Techstars announces top leadership change
David Cohen, a former CEO, returns to the organization as current CEO Maëlle Gavet leaves the company at the end of the month for health reasons.
The following email was received Thursday from a Co-Founder of Techstars who is returning to the organization as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO):
You may already have heard, but I wanted to make sure I was communicating directly with you. I announced yesterday that Maëlle Gavet, Techstars CEO will be leaving the company at the end of the month for health reasons and that I have returned as CEO.
Over the past three and a half years, we have accomplished a great deal under Maëlle’s leadership. The company has made 2,000+ start-up investments. In 2023, 469 Techstars portfolio companies raised a total of over $2.4B, with 322 of them raising rounds of $1M or more. Applications to our programs doubled between 2022 and 2023 while our quality filter has remained as high as ever – an average of just 3% of those applicants were accepted into our programs. We continue to rate highly with entrepreneurs in our programs, who in 2023 scored Techstars a nine out of 10 for providing business value. All of that while the diversity of our founders rose to 25% female founders and 36% black and brown founders (in 2023).
I want to thank Maëlle for pouring her passion, blood, sweat and tears into Techstars. I feel fortunate to have worked so closely with her. She built a great team, made many tough decisions, and bravely enacted complex changes that were sorely needed. But now Maëlle must focus on her health. I know I speak for everyone at Techstars when I say that we wish her strength and courage as she addresses what’s ahead.
While I am excited to be back as CEO of Techstars, I was never far away. I was the first employee and have been an employee here continuously since then. I was the first Managing Director of our first and at the time, only, accelerator (Boulder) in the early years. In total, I have served as CEO or co-CEO for thirteen of the seventeen years that Techstars has existed and have been on the Board since the company’s inception.
I will continue to focus on making Techstars even better for founders!
David Cohen
Founder & CEO
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