Foundercon
Creating opportunity for Founders to connect with partners and celebrate the core and spirit of what they do as best-in-class innovators within their space
Home Run!
FounderCon is the annual gathering for founders of the 27 Techstars Accelerator programs around the world. Hundreds of founders, along with Techstars staff, attend two days of rich programming and networking opportunities.
Techstars is a global ecosystem that empowers entrepreneurs to bring new technologies to market wherever they choose to live. With 27 mentor driven accelerator programs and thousands of startup programs worldwide, Techstars exists to support the world’s most promising entrepreneurs throughout their lifelong journey, from inspiration to IPO.
“Strength in unity”- Cincinnati’s motto.
Once a year, we organized Foundercon so our alumni startups could all come together and learn from industry leaders and their peers, share best practices and leverage the experiences and connections that make them part of “Techstars for Life” motto.
FounderCon is a real-time showcase of the worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed- the one time each year when Techstars invites all our founders, corporations, and investors to come together in a different city every year.
In 2016, we set our most ambitious plan for Foundercon yet:
Partner with Cintrifuse and host the event in Cincinnati.
Take over the city for 3 days.
Coordinate and involve multiple local partners such as P&G and Kroger and invite the local community to be part of this celebration.
Talk of the town.
One of the things that we talked about early with the Cintrifuse team was utilizing FounderCon to generate a sense of place for entrepreneurship and Cincinnati as the example of what they hoped to achieve which is a long-lasting, residual effect out of the conference.
We worked with their team to build a strong network of thought-leaders that would share their learnings as community leaders and their impact and involved local startups that could illustrate the potential for new businesses in the city. The idea was to foster a connection between our founders, their startups, universities and the BigCos.
With more than 1K attendees, we needed to build a comprehensive agenda that would provide value in different areas for our founders, partners and general public. The effort was monumental, having to secure multiple permits all over the city to set up outside vendors in plazas, food trucks, concerts, etc. We collaborated with the Cintrifuse team in securing that everything was ready on the ground and they were key in making sure all the different agencies were involved. They made sure that our branding and our partners' logos were everywhere: from the arrivals area at the Cincinnati airport, to the street lights, marquees and plazas. Cincinnati became the Foundercon City for 3 days.
We found a great partner for the event in the Cincinnati Reds, the Major League Baseball team. They provided the Paul Brown stadium and their resources for our opening night, where we welcomed founders, partners and local community and provided insights into our event and what they could expect to do and see in the upcoming days. They also provided their stadium for us to host BizDev Day with dozens of corporates that our M&A team organized. We set up 15 minute 1:1 meetings during one of the event days and Techstars Investor Day. Both of those activities were the most attended sessions and the ones that provided attendees with the most value.
The educational content of the event was significant and we built multiple conference tracks, keynotes and panels around the city, but all of them within walking distance, so people could move around and attend whatever fit better their needs.
The results.
Eight years ago, FounderCon began as a way to bring the burgeoning alumni from Techstars accelerators together about once a year. Since then, it’s evolved into a celebration of entrepreneurship that brings together knowledge, investors, business development and alumni engagement while incorporating the local community of the host city.
In 2016, we helped over 216 startups, organized more than 1,200 meetings with over 45 investors and 68 BigCos. Those meetings included investors like Accel, NEA and General Catalyst and corporate partners from Amazon, P&G. Disney, Facebook, Ford, Google, Microsoft, PayPal and Salesforce. We organized more than 74 activities around the city in 14 different venues and more than 20 talks and sessions addressing the pressing needs of our founders as they try to raise funding, hire the best talent, and connect with the companies and people who have been there before them.
Our main goal with Foundercon was to grow the opportunities for our alumni and to provide all of our partners and investors with an opportunity to meet the most innovative startups in the world and the technology that they are building. We’ve been able to help corporates and startups with connections that have transformed into partnerships, mergers or acquisitions or customers, and all thanks to a lot of effort from the Techstars team and it’s partners that want to see entrepreneurs succeed. Foundercon is the true definition of an impactful community event.
