Entries for December 2008

HackSpace at TechStars

The Boulder community has grown to a full boil it seems with engagement and startups. I sit in a downtown coffeeshop writing this, and can see people from 7 startups taking an afternoon break, talking to each other about projects, problems and solutions. TechStars has a great downtown office space, and until recently, we have reserved it for founders of companies we have invested in and mentors.  In the last few months we have hosted a BarCamp, iPhoneDevCamp and a few CTO lunches.

David and I both travel quite a bit (here is a map of where I have been this last year, as well as David’s via BrightKite) talking with hundreds of early stage entrepreneurs. When I was in Arizona I took a look at GangPlank, a local coworking office space. They have done an amazing job of bringing together a somewhat fragmented tech scene. One thing they do that is outstanding is host a hack night, inviting developers and designers to work collaboratively out of their office space.

With that history in mind, I would love to invite you to HackSpace, a open night at TechStars to work on some projects, meet great people and see the TechStars space on January 15th starting at 5pm. I assume it will go until 8 or 9. Bring your laptops, projects and some ideas to collaborate with the greater Boulder development community.

If this is something people like, it will become a regular thing.

Foodzie funded with $1M and launches updated marketplace

Foodzie (a TechStars 2008 company) has announced that they have closed a $1M round of funding from Jeff Clavier at SoftTech VC, First Round Capital, and angel investors.

Foodzie is an online marketplace where food lovers can discover and buy food directly from small, artisan producers and growers. Foodzie is also building a community around these artisan producers and their products that will allow “foodies” to get to know the people behind their food, and share their experiences and recommendations with other consumers. Foodzie makes it simple for food producers to setup an online store, tell their story, and sell directly to consumers. All inventory management and shipping is handled by the producer. Foodzie helps to bring together a fragmented market of artisan food producers to make it simple for foodies to discover some of the best products from across the country.

Working with Foodzie this past summer was a real highlight for me. Rob, Emily, and Nik came in to the program with a strong idea and a great vision. It was clear from the day I met them at TechStars for a Day that they were going to do this, and to do it well. They got in to the program because of their progress, passion, and dedication. It didn’t hurt that they were always passing out chocolates. One they got to Boulder for the summer, they did an amazing job of engaging mentors and fine tuning their idea.

Foodzie was well documented this past summer. Brad Feld developed his crush on Foodzie early in the summer, which you can begin to hear in this podcast featuring Brad and Foodzie during week two of TechStars. Foodzie also recently appeared (along with Ignighter) in a Current TV video called “Startup” that really gives you a good idea of what it’s like to go through TechStars.

The site just recently left the “sneak preview” phase and launched its marketplace with 25 new sellers. I’d encourage you to check it out and maybe order something yummy for the holidays. Most of the products are very unique and hard (if not impossible) to find elsewhere.

Intense Debate named #3 consumer product of 2008 by ReadWriteWeb

ReadWriteWeb released their Top 10 Consumer Web Apps of 2008 today. Intense Debate, the comment replacement system from TechStars 2007 that was recently acquired by Automattic was named #3. Twitter was #1, followed by Firefox at #2. Wow, that’s some pretty amazing company!

You can check out Intense Debate by commenting on this post or over at Barack Obama’s site change.gov.

Congrats are due once again to the Jon, Isaac, Michael, Austin, Tom, and the whole team at Intense Debate, and to Matt, Toni and Wordpress. Rock on.