With an eye on global expansion, Boulder-based startup accelerator Techstars has brought on an ex-Disney executive to grow its brand.
Techstars announced on Tuesday that it has appointed Matthew Grossman to the newly created role of chief brand and communications officer. Grossman comes to Techstars after 12 years at The Walt Disney Company Europe, Middle East and Africa as vice president of corporate communications, publicity and social responsibility.
Prior to Disney, Grossman served as senior vice president of international corporate at Edelman Public Relations in Paris.
Grossman, who will remain in London with the new role, is tasked with helping to raise Techstars’ awareness and grow the brand globally.
This is the first big executive announcement Techstars has made since bringing on Maëlle Gavet as CEO in January.
“Matthew’s successful track record at building widely known brands in a decentralized environment make him the perfect fit for this role,” Gavet said in a statement. “With his experience in international strategic message development, I am confident that Matthew will be an asset to our team and help advance our business objectives around the globe.”
Gavet came to Techstars earlier this year with a wealth of tech experience, serving in executive roles at the Boston Consulting Group and OZON.ru, Russia’s largest e-commerce site, as well as real estate platform Compass. Much like Grossman's remote role, Gavet remained based in New York City after the hire.
In a previous Q&A with Denver Business Journal, Gavet said one of her primary goals was to expand the accelerator’s services to more people. She added that the virtual nature of the pandemic has sped up those opportunities.
“There is an amazing pool of untapped talent and underinvested ecosystems out there. There are so many founders who have the potential to transform the world with solutions we really need but haven’t had access to the right resources to break through and scale in their industries,” she said in a January Q&A. “Techstars’ vision from the beginning was a geographically distributed model that could help entrepreneurs everywhere and we will look to continue this initiative.”
To date, Techstars has invested in more than 2,500 companies with a combined market cap of more than $220 billion.
