Exclusive – Startup accelerator TechStars, arguably one of the best of its genre in the world, is today announcing the launch of its first thematically focused business kickstarter. Dubbed TechStars Cloud, the sub-accelerator will focus exclusively on backing cloud computing and infrastructure startups, and companies that work with OpenStack.
For its first thematically focused accelerator, TechStars has attracted some high-profile mentors, including Pat Condon (founder of Rackspace Hosting), Jeff Lawson (founder & CEO of Twilio), Brad Feld (Foundry Group), George Karidis (CSO of SoftLayer), Jud Valeski (co)founder & CEO of Gnip), Rajat Bhargava (founder & CEO of StillSecure, Interliant), and many others.
The inaugural TechStars Cloud program will run from January to April 2012 in San Antonio, Texas, and will be co-organized with Rackspace Hosting.
TechStars will select roughly ten companies – evidently focused on cloud computing and infrastructure – to participate. They will receive seed funding, mentorship from people like the aforementioned, and benefit from a number of perks available only to TechStars startups and alumni.
Interested companies should apply by October 21st for priority consideration, with a final application deadline of November 9th, 2011.
The program will be managed by Jason Seats, the founder of Slicehost (acquired by RackSpace in 2008), and Nicole Glaros, currently the Managing Director of TechStars in Boulder (she’s temporarily relocating to San Antonio).
In case you hadn’t heard, TechStars is also the subject of a documentary “reality TV” show on Bloomberg TV, which premiers tonight at 9 PM Eastern Time.
In six episodes, viewers will receive an inside look of what the TechStars program is like for startups (more specifically, those who participated in the NYC program in early 2011) and mentors alike.
Below is the new trailer for the show, which hasn’t yet been publicly released: