By Ryan Kuder, Managing Director of Techstars Anywhere Accelerator and Kendra Dixon, Program Manager of Techstars Anywhere Accelerator

Way back in 2017, we launched our remote-first accelerator, Techstars Anywhere. We’d met hundreds of great founders who, for whatever reason, couldn’t (or shouldn’t!) relocate for an accelerator program. It could have been that they had employees, or customers, or families, or any other reason relocation wouldn’t work. So we created a remote instance of Techstars to bring our amazing network of mentors and investors to founders while they worked from anywhere. Since then, 34 companies have gone through our remote-first accelerator. We knew there’d be an up and to the right curve on remote work, but we did not see this global pandemic coming.

Now here in the summer of 2020 the world has changed a lot. It’s truly an extraordinary time. Where once remote work was an emerging trend, over the past few months it’s become the norm. And with remote work, all the things that surround work — families, socializing, events, networks, travel, entertainment, food — have changed as well. The impacts of this shift are far-reaching. We’re confident at some point the virus that has catalyzed these changes will subside, but the idea that you need to physically be in a particular place to do your job will be a relic of the pre-pandemic world for many. We’re looking for amazing founders building startups, for both our professional and personal lives, in the context of this new normal. If that’s you, we want to meet you.

What’s the Techstars Anywhere experience really like? Watch Inside a Virtual Accelerator to find out.

While anyone from anywhere* building anything can apply to Techstars Anywhere, for our next class we’re specifically looking for founders building products and services catalyzed by a remote-first world. What workplace and social changes happen when you can work from anywhere, anytime? What new jobs will exist? What new tools will enable that kind of work? What changes does this bring for homes and families? Neighborhoods and cities? What does it mean for transportation? Healthcare? Entertainment and travel? Socializing? Teleservices? Urbanism? Nomadism? Education? Asset ownership? How do we access experiences or places in VR or AR? We want to hear what your vision of the new normal looks like. And if you’re unsure if what you’re building is a fit, let’s chat regardless. 

Applications for the Techstars Anywhere class of 2021 open today. They’ll be open through October 11. You can apply here. If you’d like to talk to us about your idea, you can apply for office hours to speak with us 1-on-1. We have a limited number of office hours slots available so if we can’t meet, join any of our upcoming informational events where you can meet alumni, sit in on Techstars workshops, or ask questions of me and Kendra. Our first event will be a conversation about getting the most from your virtual accelerator on Thursday, July 23. If you’re unsure of what your next step should be, you can always email us anywhere@techstars.com.

Keep building!

Ryan & Kendra

*While Techstars Anywhere is a remote-first accelerator program, it’s not asynchronous. Founders convene online throughout the program. For this reason, we run the program on the US Mountain Time Zone and believe that the experience is optimized for founders living between the US Pacific and Eastern Time Zones. Founders outside of those time zones might have a better experience at an in-person accelerator program closer to home.

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