TechStars, We Love You.
We were lucky enough to be part of the first NYC class of TechStars, the #1 accelerator program in the world (true story). We could reiterate all the stats, numbers, perhaps an infographic, to show just how amazing the program is. But we won’t. We’ll simply tell you about our experience.
Nestio was a different company walking into TechStars. For real - different name, branding, business model, approach, and on and on. Two weeks into the program, we were ready to launch our beta, a labor of love that we had been working on for about six months. We walked into a meeting with David Tisch and David Cohen, and when we walked out, we were an entirely new company.
Okay, it wasn’t that dramatic, but it was close. We made a pretty significant, dare we say - pivot, that had us on that much talked about roller coaster of emotions, all in the course of twelve hours. Since then we are focused, even more excited, and seeing a much bigger reaction from friends, mentors, strategic partners, and investors.
It was just one defining moment of our experience, but it’s obviously a huge part of how TechStars changed our company. Being surrounded by a community of amazing mentors, entrepreneurs, investors, developers, and designers was amazing. The energy was infectious, and the opportunity to engage with so many people in such a short period of time was invaluable to our business. It was a crazy three months - mentally, emotionally, and professionally, but we believe it to be the best and most productive three months that any company could experience. It goes without saying that TechStars was an outright game-changer for our company. We walked away with an incredible set of mentors, advisors, investors, and above all, friends, who support Nestio with every step we take.
To all of the other TechStars NYC companies, we love our little start-up family, and can’t wait to watch you guys go on to build great things.
To all of our TechStars mentors and friends, we can’t thank you enough for all of your guidance and insight. You’ve been an invaluable asset to our company.
To David and David, thank you, thank you, thank you. For your ongoing support, candor and that one day, back at that cheesy Mexican restaurant where you made the decision to take a chance on us. <3
To all of you who are thinking about applying to TechStars, just do it already.
