David Cohen is the founder and CEO of TechStars, a mentorship-driven seed stage investment program for Internet startups.
Previously, David was a founder of several software and web technology companies. He was the founder and CTO of Pinpoint Technologies which was acquired by ZOLL Medical Corporation (NASDAQ: ZOLL) in 1999. You can read about it in No Vision, All Drive [Amazon]. David was also the founder and CEO of earFeeder.com, a music service which was sold to SonicSwap.com in 2006. He also had what he likes to think of as a “graceful failure” in between.
David is a active startup advocate, advisor, board member, and technology advisor who comments on these topics on his blog at DavidGCohen.com. He is also very active at the University of Colorado, serving as a member of the Board of Advisors of the Computer Science Department, the Entrepreneurial Advisory Board at Silicon Flatirons, and the Board of Advisors of the Deming Center Venture Fund. David is also a member of the selection committee for Venture Capital in the Rockies, and runs the Colorado chapter of the Open Angel Forum.
David’s hobbies are technology, software/web startups, business history, and tennis. He is married to the coolest girl he’s ever met and has three amazing kids who always seem to be teaching him something new.
You can find David on Twitter @davidcohen.
Here’s a ProTip for anyone sending their pitch to an investor by email.
Use attachments instead of download links.
Why? Because many investors are busy and often only get to “catch up on email” on planes. And planes usually have no connectivity. Additionally, with attachments, we don’t have to wait for downloads.
It takes me way [...]
I’ve used a technique that I call the “easy out” for some time. It’s handy when you’re selling someone something and they’re are ignoring you. It could be an investor you’re trying to close, or a customer that you’re trying to sell something to.
Once you’ve tried several emails with no response, I always recommend a [...]
Google has put out a call that looks like this:
Google is planning to launch an experiment that we hope will make Internet access better and faster for everyone. We plan to test ultra-high speed broadband networks in one or more trial locations across the country. Our networks will deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times [...]
