Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup

Part 2. PEOPLE

The famous real estate cliché is "The three most important things in real estate are location, location, location." An analogous entrepreneurship cliché is "the three most important things in entrepreneurship are people, people, people."

At TechStars, everything starts with people. We deliberately describe TechStars as "a mentorship-driven startup accelerator" since the mentors are a fundamental component of what makes TechStars special. The entrepreneurs who participate in TechStars are equally important, but we think one without the other is like cookies without milk, or chocolate without peanut butter, or—well—you get the idea.

People come in all shapes and sizes, have many different experiences, and a wide variety of perspectives. One of our goals with TechStars is to expose first-time entrepreneurs to a wide range of these people. And, as a special bonus, we expose the more experienced mentors to a variety of fresh perspectives from the entrepreneurs they work with. Both entrepreneurs and mentors participate and both benefit.

Over the course of the three-month long TechStars program, lifelong friendships are formed. The friendships happen between founders, entrepreneurs and mentors, and even among the mentors themselves. People are at the core of every community and TechStars is no exception.