Monday, January 31, 2011

TechStars Ties With White House Startup Effort

Boulder-based TechStars is powering a major launch by the White House this morning, the Startup America Partnership, with plans to extend the TechStars startup accelerator program model nationwide. According to an effort to be announced by the White House this morning, the new Startup America Partnership will look to "dramatically increase the development, prevalence and success of innovative, high-growth U.S. firms." The announcements follows President Obama's call in his State of the Union address to spur new startup activity to compete globally. The new effort includes $200M in commitments by Intel Capital for investments, $150M in funding from IBM, plus backing from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the Case Foundation, and others. As part of that effort, TechStars said the partnership has created the TechStars Network, which will share best practices and resources between independent incubator groups. The new network includes BoomStartup in Salt Lake City, among many others. The new effort is being announced at the White House later this morning, and will include TechStars' David Cohen.