Techstars Ignored Women's Safety

Techstars, Natty Zola, Zach Nies & Julie Penner, paired women founders building a safety device to share bunkrooms with male strangers at kickoff.

In 2015, a Techstars Boulder company was building a personal safety device designed to help people discreetly alert loved ones when they felt unsafe. The majority of the team were women. Their product was deeply personal, rooted in lived experience and built to protect people in vulnerable situations.

At kickoff, Techstars brought everyone to the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park. That’s when the disconnect became painfully clear to a few of us.

Techstars randomly assigned men and women from different companies to bunk together in shared rooms, ignoring the very safety principles that the startup existed to promote.

Some women on the team didn’t feel safe, so they left and got a hotel. Maybe they were right to.

There was a lot of alcohol around that night at an official function.

I remember personally doing shots of tequila with a very intoxicated female founder and Techstars staff. I helped her get back to her building safely, but I left unsure what happened after that.

This is what it looks like when an organization claims to support women and safety, but is never challenged on it.

cc David Cohen David Brown Kara Swisher Zoe Schiffer Dominic-Madori Davis