Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

According to multiple media reports, there’s been another round of layoffs at Techstars which has seen its share of not so positive news in recent months.

It started in late February when the organization that manages start-up programs like the “Techstars Industries of the Future Accelerator” that had a three-year run in Knoxville announced the closing of several well-known accelerators and a relocation of its headquarters from Boulder, CO to New York City. According to The Information, that announcement included the notice that 20 employees were being terminated. Roughly three months later. another shoe dropped with the announcement that Maëlle Gavet, Techstars Chief Executive Officer (CEO), would be leaving the company at the end of the month for health reasons and would be succeeded by former CEO David Cohen.

The latest cuts coincide with the closing of the JPMorganChase-backed Advancing Cities initiative that was designed to invest in more than 400 companies led by Black, Hispanic, Latino, Indigenous American, and Pacific Islander entrepreneurs across nine U.S. cities. A JP Morgan spokesperson told TechCrunch: “The fund is expected to be fully deployed by the end of this year, as planned. JPMorganChase remains committed to supporting across the country through the expansion of its diverse manager network, private investments platform and engagement capabilities.”

In an email to staff last week, Cohen confirmed that 17 percent of its workforce is being eliminated in the latest round. That’s 46 positions. “It has become clear to me that we overbuilt and over-hired to support our ambition to scale,” he wrote in the email. “We built a business with the capacity to support thousands of new investments annually, but the reality is that we have been investing in around 700 start-ups a year. We are going to stop focusing on scaling and shift all of our focus to being better for founders.”

 

 

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