Techstars Alchemist Blockchain Accelerator — Recap of Week 1
I recently joined Techstars Alchemist Blockchain Accelerator as a Business Associate in New York City. Over the next 13 weeks, I look forward to working with the inaugural class comprised of 10 inspiring early-stage blockchain startups (Alkemi, AnyLedger.io, Autom(8), Blockade Games, Embleema, Gilded, Paperchain, Paperstreet, Trixta, Veracity Protocol.)
The following provides a high-level overview of Week 1 of the accelerator program as well as a few personal insights.
Check out my recap of Week 2.
Why am I writing this?
- Memorialize and reflect on this amazing learning opportunity (writing helps me distill a lot of information).
- Help current and prospective founders navigate the challenges with scaling a business from 0 to 1.
- Update mentors, founders, investors, friends, and family on the growth of the cohort and my own personal journey.
- In 2017, a surge of investor interest in crypto & blockchain startups resulted in people investing in projects at multi-billion dollar valuations without a single line of code being shipped. The sector has since cooled dramatically with funding for startups falling 75% in 2018 — from $3.2 billion in January to $800 million in December as crypto prices plunged more than 80% from record highs.
- The 2018 market correction (dubbed “crypto winter”) was necessary and beneficial for the long-term growth of the industry. The core thesis remains intact. In an era when trust in institutions of all kinds is collapsing, the blockchain offers a new hope: shared ledgers of information that no one controls but everyone can believe in.
- Yet, the layoffs and restructurings at high-profile startups, like Bitmain, ConsenSys, ShapeShift, Steemit, highlight the challenges with building and scaling businesses. Despite the negative headlines, the industry has been developing the infrastructure, companies, and products to support the next stage of growth. The pressure is on for startups to prove that the networks and products they are building can live up to expectations. I look forward to helping the industry move forward. Success is in the journey.
Asks from my network (email me / comment below)
- Resources to facilitate weekly meetings with CTOs.
- Resources to help determine customer demand and product-market fit.
Day 0 — Orientation & Preparation for 🚀
In advance of the program, I met our fearless leaders Yossi Hasson and Caroline Toch, as well as the other associates Zac (Business), Kayla (Operations) and Richie (Design) and moved into our co-working location at Rise New York. The dream team.
Next, let's cover the benefits of joining a startup accelerator.
Techstars is a worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed. With dozens of mentorship-driven accelerator programs and thousands of community programs worldwide, Techstars exists to support entrepreneurs throughout their lifelong journey, from inspiration to IPO. Techstars provides access to community leaders, founders, mentors, investors, and corporate partners, allowing entrepreneurs to accelerate the pace of innovation and #DoMoreFaster. 1 year of work in 3 months.
Techstars partnered with Alchemist, a global blockchain advisory group, to bring a new mentorship-driven accelerator program to New York City: Alchemist Blockchain Techstars Accelerator.
Techstars provides portfolio companies with access to financial, human and intellectual capital to fuel the success of their business. Companies are offered:
- a $100,000 convertible note.
- $20,000, which is commonly used as a stipend to support living expenses and in return receives 6% common stock from each company.
- access to Techstars resources for life.
- personal mentorship and office space.
- lifetime access to the Techstars worldwide network of entrepreneurs including more than 10,000 mentors; 2,700 investors; 1,200 alumni companies and 180 staff members.
- access to over $300k of cash equivalent hosting, accounting and, legal support –plus other credits and perks worth more than $1M.
- Demo Day exposure and other investor connections.
Techstars’ purpose is embedded in its Give First, entrepreneur-centric approach. Every decision that Techstars makes is carried out with the best interest of the entrepreneur in mind. Techstars has 4 key core values:
- Doing What’s Right for Founders;
- Give First;
- Quality over Quantity;
- Network over Hierarchy.
What does Techstars look for in a startup? Team, team and team, followed by market, progress and idea.
Week 1 — Game time
I was super excited to meet all of the companies. We prepared welcome gifts and swag for the cohort, organized work areas, and blew up balloons spelling out Blockchain. There wasn’t enough helium to keep those balloons afloat…
Then the teams started trickling in. Monitor stands set up. Introductions and fun facts. A room bustling with activity and people. A new family and home for the next 3 months.
Some stats:
- Class Size: ~42 people
- Founder profile: Mix of serial entrepreneurs and first-time founders. Single founders. Multiple co-founders.
- Company stage = Pre-seed. Seed. Series A.
- Geographical diversity = high (5 countries and 8 cities).
- Idea diversity = high.
- Gender diversity = low (let’s change this).
- Passion = unbounded.
What surprises me the most is how blockchain use expands in scope and breadth. While the accelerator is focused on “blockchain”, these 10 companies span across infrastructure and protocol development, cryptocurrencies, security, and distributed applications in finance, IoT, accounting, gaming, software development, and media.
Then the public announcement came out. Congratulations to all the teams — you are part of the 2% of people who applied!
Alkemi offers a community-based liquidity solution in the form of a crypto savings account to address the significant crypto-market price inefficiencies amidst fragmented centralized exchange markets.
Founders: Ryan Breen & Aristotle Andrulakis | Toronto, Canada | https://alkemi.network/
AnyLedger allows companies to easily build IoT-Blockchain applications by offering them infrastructure as a service.
Founder: Lorenzo Pieri | Berlin, Germany | http://anyledger.io/
Autom(8) is the world’s first decentralized Function as a Service (FaaS) marketplace.
Founders: Gregg Altschul, Samuel Strauch & Will McLeod | New York, NY | http://autom8.network/
Blockade Games specializes in integrating blockchain and alternate reality components into puzzles and games to create experiences that transcend the digital world.
Founders: Marguerite deCourcelle, Benjamin Heidorn & Diego Rodriguez | Indianapolis, IN | http://blockade.games/
Embleema empowers patients with rare and chronic diseases to accelerate medicine by sharing their health data.
Founder: Robert Chu, Alexis Normand & Nicolas Schmidt | Metuchen, NJ | https://www.embleema.com/
Gilded provides essential accounting tools for crypto businesses — everything from bookkeeping to invoicing, payments, financial reports, tax compliance, and security.
Founders: Gil Hildebrand & Ken Gaulter | New Orleans, LA | https://gilded.finance/
Paperchain helps media companies unlock and accelerate media revenue by turning daily streaming & consumption data into tradable assets, and connecting them to a global investment marketplace.
Founders: Daniel Dewar, Rahul Rumalla, & Dave Tomaselli | Staten Island, NY | https://paperchain.io/
Paperstreet connects retail investors with alternative investment opportunities typically reserved for VCs and institutions.
Founders: Matt deCourcelle, Carter Lathrop, David Younts, & Alex Ratner | Indianapolis, IN | https://paperstreet.vc/
Trixta is building the most efficient way to develop great software for decentralized organizations.
Founders: Mark Levitt & Roger Norton | Phoenix, AZ | http://trixta.com/
Veracity Protocol is the ultimate bridge between physical things & the digital world. We allow anyone to guarantee the identity, authenticity and condition of physical items using our new AoT standard and infrastructure.
Founders: Roman Komarek, Jakub Krcmar, & Kamil Behun | Prague, Czech Republic | https://www.veracityprotocol.org/
What to expect over 13-weeks
Phase 1, Month 1. “The Direction & Mentors”
It’s useless to everyone if a company is building a product that no one wants. Phase 1 of the program is designed to ensure that the companies’ products are the right products for the right market. The first month is focused on content to help companies think about their customer. They will meet dozens of mentors to help them get out of their heads. There will be a lot of mentor “dating” so companies can match up with the right mentors to help them through the program.
Phase 2, Month 2. “Execute”
During this phase, companies should have paired up with their lead mentors and have a plan for their product. Now it is time to build and execute on the vision.
Phase 3, Month 3. “Launch +Pitch + Fundraising + Revenue + everything else after Techstars”
The final phase of the program is focused on improving their pitch for Demo Day. Companies should be closing deals and try to improve traction.
Highlights from Week 1.
The Importance of KPIs, Goal Settings, and Mailing Lists
There is a difference between motion and progress. Founders need to identify KPIs (Key Performance Indicators or Key Predictive Indicators) which enable shared understanding, effective communication, structured thinking, and validated learning. A big focus is on how to differentiate between leading (change happening) vs. lagging indicators (results measured). Quantifiable measures can be used to measure, judge, evaluate, and motivate an organization’s progress over time towards a strategic or operational goal.
We heard from fintech legend Jon Zanoff who walked us through a KPI workshop by analyzing the customer journey.
Key lessons:
- KPIs should be measurable by a number — flow metrics are more meaningful than stock metrics.
- Track no more than 10 KPIs.
- Focus on leading not lagging indicators.
- Set up a weekly routine to update mentors and investors.
Key resources:
- We had the founder of kpiReady (Techstars W’ 18) explain best practices and demo her KPI software. kpiReady streamlines data collection and reporting so that founders align their team, investors, advisors, and other stakeholders. Use funnels to understand processes.
- https://www.techstars.com/content/accelerators/metro/3-ways-realize-dream-kpis/
- https://www.techstars.com/content/accelerators/effectively-use-mailing-lists-update-mentors-team-current-prospective-investors-startup/
Writing Forwardable Intro Emails
~70% of emails are introduction requests. We learned about the golden rule of email: never make the introducer do work. EVER.
Key lessons:
- The introducer should do zero work. Just forward.
- Write great subject lines.
- Have a purpose and make it relevant.
- For cold emails, remember the 3is: information, introduction, and invitation.
- 100% follow-up and follow-through (within 24 hours)
Key resources:
CTO meetings
I helped facilitate a meeting with the CTOs of the cohort to discuss their tech stack and current issues they are facing. Key themes emerged around scalability, security, upgradeability, and integrations. I look forward to working through some of these issues and facilitating information sharing.
1:1 Meeting with Companies
The associates sat down with all 10-companies to understand their businesses and needs. At this stage, most companies have a working product and it was great to see live demos. Most are looking for product-market fit and only a handful have paying customers.
Mentor Mixer
Mentors are individuals with deep industry, investment, or entrepreneurship experience. They work with the companies pro bono, without expectation of compensation, share their knowledge and guidance freely, and open their networks when appropriate. Mentors are what make Techstars unique.
We held our Mentor Mixer to discuss the importance of mentorship and cover key guidelines. Over 90 mentors are volunteering their time to support these startups. These mentors span multiple industries and are leaders in their fields. I can’t wait to finally meet them in person. Key highlights include sam Cassatt, Lane Rettig, Catherine Wu, David J. Namdar, Daivd Wachsman, Jonathan Levin, zooko, and many, many more.
Key lessons:
- Research mentors, know them, relate to them.
- Have an agenda, your issues and your plans — present the problem.
- Ask for feedback and advice.
- 100% follow-up within 24 hours… no exceptions.
Elevator Pitches
An elevator pitch is a concise, well-practiced description of your startup and your plan, delivered with conviction and enthusiasm. Founders must be able to describe what customers they serve, the problem those customers have, and the solution their business provides.
We held a workshop to cover best-practices on elevator pitches. Founders worked on refining their pitch and provided feedback to each other before pitching in front of mentors for the first time. Blockchain technology is difficult to explain. Abstraction lets us make sense of all the complexity. Explain a customer problem and how your solution addresses a need.
Key lessons:
- Turns out we had much to learn from Jack, a 12-year old founder pitching a lemonade stand and marketplace on Shark Tank.
- 5 elements to a great pitch: concise, catchy, clear, call to action, and authenticity.
- Start with the Why for inspirational leadership.
- Practice makes perfect.
- Be vulnerable. Pitches improve with feedback.
Key Resources:
Kickoff with Alchemist
We met the Alchemist team for the first time. Alchemist is a full-service blockchain advisory and investment company, specializing in token sales and end-to-end product development of blockchain applications. Alchemist team members have been founders, advisors or investors in over 25 projects. They have been behind preeminent projects such as Ethereum, tZERO, Lisk, Bancor and ZCash.
The founder, Steven Nerayoff, was the legal architect of Ethereum’s record setting token sale, which continues to be the basic structure used throughout the world today.
Virtual Webinar with “the David’s”
We had a virtual Q&A session with David Cohen and David Brown, the Founders & Co-CEOs of Techstars.
Key lessons:
- Mentor whiplash (conflicting advice from different mentors) is a challenge and an opportunity — decision making under pressure is very powerful.
- What are common mistakes? Not being truthful and opening up. Be careful with reputation. Feedback is critical. After every workshop and mentor meeting, founders are sent an email asking to complete an NPS score.
- How to find the right mentors? Balance between those you click with and those who challenge you. Make sure not just a yes person. Need a pessimist in the room.
- How to balance the demanding schedule of the accelerator while running your business and leading a healthy life? Set stretch goals for yourself.
- Definition of success at end of program? Depends on the company. Get a ton of data over next 3 months. Make sure the goals are right for you. Don’t be pressured into hyper-growth.
Techstars Alumni Discussion
We heard from recent alumni of the Techstars Barclays Accelerators. The founders of RealBlocks, Harvest Platform, and waffle.io answered questions and shared advice on how to make the most of the program.
Key lessons:
- Dont expect something magical to happen overnight just because you are in the program, make daily strides and it will compound.
- Look for more mentors who agree with you but also challenge you.
- Understand your goals and KPIs.
All Hands
Our weekly All Hands is the opportunity for the whole cohort to come together once a week to discuss metrics and key challenges (boulders vs. rocks to overcome). I was surprised by how honest and engaged everyone was. Founders embrace radical self-inquiry and feedback.
Founder Story
This week we had the privilege to hear from Yossi Hasson and lessons learned starting SYNAQ, an open source cloud email security company. After scaling to 1 million users, SYNAQ was acquired by Dimension Data and awarded Top 20 Tech Start-up in Africa by Forbes Magazine.
Marshmallow Challenge
Yossi led us through this fun Marshmallow Challenge workshop which taught us the value of collaboration and prototyping.
Family dinner
Every week, one of the companies provides dinner for the entire program. This week the associates organized a New York and pizza-themed dinner for the teams. Obviously, we wore pizza onesies.
Axe throwing
The week culminated with a kick axe experience. It was great bonding with all the teams in a more relaxed environment. Aiming to hit those KPIs next week!
Concluding thoughts:
- It was a really fun but intense first week. We learned a ton.
- We are each others’ best network now and the teams got very close to each other, quickly.
- #TS4L #DoMoreFaster #GiveFirst.
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