StarZero All shows Try the podcast clipper →

David Cohen

Co-Founder & CEO, Techstars · 2 appearances on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

founderinvestorexecutiveauthor@davidcohen ↗LinkedIn ↗davidgcohen.com ↗Wikipedia ↗

In 2006, he co-founded Techstars, building it into an early-stage accelerator and investment network backing startups like Uber and Twilio. Prior to Techstars, he co-founded Pinpoint Technologies and co-authored books including Do More Faster.

31statements → 8claims → 5claims resolved → 80%fully supported → 4.06/5average certainty → 2.03/5average debate potential → 4.4/5argument clarity · the sources → 12said about them ↓

4 supported 1 partly supported 0 contradicted 3 not checkable as stated how the 8 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

1 prediction · 7 assertions · 4 opinions · 10 insights · 8 disclosures · 1 what if · every statement was checked. The prediction and assertions are the 8 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 5 are resolved, and 3 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how David argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
80% of Techstars accelerator companies raise follow-on funding
“80% of our accelerator companies are going to raise around from somewhere.”
David Cohen Feb 11, 2019 ▶ 19:36 20VC: Techstars Founder David Cohen on Why Seed Investing Is A Different Asset Class To Venture, What Makes The Best And The Worst Board Members & Why Every Company Has To Have A Pessimist In The Room

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
100% certainty 3
83% certainty 4
100% certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

Argument clarity: do they answer the question? how? →

4.4 / 5 directness 4.5 · coherence 4.6 · precision 4.5 · compression 3.8

redirected or did not address 1 of 22 assessed questions (5%). Watch them ▸

This is a score against a rubric. It is not a rank. Every host question → answer exchange is scored with names hidden on directness, coherence, precision and compression, 1–5 each, on meaning alone: disfluencies are ignored, and only raw unedited episodes count. This is the score that measures thought. Every scored exchange, scores shown → · The rubric and its checks →

How they sound: speaking style how? →

254 words/min while actually speaking · 18.8 um and uh per 1k words

Measured by listening to the audio itself: 3,987 words across 1 episode of raw-level tape, transcribed verbatim with every um and uh kept, each one attributed only where the alignment onto our timed stream is unambiguous. These are measurements of speaking style. We do not rank them: across this corpus, fluency and argument quality are nearly uncorrelated (ρ≈0.2), and smooth talking does not signal clear thinking. How it's measured →

How the interview went all their pushback → series average →

Across 2 rated episodes:

host pushback ▾ 1.5/10
pushed back at the host ▾ 1.5/10
setup questions received 60%

Everything David Cohen said on 20VC that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Opinion
Cohen: Nearly 98% of startup bridge rounds are bridges to nowhere
“Yeah, my stats are only a 98%, so I'm not sure if I get it right, but it's somewhere in that zone. No, they often are bridges to nowhere”
David Cohen Feb 11, 2019 ▶ 17:44 20VC: Techstars Founder David Cohen on Why Seed Investing Is A Different Asset Class To Venture, What Makes The Best And The Worst Board Members & Why Every Company Has To Have A Pessimist In The Room
Opinion
David Cohen: Seed and angel investing are not venture capital
“I believe that angel investing, seed investing is a completely different thing than venture capital. I don't think it's part of venture capital. I think that it's a different type of asset, which has different needs and requirements and has a different perform…”
David Cohen Feb 11, 2019 ▶ 25:57 20VC: Techstars Founder David Cohen on Why Seed Investing Is A Different Asset Class To Venture, What Makes The Best And The Worst Board Members & Why Every Company Has To Have A Pessimist In The Room
Insight
Cohen: Hot startup deals often turn out to fail
“But you know, it turns out that the hot deal, something I've learned is, is often the one that doesn't work. And when you see Uber for the first time, or you see, you know, a company that ultimately didn't do well, you're just as excited about both of them.”
David Cohen Jun 27, 2016 ▶ 9:28 20VC: Techstars Founder, David Cohen on Scaling Techstars Ventures and Investing In Uber, Twilio and Sendgrid
What-if
Cohen: Techstars returns would be 5x lower if using uncapped notes
“Had all the investments we've done been uncapped notes, it's something like a five X, you know, lower return.”
David Cohen Jun 27, 2016 ▶ 15:39 20VC: Techstars Founder, David Cohen on Scaling Techstars Ventures and Investing In Uber, Twilio and Sendgrid
Assertion Not checkable as stated
David Cohen: Having too many optimists can kill entire companies
“And I've literally seen it kill entire companies by just being too many optimists, hanging out, spending each other up.”
David Cohen Feb 11, 2019 ▶ 8:09 20VC: Techstars Founder David Cohen on Why Seed Investing Is A Different Asset Class To Venture, What Makes The Best And The Worst Board Members & Why Every Company Has To Have A Pessimist In The Room
Insight
Cohen: Startups should form a board of directors at the seed stage
“Yesterday. I think that companies need to put it in as soon as possible. And, you know, I think entrepreneurs have this tendency to think of the board as this Overlord controlling things and they can fire me and all that, but that's not necessarily the case, r…”
David Cohen Feb 11, 2019 ▶ 9:31 20VC: Techstars Founder David Cohen on Why Seed Investing Is A Different Asset Class To Venture, What Makes The Best And The Worst Board Members & Why Every Company Has To Have A Pessimist In The Room
Assertion Supported
80% of Techstars accelerator companies raise follow-on funding
“80% of our accelerator companies are going to raise around from somewhere.”
David Cohen Feb 11, 2019 ▶ 19:36 20VC: Techstars Founder David Cohen on Why Seed Investing Is A Different Asset Class To Venture, What Makes The Best And The Worst Board Members & Why Every Company Has To Have A Pessimist In The Room
Insight
Cohen: Consistency in investment strategy matters more than the strategy itself
“It's about having a consistent strategy and just sticking to it. You know, it almost doesn't matter so much what the strategy is as that you're consistent about it and stick to it.”
David Cohen Jun 27, 2016 ▶ 6:50 20VC: Techstars Founder, David Cohen on Scaling Techstars Ventures and Investing In Uber, Twilio and Sendgrid
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Cohen: First Bullet Time fund had an average pre-money valuation of $2.8M
“So the average pre-money valuation of an investment in my first fund is 2.8 million dollars, which is quite sane.”
David Cohen Jun 27, 2016 ▶ 8:03 20VC: Techstars Founder, David Cohen on Scaling Techstars Ventures and Investing In Uber, Twilio and Sendgrid
Insight
Cohen: Concentrated angel portfolios statistically fail
“You have to have enough portfolio diversification to where, you know, if you're concentrated in just a few companies as an angel, I mean, the stats are pretty clear. You're going to lose.”
David Cohen Jun 27, 2016 ▶ 9:00 20VC: Techstars Founder, David Cohen on Scaling Techstars Ventures and Investing In Uber, Twilio and Sendgrid
Insight
David Cohen: Best investments come from instantaneous 5-to-10-minute instincts
“Most of the best investments I've ever Had have been that five, 10 minute instantaneous, you know, like I'm in reaction, right?”
David Cohen Jun 27, 2016 ▶ 14:22 20VC: Techstars Founder, David Cohen on Scaling Techstars Ventures and Investing In Uber, Twilio and Sendgrid
Prediction Not checkable as stated
David Cohen vows to never invest via uncapped convertible notes again
“I've done one in my life, and I plan to do no more.”
David Cohen Jun 27, 2016 ▶ 15:21 20VC: Techstars Founder, David Cohen on Scaling Techstars Ventures and Investing In Uber, Twilio and Sendgrid
Opinion
Cohen: Traditional VCs frequently fail at seed-stage investing
“The VC is trying to do seed. You know, you see so much failure there, right? You see, it's just a different game.”
David Cohen Jun 27, 2016 ▶ 18:04 20VC: Techstars Founder, David Cohen on Scaling Techstars Ventures and Investing In Uber, Twilio and Sendgrid
Opinion
David Cohen: Tech industry rewards loudness over performance
“I'm very concerned about the health of the long-term dynamic where entrepreneurs and investors value fame and boisterousness over shut the hell up and do a great job and help the company, right? I think most industries evolve towards rewarding performance and,…”
David Cohen Jun 27, 2016 ▶ 22:23 20VC: Techstars Founder, David Cohen on Scaling Techstars Ventures and Investing In Uber, Twilio and Sendgrid
Insight
Cohen: A founder's reaction when confronted reveals their true character
“What they say in that moment of integrity is how you can really tell how a person will behave and their value.”
David Cohen Feb 11, 2019 ▶ 4:57 20VC: Techstars Founder David Cohen on Why Seed Investing Is A Different Asset Class To Venture, What Makes The Best And The Worst Board Members & Why Every Company Has To Have A Pessimist In The Room
Insight
Cohen: Trust between founders and investors is rebuildable if openly discussed
“So again, we all do things wrong, but if I can trust that we're going to be able to talk about that openly, especially in a board or investor context, or this works in personal life as well, Then I think it's easy to rebuild almost no matter what the transgres…”
David Cohen Feb 11, 2019 ▶ 6:42 20VC: Techstars Founder David Cohen on Why Seed Investing Is A Different Asset Class To Venture, What Makes The Best And The Worst Board Members & Why Every Company Has To Have A Pessimist In The Room
Insight
Cohen: High Confidence with Low Accuracy Makes the Worst Board Member
“And so the worst form of board member is someone with confidently held misinformation, right? Where they believe this is the case and this is how this works, but actually it's high confidence, but low accuracy.”
David Cohen Feb 11, 2019 ▶ 13:32 20VC: Techstars Founder David Cohen on Why Seed Investing Is A Different Asset Class To Venture, What Makes The Best And The Worst Board Members & Why Every Company Has To Have A Pessimist In The Room
Insight
Cohen: Structure investment terms to test and hedge founder predictions
“So when you're getting a story from the entrepreneurs about what's going to happen, try to find ways to make the terms match that story and the eventuality that that story may not happen.”
David Cohen Feb 11, 2019 ▶ 17:21 20VC: Techstars Founder David Cohen on Why Seed Investing Is A Different Asset Class To Venture, What Makes The Best And The Worst Board Members & Why Every Company Has To Have A Pessimist In The Room
Insight
Cohen: Early-stage startups should raise 18 to 24 months of runway
“The company has, but I think at the seed stage, I would look for a minimum of 18 months. Today, I prefer two years, actually. So, sort of seed and series A investing.”
David Cohen Feb 11, 2019 ▶ 18:27 20VC: Techstars Founder David Cohen on Why Seed Investing Is A Different Asset Class To Venture, What Makes The Best And The Worst Board Members & Why Every Company Has To Have A Pessimist In The Room
Disclosure
David Cohen: Twilio and Uber were Fund 1's first and fourth investments
“The first investment I made was in a company called Twilio. Fourth investment I made was in a company called Uber.”
David Cohen Jun 27, 2016 ▶ 5:46 20VC: Techstars Founder, David Cohen on Scaling Techstars Ventures and Investing In Uber, Twilio and Sendgrid
Disclosure
Techstars requires approval from only one partner for seed investments
“We've maintained, even though we have four partners now working on the larger investments, we've maintained this idea that if somebody gets excited, that's all you need. Go make the seed investment.”
David Cohen Jun 27, 2016 ▶ 14:46 20VC: Techstars Founder, David Cohen on Scaling Techstars Ventures and Investing In Uber, Twilio and Sendgrid
Disclosure
David Cohen invested $50k in Uber after asking for a $100k allocation
“And I said, I was in sitting on that bar stool. I think I asked for a 100,000 dollars. And, you know, cause at the time I think that was the sort of up leveling that we were trying to do in that fund. And I got 50. It's fine. I took 50.”
David Cohen Jun 27, 2016 ▶ 20:31 20VC: Techstars Founder, David Cohen on Scaling Techstars Ventures and Investing In Uber, Twilio and Sendgrid
Assertion Partly supported
Techstars invests in roughly 500 startups per year
“We're investing in about 500 companies a year at this point across these 50 accelerators that you mentioned.”
David Cohen Feb 11, 2019 ▶ 19:13 20VC: Techstars Founder David Cohen on Why Seed Investing Is A Different Asset Class To Venture, What Makes The Best And The Worst Board Members & Why Every Company Has To Have A Pessimist In The Room
Disclosure
Techstars maintains a 1:1 reserve ratio for larger follow-on investments
“When we do make a larger investment, we actually reserve one-to-one. So for every dollar we put in, we keep a dollar in reserve, and then we, you know, over time sort of reallocate that as needed and think about our reserves as a strategic part of what we do.”
David Cohen Feb 11, 2019 ▶ 19:55 20VC: Techstars Founder David Cohen on Why Seed Investing Is A Different Asset Class To Venture, What Makes The Best And The Worst Board Members & Why Every Company Has To Have A Pessimist In The Room

Show 7statements(7 left)

The other half of the tape: David Cohen's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 10 times in 5 episodes on 20VC. 2 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 6John Fein 3David Tisch 1

Statements about David Cohen, by other people (2)

Assertion Supported
Stebbings: David Cohen's portfolio companies have created over $80B in value
“To date, David has backed hundreds of startups, including the likes of, check this out, Uber, SendGrid, Twilio, ClassPass, PillPack, and many more. In total, these investments have gone on to create more than eighty billion dollars in value”
Harry Stebbings Feb 11, 2019 ▶ 0:30 20VC: Techstars Founder David Cohen on Why Seed Investing Is A Different Asset Class To Venture, What Makes The Best And The Worst Board Members & Why Every Company Has To Have A Pessimist In The Room
Assertion Partly supported
Tak Lo: Techstars originated from David Cohen and Brad Feld's open office hours
“Techstars was created actually between David Cohen and Brad Feld's open office hours.”
Tak Lo May 18, 2015 ▶ 15:09 20 VC 037: How To Get a Job at a Startup, Startup Lessons and Brad Feld's 'Open Office Hours' with Tak Lo, Director @ Techstars

Every mention by year

tap a year for its mentions
003152201620172018201920202021episodesmentions
012201620172018201920202021episodes it came up in
001.312.52201620172018201920202021episodesmentions per episode
2021 1 mention in 1 episode
2019 4 mentions in 2 episodes 2 per episode
2016 5 mentions in 2 episodes 3 per episode

Appearances (2)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
20VC: Techstars Founder David Cohen on Why Seed Investing Is A Different Asset Class To Ve Feb 11, 2019 18m
20VC: Techstars Founder, David Cohen on Scaling Techstars Ventures and Investing In Uber, Jun 27, 2016 17m
Made with StarZero

Turn any episode into a week of clips.

This entire site, over 1,200 episodes transcribed, diarized, checked and made playable, runs on the StarZero media pipeline. Drop in your own episode and the podcast clipper finds the moments worth sharing, cuts them, captions them, and reframes them for every feed.

Try the podcast clipper Learn more