TechStars is a different. It’s a mentorship-driven seed stage investment fund located in Boulder, Colorado which is quickly becoming one of the country’s top startup hubs.

David Cohen is the founder and Exective Director of TechStars.

David has a soft spot for technology startups and enjoys helping innovative early stage technology companies succeed. He also has a passion for Colorado and believes it’s a fantastic community for any startup. The Colorado TechStars program combines these passions with capital, connections and real-world experience to provide a unique opportunity for early stage startups.

David is a founder of several software and web technology companies including Pinpoint Technologies (now ZOLL Data Systems) of Broomfield, Colorado. While at ZOLL Data Systems, David was also the CTO. The company was acquired by ZOLL Medical Corporation (NASDAQ: ZOLL) in 1999. You can read about it in No Vision, All Drive [Amazon]. David was also the founder and CEO of earFeeder.com, which was sold to SonicSwap.com in 2006.

David is also an active startup advocate, advisor, board member, and technology investor who comments on these topics on his blog at ColoradoStartups.com.  He is also a member of the Board of Advisors of the Center of Innovation at Metropolitan State College of Denver.

David’s hobbies are technology, software/web startups, business history, and tennis. He has two amazing kids who always seem to be teaching him something new.

Brad has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur for over twenty years. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures, a company that helped launch and operate software companies and later became a venture affiliate of the predecessor to Mobius Venture Capital.

Brad currently serves on the board of directors of Gnip, Oblong, and Zynga Game Network for Foundry Group. Previously, Brad served as chief technology officer of AmeriData Technologies. AmeriData acquired Feld Technologies, a firm he founded in 1987 that specialized in custom software applications. Brad had grown Feld Technologies into one of Boston’s leading software consulting firms prior to the acquisition. He also directed the diversification into software consulting at AmeriData, a $1.5 billion publicly-traded company which was acquired by GE Capital in 1995.

In addition to his investing efforts, Brad has been active with several non-profit organizations and currently is chairman of the National Center for Women & Information Technology and co-chairman of the Colorado Governor’s Innovation Council.  Brad is a nationally recognized speaker on the topics of venture capital investing and entrepreneurship and writes widely read and well respected blogs at www.feld.com and www.askthevc.com.

Notable companies that Brad has invested in and/or sat on the boards of include Abuzz (acq. NYT), Anyday.com (acq. PALM), Critical Path (CPTH), Cyanea (acq. IBM), Dante Group (acq. WEBM), DataPower (acq. IBM), FeedBurner (acq. by GOOG), Feld Group (acq. by EDS), Harmonix (acq. VIA), NetGenesis (IPO), ServiceMagic (acq. IACI), and ServiceMetrics (acq. EXDS).

Brad holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Management Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Brad is also an avid art collector and long-distance runner. He has completed ten marathons as part of his mission to run a marathon in each of the fifty states.

Jared was still in college when he co-founded his first company, American Information Systems, an internet access, web hosting and application service provider. Growing up in the family’s Boulder-based greeting card and publishing business, Blue Mountain Arts, he succeeded his grandmother as sales manager in 1996. Jared caught the attention of the e-business world by co-founding BlueMountainArts.com, an online greeting card website which he sold to Excite@Home three years later. In 1998, he launched a web company to sell flowers direct from growers to consumers (ProFlowers.com) that has expanded to become Provide Commerce, Inc. (PRVD), one of the fastest-growing and most successful online start-ups.

Jared was named an Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2000, and one of the top ten young entrepreneurs by Success Magazine.

In 2001, he founded Sonora Entertainment Group, which has developed a chain of movie theaters that screen first-run Hollywood films dubbed or subtitled in Spanish. Cinema Latino is currently operating in Fort Worth and Pasadena, Texas; Phoenix, Arizona; and Aurora, CO.

Civic and Philanthropic

Jared won statewide election in 2000 to the Colorado Board of Education, where he has been a strong advocate for school reform and enhancing educational opportunities. He currently serves as Vice Chairman. That same year he launched his own foundation to further pursue his passion for improving and expanding access to education.

Jared has founded two innovative charter schools that meet the needs of underserved students. In 2004, seeing the difficulty faced by older immigrant youth in mainstream public schools, he established the New America School to extend the benefits of English literacy and a high school liberal arts education to all students. One year later, seeing the challenges faced by teens who struggle with homelessness or unstable living conditions, he co-founded the Academy of Urban Learning which opened in the Fall of 2005.

Recognizing the enormous commitment and importance of teachers, Jared created a program called “Celebrating Educators” that has awarded hundreds of teachers with micro-grants and other expressions of appreciation.

In 2001, Jared launched the Community Computer Connection program which supports education through technology, attempting to bridge the digital divide by distributing 3,000 computers a year to low-income students through schools and non-profit organizations.

Today, Polis’ work to improve public education and ensure that all people have the opportunity to succeed puts him in touch with a wide variety of related policy issues including the need for accessible, quality health care; sound economic policies; environmental protection; and financial security for the elderly and disabled.

He played an instrumental role in the passage of Amendment 23, an amendment to the Colorado Constitution that has been responsible for preventing cutbacks in K-12 education that otherwise would have occurred over the past several years. He also helped found the Democratic Education Initiative, a statewide group developing vision and strategy for education reform.

Jared is active with a broad range of charitable and other non-profit organizations. He serves on the Boards of Colorado Conservation Voters (CCV) and the Watershed School, and is Vice-Chair of the Colorado Commission for High School Improvement. He is Chairman of the Commission on the Status of Financial Education, established by the National Association of State Boards of Education. Jared is a recipient of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Colorado Humanitarian Award and was recognized as the Outstanding Young Coloradoan by the Colorado Jaycees.

He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Princeton University and lives in Boulder

David is a serial entrepreneur who has founded two software startups and been involved with three others.

David is one of the original founders of Pinpoint Technologies, Inc. which is now ZOLL Data Systems and provides solutions to the emergency medical services market.

David has a B.Sc. degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. As a ski instructor in the past, David still enjoys hitting the slopes on a good powder day.

• Jeffrey Powers October 18, 2008

  That sounds like an awesome opportunity