Insight certainty 4/5 debate potential 2/5

Techstars prioritizes former founders over industry experts for Managing Director roles

Greg Rogers · 20 VC 027: Greg Rogers on Techstars, Mentors and The Potential for Fintech · Apr 13, 2015 · at 10:30

Greg Rogers, Managing Director at Techstars London, explains Techstars' hiring philosophy for accelerator managing directors, relaying advice from Techstars London director John Bradford.

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“But first and foremost, Techstars looks for entrepreneurs for their MDs. He said, you know, you can find industry experts all you want, but what's actually really hard to find are people who have, you know, gone through the VC races, been rejected multiple times have built up the engineering team, have negotiated the sale of their own company, And he just said, that brings so much more credibility to when you're trying to advise entrepreneurs than any industry expert.”

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