Introducing Ma?lle Gavet, Techstars’ new CEO

On September 13 of last year, I announced that I would be stepping down from my role as CEO of Techstars. Today, I am thrilled to announce that our board of directors has selected Ma?lle Gavet to take over. David Cohen has written more about the details behind Ma?lle and the decision.

As I reflect back on the last 14 years of Techstars, I’m filled with so many wonderful memories. 

First of all, the founding email, which David sent to me back in February of 2006 (and which I still have). The idea was to open an office, invite 10 companies to participate and invest in them, bring in the community to help and then to have some kind of event at the end to celebrate the success and to bring in more investment. The words accelerator, mentors and demo day weren’t used - that came later. It’s crazy how an idea has turned into a worldwide successful business, network and phenomenon with 45 accelerators, Techstars Startup Weekends and Weeks, venture funds and other activities run by 300 employees in 22 countries around the world today. 

Another great memory was the early promotion of our efforts. We may not have had much in place in the beginning, but we had big dreams. The phrase “fake it until you make it” might be epitomized by this early promotional video.

Another big day for us was the day that we acquired UP Global (Startup Weekend). Acquisitions can be hard and this one could easily have gone off the rails, but thanks to Herculean efforts by Marc Nager (UP Global CEO), Steve Case, Greg Gottesman and especially Mary Grove (UP Global board members) and others, we were able to pull it off. Suddenly, we had a presence in over 1000 cities in 120 countries around the world, working with thousands of incredible community leaders.

Last and certainly not least, were all the demo days, mentor madness sessions and community leader events that I attended. I actually kept track, I attended at least 63 demo days in person around the world (see my list here), as well as 640 individual mentor madness sessions. To all the startups in our portfolio and community leaders that I met throughout this process - and also at our annual FounderCon get-togethers, I salute you. Meeting you was by far and away the best part of my job and the part that I’m going to keep doing.

While it’s bittersweet to leave behind the role of CEO, I am comforted by the fact that we have built something amazing and I am excited to see Ma?lle take Techstars to the next level. As David quoted me in his post, I believe that thoughtful leadership evolution in growing and scaling companies is healthy; it’s all part of the journey. I am excited to see this evolution play out from my perch on our Board of Directors.

Welcome, Ma?lle. I am excited to work with you.