[featured-video-plus width=770]

  

What you’ll hear in this episode

• Amos Schwartzfarb’s incredible history
• Becoming an active early-stage investor
• Sell More Faster

Amos Schwartzfarb didn’t plan on becoming an entrepreneur and still doesn’t think of himself as one, but you could easily title him that just by glancing at his history. Schwartzfarb has been involved in seven startups including Techstars, a startup accelerator. After each one he told himself it was the last but kept getting involved. He then came to the realization that he could be on the other side of startups, the investing side but was unsure of how to do it. In an act of what Schwartzfarb described as serendipity, he met the then managing director of Techstars while working at another startup, invested for the first time, and became a mentor for the company. After he departed from that startup he had to meet with the same then managing director of Techstars to let him know he couldn’t return his capital. He told Schwartzfarb it was a bummer, but it was also great because he had been looking for a way to get him to interview at Techstars for the managing director position. Schwartzfarb did the interview and has held the position since 2015.

Much like how he didn’t set out to become an entrepreneur, he also didn’t set out to become an author. Despite this Schwartzfarb wrote the book Sell More Faster. The idea came to him through his time in sales. He was asked multiple times to come into businesses to give a sales workshop and coach sales teams on how to do their best at the job. He’d always ask what they’d want the workshop on, but nobody ever gave him a straight answer. He had some time on his hands due to an injury, so he sat down and wrote out workshops. Through another act of serendipity, this eventually became his book.

Listen to the fourth installment of Up and Comers to hear more about Schwartzfarb’s interesting history, his involvement with startups, serendipity, and the road to him becoming an author. If you enjoy what you hear be sure to share with your colleagues!

Up and Comers is a founding_media podcast created in partnership with Heather Wagner Reed

Host: Heather Wagner Reed

Guest: Amos Shwartzfarb

 

Transcript:

this is a founding media podcast if Hey everyone welcome to another episode of founding Austin’s up and comers a show about Austin start at boom with a focus on the city’s vibrant innovation sector I’m your host heather Wagner week today we’re here talking to Amos schwarze Farbe managing director of techstars Austin who is here not only to tell us about his incredible career but also about what this highly regarded global accelerator can do for your start up not to mention he’s got a new book coming out this year called sell more faster let’s take a listen and find out more

nice to see you here and nice to see you here in this good to see you again in just a year and Amos shorts Barbie is here with us today and he’s got three different things that he’s going to be talking about because his life is first of all very fascinating had a chance to get to know him better over the past year and as one of the leaders in our city in the sector and he’s got an incredible start up history he’s got an incredible history with techstars Austin which is a local accelerator and he’s got a new book coming out called sell more faster this fall so welcome to the show thank you for having me thanks so okay I want you to start with a little bit more about I’m gonna throw you a total zinger I love using ring it what drives you a man that is you know I think about this question a lot because I’ve had a lot of jobs and roles and experiences in my life that I could say like yeah I’m in a good spot I can just kind of hang out and I never do and I’ve actually looked you know left companies leaving you know after acquisition leaving money on the table to go do something else sometimes that something else is doesn’t pay anything at all the best that I can come up with is I like I like self inflicting emotional pain on my cell not really but kind of might get deep yeah you know I I like solving things like salt I like solving things especially when they’re deeply interesting to me and I can I can always put my finger on what they are but when when I’m doing something and I see a more efficient way to do something to do it or a way to turn something into something bigger than what it is I get very excited about that and that can be professionally that could be personally that can be you know with my family with you know my extracurricular activities but I I like pushing limits right yeah

okay so tell us a little bit more about your background where were you born where you at school some your interest because I think it all plays into the story yeah so I was I was born in the Bronx New York third generation born in the Bronx so we’ve my family’s been in the states for a really long time from from Poland Russia and Germany so far but I mean you for generations backs a long time nice and but we moved to Fort Lee New Jersey when I was in first grade so I like claiming the bronze but really I’m from Jersey right very proud of that as well yeah and you know I I II I all right well I don’t know what to tell you about me growing up I was I was just an average kid in a lot of ways but also I you know I like doing things that were hard all the time and and I liked I think more maybe that a better way to say it is I like to exploring lots of things so I was on the wrestling team and I wrestled from when I was very young and I was in the marching band and I was on the debate team and I ran track and and I did not get good grades but I except in the classes that I that I really connected with the teacher so I had the ability to get good grades but yeah I was like an average student I think in a class of a hundred ninety people I was ninety fifth down this afternoon yes yeah and you know when I when I left high school I didn’t really want to go to college it was really important my parents because I went to both of my parents college graduations and for them it was important for that I had it a college education and you went to the both the gravel yeah my dad when I was five my mom’s and I was sixteen oh my god yeah really cool cool yeah and you know and yeah it is like when I look back at that it’s neat and when I but when I was going through it I was like oh this is not like normal most of my friends parents and maybe not most at least half of my friends parents were not college educated so was where I’m from like it wasn’t a big deal but it was really important to them that I went to college so I did I went to the university of Massachusetts because I couldn’t get into records because I didn’t have good enough grades only somehow hidden for in that email records nice yeah that it that it is he from Jersey yeah originally what part yeah gosh dang what’s the name of that little town here from hold on a minute who’s cook house north Jersey I don’t know I I will get back to you on this okay hold great totally forgetting this town go on I’ll I’ll respond before the end of this along the way I discovered a lot of things I had been exposed for example to the Grateful Dead in high school but I really discovered it in college I D. been exposed you know I’ve been a an athlete growing up but a disk I discovered a couple new sports which is non biking and rock climbing and so when I finally graduated college I was like okay I’m free I did what my parents ask me do you know I can go do what I want to do and that was to go to California to California and Brooklyn and I I didn’t really have like any career aspirations and yeah I tell people this all the time they’re like wow but like I didn’t like I didn’t I didn’t set out to be an entrepreneur and I don’t even really think of myself as one today I’ve you know I found a couple companies but really does like to solve that I like to challenge myself with things that are interesting and I don’t really think about you know like I don’t really want to getting into I might say oh I can see where this could go right right I’m writing that excites me but I’m not doing it because I’m like oh I’m going to take this to this place and I go I can see where they can go so let’s see what let’s see that’s possible to make it happen right yeah so that that’s that’s that’s how I started my adult life and then through a series of other events that I think I said this to somebody once and they looked at me sideways and thought it was a obnoxious and then after I told the story they’re like oh no I get it I

I had I had kind of like a little bit of a Forrest Gump in the beginning and like you know the first several things that I the companies that I fell into when I started armor or or was in early we’re just serendipity in the right place right time and so like for example the first start up that I was in I was working at a climbing gym in San Francisco and the owners became my friend Tom need someone to pack boxes for his cut his mail order company was this always the company’s Charlamagne products they were selling rock climbing gear and he did it out of his house he was just him answering the phone in the morning and then packing boxes in the night and it was getting to see any needed someone to pack boxes so I was employee number one we yeah yeah we I packed boxes in his garage and then over time I ended up I started answering the phone also we got busier ins we hired someone else to pack the boxes all day and I would only pack boxes in the afternoon and I answer the phones in the morning and then after being there for a few months this is in ninety six yeah nineteen ninety six a friend of mine in the east coast was get early in the internet said Hey how come you’re not selling your stuff online and it’s like you know I I don’t know because I don’t know what that means like I do have an email address at that point like I didn’t really I don’t have a computer at my house yet let you know I didn’t I didn’t know and I don’t know what you’re talking about but she helped me understand what that meant and she actually helped us realize that there was a different opportunity there so we built a couple of website cultural amount products and sold to rock climbing gear online and from the best I can tell we were one of the first E. commerce companies in the world and so the company to down here that is run pretty neat yeah yeah and it’s not it’s not it’s not a meaningful outcome for me in fact I had no equity in the company so you know it was just a thing that happened here in the spirit is great I don’t even know that I was missing out on anything and are awesome for it for Tom shore is a you know it’s someone that ache I’m talking years but I like I am so thankful for that opportunity because that is the beginning of something that I didn’t know it was a good path I don’t know I was going to be on

it’s amazing how life is like that and certain personalities find themselves in those situations I think you know I think there’s like a certain Inc like inner feeling or intuition about like I have a learning opportunity here you know I could take advantage I kid you grow from this I may take some taking the most viable take we may not be monetary at all yes but I love reading your your bio and as two senior just seen the journey you had with all these different start ups and dot coms and how it led you to this job right now which is just so you know so interesting because now you’re taking these people in your wing and helping them yes someone things yeah so I’m sorry not to go too far because I want to hear a lot more about all this journey back but techstars Austin is you know obviously that’s one of the reasons we hi I’m sure takers are talking about the awesome thing so tell us a little bit more about your pivot from start up start ups are and and then growing into this role as managing director yeah stars okay great well so at that said your body starts after every single one I always have my doing anymore and I kept doing it right I I think you know if you include techstars I’ve been in seven start ups and only one one that is crashing burned and at eight but after missing when I’m like you know I I I’m not doing this again this is super harden and I’ve made some money and like I’m just gonna go chill so I did that happening that happened we I sold the company with rob Taylor who’s now the CEO of convey called black Lucas back in two thousand twelve I think it was and I was like yeah I’m not doing this again but maybe in you know at this point I I sort of like this I’d like Lucas was at the point where I was like oh maybe this is what I’m doing with my early adult life and this is who I am right now and so I as as a sort of and I was like okay I mean the start up world this is something that I that I’m pretty good at neat maybe I can become an investor but I didn’t really know how to do that you know and it just started developing deep relationships with investors and I really I didn’t know how to go around that down that path but it was in my mind and then started another company that failed call Giles to I was at that for a couple years and one of the investors was adjacent seats who at the time was the managing director of techstars Austin okay and at that same time I or the reason I met Jason was because Jason met rob Taylor and there’s a whole other tangent here which is like being your authentic self and following serendipity right the whole reason I know rob is kind of random and that’s how I met Jason which is white where I am today but rob when robin I exited like Lucas he had met Jason J. you know he was just was near the town is that who you know who should I meet the Robinsons enjoy bunch of people I was just one of those people but I became and mentor for that the techstars Austin program and I also invested in decent fund at that time and so I had never invested in a fund before I didn’t know what that meant I kind of understood mentorship was I never heard a techstars but I figured what better way to to keep an eye on my investments of by as a mentor yeah and so I did that and I really really enjoyed it I didn’t know what it would mean further down the line but when we finally decided that Joss was that we were going to shut it down and it’s not technically shut down but when I was going to leave I went to Jason have a have a beer with him and to tell him that Hey I’m really sorry but I am I don’t I’m not gonna be returning your capital and and he said yeah it sucks but it’s okay because I’ve been trying to figure out a way to ask you if you would interview for my role because I’m moving to a new role in the company so it ended up working out really well and had you know had he not invested in how do you know all these other string of events I would have ended up met as the managing director was that they

had you already moved Austin at that yeah I’ve been in Austin for eleven years okay already okay which I feels like I still feel like can you be here I don’t think I am that he was not at all in years that you’re that you’re at and actually coming here for for business since two thousand since two thousand and one so I’ve been coming here for really really long time in fact when I worked at odd jobs in the in the late nineties and early two thousands we had an office on Congress in the building next to where the early techstars office was and I and I we were I don’t we sure certainly certainly weren’t the first but we had to be one of the first tech companies downtown you know how jobs was acquired by Yahoo and then five months and doesn’t exist as a brand anymore but even he coming in for a long time remember that company that’s yeah that’s and so would you do with the help what was your role there I had a lot of roles there I started in sales it’s a really fun story how they ended up there so I was doing a little stand for an ad agency in San Francisco and we had wrapped it TV commercial for chevron and we’re at a bar celebrating which is what you do when you’re out the commercial right and there is this dude sitting by the bar by himself and I’m very friendly I just kind of like you know I see that only a you know come hang out with us and the guy’s name was Dave Carvajal he was one of those that you know Dave I don’t think I do yeah the team there’s a lot of people said Dave Dave was one of the one of the founding members of hot job and he was in San Francisco recruiting because they were starting a San Francisco office and he was talking about this company how jobs that was going to IPO I didn’t know what I feel meant that I was like yeah that’s really cool view and so anyway that there’s a lot more that story but I so I started as a sales person I almost got fired because I sucked I was I started with a class of ten people examples of vulnerability expressed by really entrepreneurs okay are there a bunch of people in in in New York already I I there was like three or four sales people in service is going to I started with a class of ten people and I was the last person to make a salad that class and in the in the the of of sales hires an I. button from what I heard after was like I was like oh days from getting fired and then all the sudden it is down in another and then another thing like the second or third month I was one of the top producers and I was for awhile and then about after about four five months maybe six months we went public and we decided to open up offices all over the country so Austin was one of our offices and DC and Chicago and Boston and LA and so that the so the guy they asses guided Johnson to open up the only office and AJ and then pick two people to go with you so he picked me and this guy Scott shepherd and so we moved to LA to open up the LA office and then became a sales manager in the LA office and built out that whole sales team in a way that they did that for about six months I was getting really bored of selling and managing people and so when I realize at the time was going too far down the rabbit hole hello like we had awesome sales we were included in incredible sales machines like the the best that I’ve ever been around we’ve known it said we also need to service our clients with the super leaky bucket and as I go I can I think I know how to fix that I don’t know why I had the balls to say that because I’ve never done anything like this before but yeah we’re young company and they let me try to fix it and I did after several things and and so that that escalated into you know bunch of you know Hyrule’s there’s Iran that that division of the company for a while then we sold to Yahoo will be sold to Yahoo a whole bunch of other turnover I helps to help restart the San Francisco office and then when we’re done with that I moved over strategic sales where I built out their account management team and then I ran part of their sales team in this whole time like once we once we saw that realize like big companies aren’t for me yeah I’m sorry looking for my escape hatch but but I stayed for about a year after that

I’m looking at the the notes I have here for the interview which of course none of this matters going you know I’m like this is the story of you you know it’s like a really great it’s a really great opportunity to learn more especially about your background sales because clearly yeah I know your new book yeah that’s what yeah that’s where it all came from the right those days yeah so I don’t have it in the book but but the new book like I’m just curious like this new book that you have coming out obviously techstars is involved with it too yeah and and it’s going to be I’m sure a handbook for many people going through I hope so that’s the intent yeah that’s that’s what I took away yeah he looked into not more so tell us a little bit more about the book and how it relates to the work you’re doing right sure can and it and if I may I’m gonna start with the genesis of why I wrote a book because I didn’t set out to write a book I really didn’t and and I’m a big believer in just being your authentic self and like it was journal entries that just turned into a book I know what is right like I I mean I really believe in like serendipity and like leaving your your ears open for your your malls open for for you know opportunities are present so one of the things big there’s a we’ve got our that like the managing directors at intech stars are credible they do a really good job of hiring super high quality people I’ve there there isn’t a person I can think of that isn’t super high quality with the present company excluded from that yeah tell it but but most of the people don’t have a background in sales printer technical there prepare their product or whatever it is that sales is one of them so I get a lot of requests for he can you come to my program into a sales workshop or Hey can you talk to this company and coach them a little bit and and and when I get the request Pacific Lee around a workshop I was you know when you want to do a workshop on I’ll see if I can create something and no one ever had a really good answer and so I finally said you know what and you know I’m gonna digress is a tiny bit this I don’t know that I would have this whole journey would have started if I hadn’t tore some cartilage in my ankle some very active and for four months I couldn’t be and so I had a fight like I was lost my shit for a little bit and then I was like I have to find something I’m not sorry that actually go go now we’re on yeah I had to find something to do with my energy because I don’t sit still well and so I said okay I’ve got some time on my hands let me come up with a couple of workshops and and as I sat down to think about what workshops going to create for for for some of the other programs in techstars I I realize that there are a lot and I came up with a list of eighteen and so my first thought was okay I was going to pull the other managing directors and see where it lies not come up with a couple workshop space in the polls yeah and as I’d read them on the cure some of this isn’t gonna mean anything to anybody except me so let me do a quick little blurb on all of them that that little blurb turned into six blog posts ago this is pretty cool oh five posts maybe techstars will publish them on the blog right right on and so as I sort of started to send those around to different friends and and peers just for feedback to make sure like they were yep you can comprehend what the point was and that they were readable and you know I I’m not really a writer at that early stage eight I didn’t I don’t consider myself in present day I wanted a lot of feedback and I got a lot of feedback okay there’s probably a book in here somewhere which I thought was a a nice compliment but still not an aspiration like I right at the time I couldn’t fathom what it would mean to sit down and write a book right and then serendipitously one of the first companies that I invested in in a techstars Austin was a company at the time they were called authors stop me now they’re called story fit and at the time they sold A. I. X. a I didn’t data packages to publishers well when they say pivoted to the film industry one of the people who went through techstars had come from publishing and went back to publishing as an acquisition editor for Wiley totally random she reached out to me and she had no idea that this is all happening he said Hey you know if you remember me I just took a job at Wiley is an acquisition editor and I was wondering if you knew anybody attacks are as you might be interested in writing a book it was just timing oh my god I was like well interestingly enough I did this thing read what I wrote I know it might be shit sorry it might be trash but if you think there’s something here I’m open to a conversation about it and so I senators came back within a day just like I there’s something here let’s work on a proposal together which it’s not typical like so usually you have to submit a proposal so we did it together we got it it one of the things through this process was that I turn to tech sergeant said and I I think I don’t think I’d actually signed a deal with them yet but I was pretty close I turn to specifically David cone and Brad Feld I said Hey guys like I have no idea what I’m doing and you guys are both written books can you give me some advice and they have been incredible through this process that’s but one of the things that David cone is the CEO of hardships that is you know if you’d be willing to name the books sell more faster which I didn’t have a good title yet and I think that’s a great title and it’s congruent with a lot like do more faster which is a book he wrote in some other titles that are that mail outs on the line and and put a little techstars branding on it not only would we help you but will promoted through the network it you know and so smart yeah so then I turned and I told them that it was like done okay let’s let’s do this and then as I started you know I’m I’m I’m I like to think I’m decently self aware one of the things that I realized really quickly was this is going to be super hard I have a program that’s starting in January at the end of January if I don’t finish this by the end of January it’s gonna sit until the fall I don’t know that I’ll ever do this because I’m going to get distracted and I know myself well so then I turned to them and I said Hey can we can we get on a really tight timeline would have this thing to be published in in stores so that I can use it for recruiting in the fall and they’re like I’m crazy but sure let’s try and if it doesn’t happen will push the date while and then we did we got it done I I I sat and yeah that’s due this was in me the right like it’s literally everything I’ve done professionally and all the people I’ve worked with so I was able to sit down and write in about six weeks I can’t I really can’t we can’t I’m terrified that the I think the content is good but I am terrified that people are going to read it and finally find I find out that I’m a little bit of an imposter think the content is because right now he’s got well well

I think you’ve got the right stage to present your you know the knowledge that you have yeah it’s it’s it’s not it’s not I don’t think it’s strange that these things keep happening to you you know through your life you had doors opening and opportunities happening and and you know clearly this book opportunity the textures and it’s like like I said there’s certain personality in people who energetically invite things to come to them and I think that’s how you are you know I I hope so yeah sure we should enjoy it every day take advantage of this opportunity you don’t push them away you don’t know you made it happen in the time frame that you can make it happen yeah that’s that’s how it works you have success right thank you you’re not yet that’s that’s awesome I can’t wait to read the book and I’m sure that you know so sure a lot of people out there when I read it too so tell us more it’s coming out in September he comes out on September fourth okay if you’re here in Austin we we haven’t set will will be sending out invites in about three or four weeks so I’m not sure if from when this will actually air but but we’ll have a launch party on September fourth right Josh bearing capital factory were gracious enough to give us some space to do that so we’ll do it I can tell you very that sounds yeah okay Seattle all all for coming and but I can tell you what is it about its it is meant to be so the thing the reason that I wrote it is because as we go aside from that long story that I told you when we when we sort of looked around and said what what is there what’s what are the resources to help the founder from D. zero to figure out do they have our sellable product how do you figure out product market direction how do you figure out product market fit how do you build and scale sales there really wasn’t something that took you from days zero that’s playful style and so my my intent with this book is for you to be able to look like open it up and read it like a recipe doesn’t read like a recipe but that’s the intention right so you say okay I have an idea for a company right or I have a company that has been started how do I figure out if I if I know who my customers are how do we know that the thing that I’ve created is what they actually are buying from me not what I’m selling them what they’re buying for me and what and why do they want that and that date so I call that W. the W. three method which is what I did what I physically launched at a company called business dot com and which is the thing that made us go from you know eight or ten minutes seven W. three math and yells for about that ever yeah so it’s a it’s a what and why who are you selling to why do they buy and why did they buy it and and it is what what I propose is that if you can’t answer emphatically with confidence what those three things are you can not grow sales organization you can’t you can’t grow meaningful business you might be able to get sales but you’re not going to have something that’s long term it generates value for someone else and if you can’t generate long term value for someone else you can’t build a long term sustainable business and so the whole book is is based off of that and so I refer back to it over and over and over again throughout the book wonderful yeah and

so and I noticed that you’re gonna have some student speaking engagements about the book and once this rolls out there so hopefully a lot of opportunity for people to hear you talk about it maybe you know learn from you directly yeah so that’s gonna be fun to watch too yeah so you now have a book you have this a career behind you a lot of experience you’ve been managing director of techstars do you see yourself are three more books what do you see in the future oh gosh I don’t know the answer to that question I you know I HM I do I I’m not I’m not sitting here today thinking like I have five more books in me and I know what they’re going to be and and and and you know my my new plate is to be an author I would say that there are topics that inspire me and if if this book does reasonably well and while he is interested in me writing another book I might try to find another topic to do it on I don’t know that I’ll rush to do it in a year it might be three years or five years you know I had some things that I think that are sort of percolate my head that would be fun to talk about it we’ve talked about some of this like I have this belief that there’s you know while while there’s a lot more focus being put on the emotional aspects of being a founder I don’t think enough people are thinking about the the convergence of of business operations and emotions and I think there’s a lot of interesting stuff that there yeah I you know I I’m fascinated by risk you know my my my this whole launch into start ups really started because I was I’m an adventure athlete not because I was a start up person and I am I have a loss that read I don’t push the same limits mostly because I don’t have the time and I’ve got a family now but and I’m fascinated by what risk means to different people you know and I I look there’s a there’s a quote there’s a so I’m sure most people that are listed price of free solo which if you haven’t seen it you should go see it’s about this guy who free solos el Capitan his name’s Alex Honnold there’s lots of people that came before him that didn’t free solo cap but that were amazing this is want free solos John Kerr and he was interviewed in the eighties or the early nineties on like the Johnny Carson show letterman or something and they asked him like what don’t you you know don’t you feel like you’re putting your life at risk and he said something that just take this it hit home so hard which was he’s like I don’t think I’m going to fall and die so to me there is no risk and I think that embodies like what we all think of it as entrepreneurs and its founders like right of course we know there’s yeah there’s inherent risk but we don’t think about it is risky because we’re so short range on fascinated sorry right exacerbated by risk and I don’t know what that means yet and like the greater scheme of things but yeah I mean I do you know I bet course in the context of the podcast is Sarah on the podcast host but yet but besides that I have a company yeah I know what a PR firm and it was like taking a step to jump off the cliff into the abyss where you really can’t predict things beyond a few months a lot you know it ended in running a business at least starting out you know what I mean yeah and that was I just will never forget that because once you get to learn you learn to live in that space of not knowing and you become comfortable not knowing it’s it’s kind of a breeze yeah but before you do it it’s so scary yeah it’s so scary at least for me you know I know everybody’s different everybody has different spring I think it is for everybody even if they don’t want to admit it but what’s really interesting about what you said and and my my partners always lag who runs the techstars impact program we talk about this all the time specifically with our founders which is that that that places like now because we’ve been doing things like this for so long I’m more uncomfortable when I when when it is repeatable right here in that sort of repetition yeah and and if it and in because back to the first thing you ask me which is like what drives me like I I think like being uncomfortable is really comfortable and and you know having to solve the Rubik’s cube of life or whatever the thing is that you’re in is super fun and if you if you can just it’s like anything right it’s like if you’ve never run before you go when you run a mile it’s gonna be hard but right the run a mile then it becomes easier to the new one three oh yeah I think it’s the same thing you build that muscle around like being comfortable being uncomfortable you can have some really amazing things yes yes manifest things yeah bring things to you yeah so and that’s a fact that might be your next book actually just just sand the serendipity you know right place right time I mean it’s it’s important yeah but all right well I don’t know if we’ve gotten to our mark but I will say that this is a very special person here in Austin and one thing

I do want to talk about before we end is just techstars and that the code words that you’re in charge of your partner’s always in charge of and where you guys are because there might be people out there interested in being a part of it so what yeah what can you tell us well first if you don’t know about techstars one you can definitely go to the website and learn a lot more Texters techstars dot com typically zero E. and myself and Trevor who worked with us we will take pretty much any meeting so we’re happy to talk about Texas anytime we love what we do and so we have two programs that run in Austin I run what’s called a horizontal program so I can I can invest in any kind of company via the accelerator that I can talk about the excel real little bit the the thesis that I stand behind is that I believe if we if I can get conviction that a founder can build a meaningful company and have reasonable confidence that there’s an existing market even if we’re not going currently going after the right market that’s an exciting investment for me because the thing that I’ve seen over and over and over and over again is that the the the only thing we know for sure if they want is that we’re wrong about a lot of stuff and we don’t know what that is so we have to find people that are resilient and smart and and a creative to work on the hearts of so my investment thesis is for the accelerators all around that and then so he’s is that coupled with it has an impact focus so they’re a social impact focus so the the your company has to be doing something good for the world themselves because of that we’ve got some really interesting companies that go through that that are trying to solve things like global air pollution  child care and health care for the underserved are you know human rights in you know the end in factories in foreign countries that sort of thing while while and so people can go to the website to learn more you guys are actually going to be soon accepting applications for the applications from you my new program are open until the end of August and then we have about a six week period where we’ll look at the applications to bunch follow up interviews now we’ll make decisions in October for our program starting December second which will run until the beginning March will end right before south by so then we can be done and graduated and ready to take on south by yeah yeah that’s a whole nother thing opportunity yeah just right here and in front of our eyes in Austin so much happening here so well thank you and if there’s anything else you wanna say here’s your last moment else runs would you wanna tell everybody well thank you for having the first one is just so much fun I was left hanging out and yeah what I want to tell everybody

I don’t know if you’re founder starting a company awesome go for it you know you walk with confidence and and take the risk it’s fun and it’s a worthwhile journey and there’s a lot of resources out there for you so check out techstars just as one example of that yeah and so more faster you can actually get my order my book now and sell more faster book dot com that’s the pleasure was yes okay I’m not going to yeah sorry I settle more faster book dot com all right name is thank you so much and thanks for tuning in yeah thanks bye I just love the energy of this discussion with a mess no question why he’s in the role that he is at techstars and how beneficial his vision and leadership as to this organization which is a huge part of our local ecosystem here in Austin be sure to look out for his upcoming books sell more faster in twenty nineteen

I want to thank Amos for being on the show and wish him the best of luck and helping take these companies to the next level the up and comers podcast team includes yours truly heather Wagner read is produced by Mariah Gosset along with our audio engineer Jake Wallace special thank you to Dan Dillard and everyone it found in Austin for your support founding Austin’s up and comers is available on Spotify iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts you can follow me at Jews consulting on Instagram or Facebook links are in the show notes and thanks for listening