Toxic ELT and questionable strategy - Director Techstars Employee Review

1.0
21 Apr 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

*Working with founders *98% of employees and team members are good people

Cons

2% of the team creates 95% of the issues. And that 2% are the ELT, comprised of mostly large corporate figures who have never started a company, worked with early stage teams, or really even understand the fundamentals of the business. They arrived with their playbooks and assume they are correct. But if you look at the evidence, it's a constant churn cycle these past two years alone where we've lost some of the best MDs, two of the best GMs, and many other great people who are just burnt out or tired of being treated poorly or looked at as "not doing enough". This perspective is quite widely held by accelerator staff - the experience across engineering, legal, etc. is not quite the same. The CEO talks a lot about honest talks and empathy, but you don't see it in her actions. The HC team creates more problems then they do value. And the team that is about the business has the least amount of influence on the direction Techstars takes. It's a far cry from the tenure of David Cohen and what it was like working alongside him and the original executive team closely connected to program teams.

Explore other reviews about Techstars

5.0
11 Feb 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good pay, $34/hour, 15 hours a week, during classes. Experience with a VC on a resume and startups

Cons

Only 15 an hour if you have more time, total pay is capped at 5k for the program

3.0
4 Jun 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Awesome people who care about the success of founders!

Cons

Upper leadership felt a little disconnected.

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