A year on from Techstars

A year ago today we started the Techstars Future of Finance Accelerator in Amsterdam. The week before was a scramble to relocate, and the weeks that followed were some of the most intense of our working lives.

Seeing our own mistakes

It is hard to describe how different we are now. Perhaps the clearest way to put it is that we are far more aware of when we are making a mistake. We have a much better sense of what the path through a difficult decision should look like, and we notice sooner when we have strayed from it.

Learning to take advice

The most valuable outcome was the expertise and mentoring, and learning how to receive advice and act on it, which is a skill in itself. Back-to-back meetings with mentors from banking and fintech gave us many views in quick succession, often conflicting ones, and made us test our own reasoning.

We also came away understanding that it takes a big boat to build a real company: advisers, investors, partners and a team who can each carry part of the load.

The people

The relationships have lasted. Founders from our cohort still talk regularly, for advice, commiseration or encouragement, and we want every one of those companies to succeed. Techstars itself was ranked No. 1 on TIME and Statista’s 2026 accelerator list, which comes as no surprise to us.

To the founders starting in Amsterdam this week: it will be hectic, stressful and like nothing you have done before. Enjoy it.