David Cohen (entrepreneur)

David Cohen (born 1968) is an American entrepreneur and the founder of Pinpoint Technologies, iContact.com, and Earfeeder. He is also an angel investor with a portfolio of more than 100 companies.^[1][2] Cohen is best known as the co-founder of Techstars, a mentorship-based startup accelerator.^[3][4]

David G. Cohen
Cohen in 2022
Born	1968 DeLand, Florida
Occupation(s)	Founder and co-CEO, Techstars

He and Brad Feld co-authored Do More Faster: Techstars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup.^[5]

Early life and education

Cohen was born in 1968 in DeLand, FL.

Early career

Cohen began working as a software engineer in 1991 when he became the Director of Development for Automated Dispatch Services, Inc., where he worked until 1994.^[4]

Cohen founded Pinpoint Technologies in 1993. He was its CTO and vice president of research and development.^{[citation needed]} The company developed public safety and EMS dispatch vehicle software.^{[citation needed]} Zoll Medical Corporation acquired Pinpoint Technologies in 1999.^{[citation needed]} Cohen stayed with the company until 2004.^{[citation needed]}

Cohen then founded iContact.com, a social networking service for mobile devices. It is now defunct.^{[citation needed]} In 2006, Cohen founded the music service earFeeder.com.^[6] SonicSwap bought earFeeder.com in 2006.^{[citation needed]}

Techstars

Cohen is the founder and co-CEO of Techstars, a startup accelerator program^[3] he found in 2006 with Brad Feld,^[6] Jared Polis, and David Brown. The first program ran in 2007.^[6] Cohen designed Techstars to improve the existing system of angel investing and to provide more support to startups.^[6][7] In a speech at the Future of Entrepreneurship Education Summit, Cohen said that he was particularly interested in improving the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Techstars' launch city, Boulder, Colorado.^[2] Now, Techstars has dozens of locations globally that accept new startups regularly.^{[citation needed]}

The Techstars experience was turned into a reality TV show on Bloomberg TV.^{[citation needed]} Techstars invests $118,000 in each of its program startups. The startups also receive mentorship and pitch opportunities during the program.^{[citation needed]} Techstars accepts approximately 1% of applicants.^[2][8]

Works

Cohen is the co-author of Do More Faster with Brad Feld.^[5] Do More Faster shares advice for first-time entrepreneurs from the Techstars program. It includes essays from other Techstars mentors and company founders.^[1]