In June 2022, Techstars CEO Maëlle Gavet urged founders to focus on cash flow, lower their burn, and prepare for a longer, more demanding fundraising process. She expected raising a round to take six to nine months, but did not expect venture capital to stop flowing. Her advice is a snapshot of the 2022 downturn—not a forecast for today.
What Gavet advised founders to do in a downturn
Gavet’s practical message was to protect a company’s ability to keep operating while funding conditions tightened. In her June 2022 interview with GeekWire, she urged founders to pay close attention to cash flow, reduce cash burn, and create additional cash facilities.
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- Track cash flow closely. Understand how much cash is coming in and going out, and how long available funds can support the business.
- Reduce burn. Gavet’s advice was to conserve cash as the market reset, rather than assume that a new round would arrive on the company’s preferred schedule.
- Build access to additional cash facilities. She recommended creating additional cash options, without prescribing a particular financing product or naming a specific facility.
These are general principles, not individualized financial advice. The right cost reductions and financing options depend on a company’s obligations, revenue, runway, and terms.
How she described fundraising in June 2022
Gavet contrasted the prior 18 months, which she said had generally made fundraising relatively easy, with a more typical process of six to nine months and extensive due diligence. That six-to-nine-month timeline was her assessment of what founders should expect in the market she was discussing, not a universal timetable or a present-day estimate.
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She did not say capital markets would shut down. She said venture firms still had capital to deploy and could view lower valuations as an opportunity. Her comments reflected her interpretation of conditions in June 2022; they should not be read as a statement about current investor activity.
What Techstars said its accelerator was for
Gavet described Techstars’ central principle as “give first”: supporting entrepreneurs and the communities around them. She said the accelerator helped founders fill gaps and build sustainable, resilient businesses that could prepare to raise a subsequent round. In her words, “We deeply believe in human connection as a source of success.”
That describes the organization’s stated approach, not a promise that participation will produce funding. Techstars’ December 2023 letter later reported that 74% of its companies raised capital within three years of their accelerator program and 31% exited within eight years, attributing both figures to PitchBook’s global accelerator survey. The letter passage does not provide cohort definitions or detailed methodology, so the figures do not establish that accelerator participation caused those outcomes or predict an individual company’s result. The statistics and the letter’s market outlook are historical, not current performance guarantees.
Her view on supporting underrepresented founders
Gavet said investors had often concentrated on a familiar pool of founders, and framed support for underserved entrepreneurs as both an opportunity to reach overlooked people and good business. That is her explanation of Techstars’ strategy. The interview did not independently measure the investment returns of that approach, so her business rationale should not be treated as quantified performance evidence.
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Advice for founders considering an accelerator
For people interested in applying, Gavet recommended speaking with a program before applying, understanding why the problem they were pursuing mattered, and thinking carefully about the team they wanted to build. Her Seattle application reference concerned a 2022 cohort and is not evidence of a current application window.
When weighing an accelerator, founders can use those points alongside practical fit questions:
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- Does the program’s mentorship address gaps the company actually has?
- Are its network and founder support relevant to the company’s market and goals?
- Can the founders commit the time the program requires?
- What are the current investment terms, eligibility rules, and application dates?
The interview and Techstars’ later letter do not establish current locations, terms, eligibility, or application windows. Verify those details directly with the specific program before making a decision.
What the interview said about Techstars and Seattle at the time
GeekWire reported in June 2022 that Techstars had launched in 2006 and that nearly 3,000 startups had gone through its three-month accelerators. It also reported that more than 130 companies had passed through Techstars Seattle since its 2010 expansion and had collectively raised more than $2.5 billion in private capital. These are figures reported at the time, not current program totals or evidence that a particular applicant will raise funding.
Best Value
Gavet praised Seattle’s welcoming startup ecosystem, infrastructure, interest in innovation, and emphasis on collective impact. That was her perspective in the interview, not the result of a comparative study of startup ecosystems.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to read her comments now
The interview is useful as a record of how one accelerator leader counseled founders during the 2022 tech-market reset: preserve cash, prepare for diligence, and build a resilient business rather than assuming fundraising will be quick. Techstars’ December 2023 letter described a later 18-month downturn and argued then for resilience and unit economics when venture funding was unsuitable. Its outlook concerned 2024, so neither source supplies a current market forecast.
Gavet also described the 2022 environment in stark terms: “The economy is melting, and specifically in the tech industry we’re looking at a massive market reset.” She paired that diagnosis with the goal of helping founders build resilient businesses and prepare for their next round. Both statements belong to that dated interview, not to a description of conditions in 2026.
Quick Recap
Sources
- GeekWire interview with Maëlle Gavet, Taylor Soper, June 16, 2022.
- Techstars, “A Profound and Unprecedented Reset”, December 12, 2023.
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