Techstars founder Brad Feld says you should give more without knowing what you’ll get back

Feld shared how a personal philosophy begets richer mentorship at an intimate TechTO event during Toronto Tech Week.

Members of the crowd at StartWell’s office on King Street West in Toronto were leaning slightly into one another just to try to hear their conversations in the bustling room when a gong sounded.

The gong signalled to the crowd that Brad Feld, the founder of global startup accelerator Techstars, partner of Colorado venture firm Foundry, and the guy who literally wrote the book on Venture Deals, was ready to speak. Feld was at Toronto Tech Week to have a candid conversation with Golden Ventures founder Matt Golden on the power of mentorship, which happens to be the subject of his new book, Give First. Everyone in attendance could receive a free copy of the book upon entry, and many took their seats with it in their hands. 

“The magic of a mentor-mentee relationship is that it’s not hierarchical.”

Brad Feld
Techstars founder

As defined in the book’s opening pages, “Give First” means being willing to put energy into a relationship or a system without defining the transactional parameters. It’s a philosophy, not a religion, Feld told the room. That is, it’s something you should integrate into your worldview rather than set as a hard rule. However, he was quick to say it should not be conflated with altruism—”You can and should expect to get something back.” You just don’t know the way it will manifest. 

“The last 15 years and a lot of the experience that we had with Techstars [evolved] to what this philosophy is today,” Feld said. 

Feld, leaning back in his chair wearing a shirt that read “Boomer ok” alongside a depiction of Grogu (better known as “Baby Yoda”) from The Mandalorian, shared with the now-hushed room how this approach has fostered a number of valuable personal and professional relationships over the hourlong conversation. 

In one story, Feld says he advised a business owner to host a monthly mobile developer meet-up with provided pizza, as they were struggling to find and hire mobile developers at the height of BlackBerry’s popularity. According to Feld, this method solved their problem. 

“If you put yourself in a position where you’re starved for time, money, energy, food, shelter, whatever, be selfish,” Feld said. “Think of something that will help your business, and approach the startup community [and the] people that you want access to in a way [you think] could be helpful.”

Feld applied the philosophy of giving without expectation to the concept of mentorship, noting that he has benefitted from and remains connected with the thousands of founders he funded at Techstars. 

Brad Feld and Matt Golden at a TechTO event during Toronto Tech Week. Image by Sean Pollock courtesy TechTO.

“I’ve learned way more from them than they learned from me,” Feld said. “The magic of a mentor-mentee relationship is that it’s not hierarchical … there’s a whole bunch of things that you see through your eyes that I, as a 60 year old, can learn from.” 

It was apparent while Feld shared tales that the content of the conversation was secondary to his presence. When taking questions from the audience, an older man told Feld he was just “goddamned honoured” to be in the same room as him, and promptly received a hug from Feld. Many attendees BetaKit spoke with following the conversation were also, quite simply, starstruck. 

“It’s not every day you get to be in a room with a monster in the space,” one attendee told BetaKit, who said he thought Feld’s lesson against transactional relationships was valuable. 

Unified.to CEO Roy Pereira, who was in attendance, said that Feld’s humility, humour and calm stuck out to him. 

“The ‘pay it forward’ principle comes out of his life of doing hard things with humility, and understanding that we all are successful when we help each other without wanting to be paid back,” Pereira said via text following the event. “He would be a great Canadian!”

BetaKit is the official media partner of Toronto Tech Week. Feature image courtesy Sean Pollock for TechTO.

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