Glossary

💡 Words and abbreviations you'll encounter when organizing a Startup Week, explained.

Tracks 

Tracks are a series of themed events. Themes usually cover specific topics, like ’People Management’ or ‘Legal Guidelines.’ Startup Weeks usually have 5 tracks, and 5 speakers/panels for each track over 5 days. (5 x 5 x 5 is a good way to remember this)

Track Captain

A Startup Week track captain is the owner of a specific track (or theme) during the event. The track captain will be responsible for sourcing and managing speakers for their track and developing the programming for that track. 

Startup Week Organizer

The organizing team is responsible for putting together the event. They cover all tasks related to executing the event, including marketing, logistics, and speaker management.

Community Leader (CL)

A community leader, or ‘CL,’ is someone in the community who has, is planning to, or is currently involved in organizing a Techstars Startup Weekend or Week. They are passionate about supporting and bringing their community together to drive positive change by boosting local economic growth and innovation. 

Mentor

Mentors at Techstars #GiveFirst to offer value to our network of founders through industry or personal knowledge or expertise. They also offer their network of connections to our network of aspiring, first-time, or serial entrepreneurs.

Customer Success Coordinator (CSC)

Customer success coordinators help to take an event from prospective to successfully closed. They are there to support our community leaders with any issues or concerns related to event resources, best practices and support.

Regional Manager (RM)

Our regional managers are responsible for supporting all events within a region. They are focused on building startup communities and acting as a catalyst for connections and growth. They support Startup Weekends, Startup Weeks, Bootcamps, Unsummits and other network events within their region. 

Techstars Community Support Contact

Your event support contact will engage with you throughout your organizer experience. This can be either your RM, CSC or anyone else at Techstars who is working to support your event.

Vertical

A theme specific to a particular industry like ‘Fintech’ or ‘Space,’ or a theme around a social or environmental challenge, like ‘Diversity’ or ‘Sustainability.’  

#GiveFirst

One of Techstars’ core values is GiveFirst. In the startup world, ‘#GiveFirst’ means simply trying to help anyone — especially entrepreneurs — with no expectation of getting anything back. It's the pay-it-forward principle that builds strong startup networks. At Startup Week, we live by the #GiveFirst mantra and encourage our network to do the same and see what surprising effects this can have. 

Basecamp

The Techstars basecamp is one main location where the bulk of events take place during Startup Week. The basecamp will typically be managed by a basecamp lead, who will produce the “Basecamp Handbook.” This is a run-of-show document including contact details, for those involved in event support.