My 10 days in Techstars Kristel Kruustük , Kristel is Testlio's co-founder. November 5th, 2013 The Testlio team was extremely busy the whole summer in the Techstars program. You can see Kristel pitching on the big stage of Austin music hall. Several news agencies and technology blogs, including CNN and GigaOM, were highlighting Testlio’s product and presentation. In this blog post I’ll give you some insights to the Techstars program. It was an incredible start for me, even though I joined Testlio team so late in the program. I’ve felt so welcomed here, like I’ve been part of the Techstars community for months. There are so many friendly people around, and even though the fatigue was running high, everyone still supported each other. The amount of great ideas and passion is simply just enormous. My arrival week was all about practice, practice and some more practice for all the Techstars teams. On Monday, when I first heard all of the pitches, some of them were still quite raw. Over the days there was lots of progress – both on the slides and on the delivery, and on the big stage everybody were really shining. The Techstars mentors have been great – always giving feedback on progress and highlighting what can be improved. There are people randomly popping in to share an idea or two. Also all the participants are always ready to help others. I’ve seen lots of teams asking for feedback and suggestions on some slide transitions or wordings, especially since not everybody here is a native english speaker. Part of a weekly routine is the Wednesday late evening gathering called 10-10, where everybody presents their weekly progress and sets goals for the next week. Often teams find themselves pushed by others for more challenging goals. Peer pressure always works. But it’s not only about hard work. The night always ends with several rounds of a game called WereWolf, which I think is a great way to actually get to know your buddies in the program. Honestly the synergy really is the keyword for programs like the Techstars. Smart people getting together and creating something innovative. It’s lots of hard work that one day is paying off. I believe that together with you, Testlio can really create something great for the whole testing community. Please give us feedback and help us to change the testing world! By Meelik Gornoi @meelik @testlio