Managing Partner @ Techstars in Denver, CO

Techstars Colorado Managing Partner Job Description

If you are an entrepreneur with at least 1, if not 2+ venture-backed startups under your belt, or has built a profitable, bootstrapped company and is now looking for your next adventure, who is interested in leading the next generation of phenomenal startups and founders to success – we want YOU!

Techstars Colorado, a new experiment in a locally owned & operated instance of Techstars, is looking to build out its presence and operations here in Colorado. The Managing Partner is, in essence, the “CEO” of this local effort from the ground up, with support and guidance from an active and experienced local board of directors.  That includes fundraising, setting and executing the direction and investment thesis, growing and recruiting the best founders to invest in and participate in the program, building a highly-qualified and functional mentor group, and more.

While this role is a leadership role, the key metric of success is returns on invested capital. Techstars Colorado, is in essence, a venture fund. This role is ideal for someone with a background in starting and growing venture-backed startups but is looking to learn the art of investing, becoming a pillar in the Colorado startup ecosystem, and helping support the next generation of successful high-growth startups.

This is not a role for the faint of heart. The work is hard but incredibly rewarding and fun. You will learn the art of investing in pre-seed and seed companies while spinning up an entire entity and managing a fund. You’ll watch founders you love crash and burn, but you’ll also see founders you love become wildly successful – and you’ll have influenced all of it. You won’t know if you’re good at investing for a decade or more, but if you are good at it, glory awaits.  Some weeks you will work more hours than are fair. Your email will be out of control, and your to-do list long. Everything will feel important and you’ll feel like the weight of the whole thing is on your shoulders. Your team will be small, but mighty and you’ll feel like you don’t have enough resources. It’s messy, it’s early, and there is a lot to figure out. We haven’t scared you off yet? Okay, let us try harder:

Responsibilities:

• Lead the effort (but you don’t shoulder all the responsibility) for fundraising, focusing on local entrepreneurs who can also be mentors.
• Creatively identify opportunities to fill gaps in the budget, while staying on budget
• Set and execute the investment thesis, if appropriate
• Hire a program manager and lead them to success
• Use your powers of persuasion to recruit others to support your efforts
• Identify and invest in the best of the best startups ~ 10 companies per cohort, per year. This is your most important responsibility – get this wrong, and it fails.
• Recruit, create, and run a mentor pool of 75 area entrepreneurs as your most valuable resource, because it is. If this sucks, so will you.
• Interface with Techstars for resources, best practices, and support
• Be the lead when working with partners for quarterly reporting and legal.
• Recognize that even though we are independent, we still operate in partnership with Techstars which has both limitations and advantages

Required qualifications:

• You must have been a founder (not a first employee, but a founder) of at least one technology startup. Ideally, that startup was venture-backed, or bootstrapped but profitable. Bonus points if the startup exited for more than you raised, double bonus points if you’ve started more than 1 company.  But you don’t lose points if your startup failed.
• High EQ – people tell you that you have an uncanny ability to read people, to read the room
• Servant leader – you lead from behind, helping your people become the best versions of themselves. Loves to be a ‘we’, not just a ‘me’.
• Monster executor – you don’t just get stuff done, you get the RIGHT stuff done. You are highly effective.
• Thrives in uncertainty and white spaces – given it’s early in the lifecycle of this company, you love creating, ideating, and experimenting, but you’re also comfortable just executing against best practices.
• Loves early-stage startup investing and venture capital.
• Colorado-based, ideally in the front-range. This is not a remote or virtual position, although you will be working from home in the early days while things ramp, and the program will be held in Denver or Boulder (likely Boulder).

If you’re excited by all that you read, please submit your interest here:

Please be patient with us as we go through the applicants – we are a very small team and are not using a recruiter. We endeavor to notify all applicants, but it might take a while.