Why TechStars Non-Selected My Application
When I decided to sell my company, I began to think about things I could get involved with in the local tech community. After meeting with my friend Danny Newman, he talked about his involvement with TechStars.
Bet you cant guess which one Danny Newman is (If you guessed raggedy hipster with the bad hair, you would be correct):
So, over the past year, I plotted ways to get involved. I emailed David Cohen. I went to go work for Lijit. I even moved to Boulder. And for all my work, I got a piddly little mention on the TechStars mentor page.
Still not satisfied, I, along with Danny, decided we would apply to TechStars. We spent the better part of a year building out our idea, and crafting our application. We used fake names to not sway David’s decision, becuase clearly, he hates the Jews. (Or at least dont think Danny and I were serious, but hating the Jews sounds so much better). So, here is the application, in its entirity. Trust me, most of its true.
What’s your name?
Gabriel Vincent (Danny and my middle names)
What’s your email address?
vingab81@gmail.com (an actual email address – try it)
What’s your phone number?
720-273-1008 (an actual phone number)
Where is your team based, geographically?
Boulder, CO (an actual city)
What will the name of your company be?
RolLast (an actual name, seriously. The Web 2.0 Name Generator told me so.)
If you have a web site, what’s the URL?
http://N/A (we are actually not working on it.)
What will your company do or make?
We developed a mobile technology for the creating, sending and sharing of video. In essence, we are an aggregator of mobile video, creating multiple distribution channels through enabling mobile publishers. Because of the distribution channel, we are able to generate multiple views of specific videos quickly creating a viral effect lifting most videos to 2-3x of views.
What’s new, interesting, or different about what your company will do?
Because of the viral nature of our application and distribution network, we are able to drive multiple views quickly. For example, we recently worked with Crispin, Porter & Bosteky to drive mobile usage and views of their No Whopper campaign for Burger King, making it one of the most viewed mobile videos ever.
Have you already taken any outside investment? Please describe if so.
No. Everything we have done to date is organic.
Explain how the company will make money.
We can get corporate and agency clients to pay for the creation and distribution of the mobile videos. With 5-6 clients now, we are nearing profitability. We believe we can take our concept to the mass market, and succeed where others have failed.
Tell us about each founder (include their role, skills, education level, schools, past companies, etc
Gabriel Vincent – CEO, Graduated top 5% from MIT in Computer Science. This is really his first project, beyond smaller efforts in other companies.
Heather Stranske – COO, Graduated from CU with a finance degree. She has worked for several large companies, such as IBM and SUN locally in their finance departments.
Ben Greeson – CTO, Bron in Greeley, graduated from Berkeley. Co-wrote two books on Ruby on Rails, considered one of the top open source developers in Colorado.
If you or any of your team members have built cool stuff on the web, please provide the URLs:
Small project Vince and Ben worked on: http://tinyurl.com/229sh5
Can each of the founders come to Boulder, Colorado for the summer of 2008? If not, please elaborate.
yes.
Why should we choose your company?
We are dedicated to being successful. Our feeling is that with the connections and the focus TechStars provides, it will enable us to take our idea to the next level and truly be something special.
And what does all that work get us?
Status: Rejected
I guess, David is going to miss out on two wild and crazy guys, but have 10 awesome teams that have been truly vetted and screened. Based on last year’s crop, I am expecting this year to blow them out of the water, and more importantly, for TechStars to have improved equally, providing additional value over last year’s program.
After all, if RolLast didnt make it, then someone is doing their job. Good Luck TechStars 2008 teams!
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Stu Andrews
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GeekMommy
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micah
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David Cohen
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Ari
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Tom
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micah
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Stu Andrews
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Daniel Newman

