Techstars has opened applications for its first Columbus startup accelerator, a core program of Ohio State University's Center for Software Innovation.
"Techstars Columbus Powered by The Ohio State University" will take 10 to 12 tech startups from around the globe through an intensive three-month business development program twice a year – with access to expertise from the combined networks of accelerator and school. The first round starts in March.
After the June "demo day" before potential investors and customers, the hope is that many will stay to grow their businesses in Central Ohio, said Peter Mohler, acting OSU president and executive vice president for research, innovation and knowledge.
"The goals will be to establish Columbus as the place to be if you have a great idea for software, but also, ultimately, to be able to take those new companies, and really continue to build the ecosystem in central Ohio around software," Mohler said in an exclusive interview. "We're interested in areas that get into applications that will impact things that are happening in Ohio.
"Whether that's fintech, whether that is healthcare, whether that is energy – these are areas that for our land-grant mission, we feel very strongly about."
The startups could arise from within the university or come from overseas, so long as they produce something that impacts society, he said. Applications are due by late November.
Techstars will start in Mount Hall on west campus until the center's permanent home, still in the design phase, is built. The software program's first courses have started in existing classrooms this fall.
The space will foster an "ecosystem for founders or software developers or graduate students or undergraduate students or even high school students interested in this to have a joint place to really grow and foster their ideas," Mohler said.
This spring I reported on Techstars' plans for an Ohio State program, similar to other "powered by" university accelerators around the country, based on a job listing.
Techstars has hired Tim Grace as Columbus managing director.
Grace co-founded two startups, most recently Draftbit, a platform for developing mobile apps without the need for much prior coding knowledge. He also co-founded and was managing partner of LongJump, a Chicago VC fund for pre-seed stage startups that's among those still active even in this year's lull, Chicago Inno reports. He's a 2016 Techstars alum and has mentored startups in the Chicago and Boulder programs.
"Columbus is an ideal home for software founders worldwide – in large part thanks to Ohio State’s long standing culture of innovation," Grace said in a news release. "This program will continue this momentum by attracting more top entrepreneurs working to solve pressing global issues to the city.”
The Center for Software Innovation was established with an OSU-record $110 million donation from the family foundation of Ratmir Timashev, the OSU graduate and serial entrepreneur who founded Veeam Software Corp., a Columbus data backup and recovery firm.
The funding is designated for the building, faculty, programming support and the accelerator. Techstars itself is one of the country's largest early-stage investors, but the organization declined to provide a budget breakdown for the Columbus accelerator.
Ohio State talked with stakeholders in the university, industry and community evaluating the top accelerator programs, Mohler said.
"We wanted to find a group that had a track record of taking very, very early – but very good – ideas," he said. "And working with those founders to get them sort of through what we call that 'valley of death,' to the point where ... they can get additional funding, find first buyers, to really launch those companies."
Establishing the accelerator as part of the software center showcases "all that Columbus has to offer" for tech entrepreneurs worldwide, Timashev said in the release. Born in Russia, he co-founded his first software company while an OSU grad student. He currently lives in Connecticut.
"Like so many other immigrants throughout American history, my own journey as an entrepreneur was shaped by the communities that welcomed me," he said in the release. "For me, that place was Columbus and Ohio State, who challenged and empowered me to build great software companies."
