling__
Follow David Cohen on Twitter @davidcohen
Listen & subscribe to the Give First podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more.
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At 15 years old, Marcus Bullock’s life changed forever. He was locked in an adult maximum-security prison for 8 years after carjacking a man. Marcus began to feel hopeless, so his mother began to send photos and letters each day.
A few years after his release, his friends in prison asked Marcus for photos and letters of his travels and life. Marcus knew there had to be a better way to share his experiences outside the prison walls, and when he didn’t find an app to do it, he created it himself.
“I was promising them: I want you to live vicariously through me now. I want you to see these moments and share with me because I want you to know when you get out of prison, bro, you will have the same success,” he said.
Listen as Marcus shares his success after being released, starting with the company that gave him a chance, his entrepreneurial spirit, and the opportunity to hire those with felony convictions to give them a sustainable start.
Also, don’t miss David and Marcus discussing how Flikshop went from sharing photos with prison friends to a venture-backed company that helps reduce recidivism.
Follow Marcus Bullock on Twitter @_marcus_bullock
Follow David Cohen on Twitter @davidcohen
Listen & subscribe to the Give First podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more.
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Supply chains are a big nut to crack, and Elias Stahl ran straight for them. He was empowered to start a whole new supply chain and have his company HILOS be at the forefront of creating a different way to manufacture shoes, where it is ground zero for inefficiency and waste.
“We saw that opportunity to leverage new technologies like 3D printing and gender design tools to rethink how we make things so that we're no longer building based on volume and cost, but on efficiency and a far more sustainable way for creators to take their ideas and turn them into products and then deliver them into hands of customers,” the CEO and founder of HILOS said.
Listen to Elias describe fundraising as a comparison to dating with “meeting your match” and not changing yourself to find “love” or, in this case, your investors.
Also, don’t miss David and Elias talk about the Stanley+Techstars Accelerator and the growth of HILOS because of the Give First mentality, including winning Best in Show at the SXSW Pitch competition and releasing a case study in partnership with Yale University.
Follow Elias Stahl on Twitter @stahl_elias
Follow David Cohen on Twitter @davidcohen
Listen & subscribe to the Give First podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more.
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Innovation is just innovation if no one uses it. This is a lesson Jae Lee, co-founder and CEO of Twelve Labs, learned while building multimodal neural networks and video search AI. Through the Techstars Seattle Accelerator, mentors, and community, the company began to grow its customer base, transforming from a video search prototype to raising $5 million in a seed funding round.
Listen as Jae Lee describes how video search is a very intuitive concept but we haven’t seen much of this technology out in the wild, as well as credibility and experience in AI.
“What we've realized was, hey, video is going to be everywhere. It's already everywhere. It's going to explode. Is there a new neural network architecture that we can use or create to have machines fully understand videos? And what this means to customers is better content moderation, better content recommendation, better summary generation, and better content discovery," said Jae Lee.
Don’t miss Jae Lee describe his time in the South Korean cyber operations, where he met the co-founders who joined him to build Twelve Labs, as well as the startup scene in South Korea.
Follow Jae Lee on Twitter @_jae_lee
Follow Twelve Labs on Twitter @twelve_labs
Follow David Cohen on Twitter @davidcohen
Listen & subscribe to the Give First podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more.
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