Is TechStars the 2012 equivalent of winning Willy Wonka’s golden ticket?

Bart Lorang, CEO and co-founder of FullContact, answers the tough questions:

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Learning about each other is no small task. There are over 40 founders here, including 3 HackStars, 3 Summer Associates, and 2 Mentors In Residence. The teams were so excited to meet and I’m just as excited for you to meet them. After going through over 1,200 applications, it was gutwrenchingly difficult to narrow it down to these 12 teams. But I’m thrilled to introduce you to the teams now, and if you want to meet them in person, (and are in the Boulder area this week), come by on Friday to say hi!

So without further ado – please meet this year’s fantastic teams below and follow them as a list on Twitter here! Our hashtag for this program is #techstarsboulder.

StealthCo	A company in the media management space.
	eBay meets Etsy for fashion, with a twist. Follow your favorite fashionista’s ‘closet’. Founders: Kelly James and Joonas Bergius
	Find best deals in hotels based on pricing analytics.
	We make cloud hosting simple and easy so you can manage your site, not your infrastructure.
StealthCo	A company in the mobile and cloud space.
StealthCo	A company doing cool stuff with email.
	Provides instant phone-based access to a crowdsourced network of live human translators.
StealthCo	A company doing fun things with real estate.
	LendingTree for your used car.  A simple app that gives you multiple offers on your used car.
	Location-based offers and alerts to your mobile phone or car infotainment system.
	Speed up sales cycles and close more deals by delivering relevant intelligence about the companies and people in your CRM.
	Smart Toys – mobile app that delivers educational and gaming content inside of a stuffed toy.

• Next Big Sound pitch breakdown with David Cohen and Clare Tischer
• SendGrid pitch breakdown with David Cohen
• Kapost pitch breakdown with David Cohen and Brad Feld

If you’re really observant, you will find two linkable Easter eggs within this video.

You can create your own interactive projects at FlixMaster for free!  Also, be sure to visit them on Facebook where they offer insider tips for creating dynamic interactive videos that drive engagement and conversions. Create your own interactive video at FlixMaster.

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photo by Annie Laurie Malarkey

Below is a guest post by the wonderful Rebecca Lovell, mentor to TechStars. Author’s note: Rebecca Lovell is the Chief Business Officer of GeekWire, which acquired Seattle 2.0 and as such is now producing and presenting the beloved Startup Awards. Rebecca is a returning mentor to the Seattle TechStars program, and teaches a class on Venture Capital investing in the UW MBA program.

In a world where startups need every ounce of passion and insight they can muster, and where Andy Sack means so much to so many of them, on May 3rd the Seattle community added a new award to Andy’s list of accolades: “The Iron Man of Startups.”  In the fourth year of a grand tradition, GeekWire presented the Seattle 2.0 Startup Awards, where the community voted for such favorites as Startup of the Year and Hire of the Year, and new hits such as Next Tech Titan and Geekiest Coffee Shop.  But nothing brought down the packed house like the true “People’s Choice” award given to Andy.   We introduced a “Wild Card Award” this year, where techies and startuppers submitted their nominations in the form of ____ deserves an award for ____.  Believe me, we got some interesting submissions, but one name and theme emerged as the clear winner.  Last Thursday, we couldn’t have been more honored to present the Iron Man award to Andy, and we could have heard a pin drop at the EMP when 600+ adoring fans awaited his acceptance speech.

“Fuck.”

He also said: “Cancer is this amazing thing. I mean…I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. But there are a lot of positives to the experience and one of the positives is being weak enough that people step forward. I’m honored, humbled, and super happy to be alive. I love what I get to do each day, which is work hard to make the Seattle tech community better each year. And I’m seeing it, so I’m super excited. TechStars investors just re-upped for three years. Apply. It’s gonna be great.”

Jonathan Sposato, GeekWire’s Chairman and a fellow mentor for the TechStars program in Seattle put it best: “Andy is the King of Get Fucking Aggressive. The Emperor of DtoP (Drive to Profitability).  The Ayatalloh of BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goals). A man so tough he kicked cancer in the ass.”  From career advice to poker tips (not to mention working with him at TechStars), Andy has been an inspiration and a friend. In a town known for being passive aggressive, Andy is aggressive.  Aggressive in his advice- yes.  Aggressive in his support of startups- hell yes.  And aggressive in beating cancer.  Much love and gratitude to Andy, and we can’t wait to see what he and TechStars do next.

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What does this mean? It means that Twitter has the balls to compete on the basis of the products it creates and the service it provides. It won’t rely on patents to “win” an offensive game. It will use them as an asset only if and when it is attacked. What a concept.

Reasonable people can argue about software patents, but in general we strongly believe that they simply slow down innovation and are the source of tremendous waste. Behavior recently has been downright ridiculous.

TechStars intends to insert these Patent Hack provisions into our standard formation documents and encourage all of our companies to adopt the patent hack. As always, the entrepreneurs will get to choose if they want to play by these rules or not since it’s their company. But they’ll know that TechStars encourages them to adopt the provisions and we’ll make it very easy for them to do so.

If you are a fan of software innovation, you should thank Twitter for their leadership. Thank you Twitter.