About
David Brown is a Montreal-born, Boulder-based entrepreneur, company builder, investor, educator and author. After studying Mathematics and Computer Science at McGill and joining startups in Canada and Florida, he met David G. Cohen and co-founded Pinpoint Technologies in 1993 with Cohen and Robert Durkin Jr. Brown led the EMS-software company as president; ZOLL acquired it in 1999, and Brown later returned to lead the ZOLL Data Systems business through 2013. Between Pinpoint/ZOLL tenures, Brown and Cohen built the mobile location-sharing startup iContact, also described in professional records as iCentric, which failed before the smartphone app-store era. Cohen originated Techstars in 2006 with Brown, Brad Feld and Jared Polis. Brown initially served as investor, adviser and director, joined full-time in 2013 to run global operations, became president/managing partner and then CEO or co-CEO, and stepped down when Maëlle Gavet took office in January 2021 while retaining his board seat and major-shareholder status. He now teaches entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado Boulder and is a partner at food-tech venture fund Zintinus. His book No Vision All Drive uses Pinpoint's growth and sale to teach sustainable company building. His public guidance emphasizes problem-led motivation, humility after failure, destination-oriented execution, people and culture, nontransactional Give First behavior, transparent leadership transitions, self-care, cash and revenue discipline in downturns, and sustainable scale. This dossier separates Brown's founder-company holdings, Techstars governance and accelerator exposure, and Zintinus institutional investments; no complete verified personal angel portfolio or personal check range was found.
Beyond investing
- Founded
- Brown, Cohen and Durkin founded Pinpoint in 1993 to build computer-aided dispatch and billing software for emergency medical services. Brown served as president. Founder accounts say the bootstrapped business reached more than $50 million in annual sales and 250 employees; those scale figures are not independently audited here. Techstars dates Cohen's idea email to February 18, 2006 and incorporation with Brown, Feld and Polis to November 14, 2006. Brown initially invested, advised and served on the board while running ZOLL Data, then joined full-time in 2013 to provide day-to-day operating and scaling leadership.
- Communities
- Brown connects Techstars' Give First value to paying forward help without a defined transactional return. He identifies mentors, angels, educational institutions and corporate partners as ingredients of startup-friendly communities. Techstars also pledged one percent of its startup equity to the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado in 2007; that was an institutional pledge, not a documented personal Brown gift.
- Awards
- Governor Jared Polis named Brown and Cohen 2019 Colorado Governor's Citizenship Medal recipients in the Growth and Innovation category for ingenuity, growth and creating possibilities for others.
- More
- The subject is the Montreal-born McGill Mathematics and Computer Science alumnus who moved to Florida, partnered with David G. Cohen, founded Pinpoint, wrote No Vision All Drive, co-founded and led Techstars, lives in Boulder, teaches at CU and invests through Zintinus. Results for the Chinova Bioworks co-founder/COO in Fredericton, the British entrepreneur David Brown CBE, the NPR journalist and unrelated executives were excluded. On October 15, 1999, ZOLL merged a subsidiary into Pinpoint and issued an aggregate 425,000 ZOLL shares to Brown, Cohen and Durkin for all Pinpoint equity. A related property entity was acquired for another aggregate 23,769 shares. The filing does not disclose Brown's individual allocation or proceeds. Brown and Cohen's mobile location-sharing product launched before the iPhone and app stores. Brown says they deliberately entered a very different consumer/mobile market, let confidence from Pinpoint outrun their knowledge, and learned humility. The company failed and sold its domain to the unrelated email-marketing iContact. Brown oversaw global operations from 2013 and later served as CEO/co-CEO. Cohen's succession tribute says Techstars grew roughly tenfold on nearly every metric under Brown. This is a first-party assessment, not an audited performance attribution, and the platform's results reflect a large team and network. Brown announced in 2020 that he would step down only after a thoughtful search, remain CEO during the transition, and continue as director, major shareholder, adviser and spokesperson. Gavet became CEO on January 11, 2021. Cohen praised the unusually transparent process and Brown's relationship stewardship. CU's interview recounts investor retreat during the 2009 downturn and Brown and colleagues finding alternative ways to persuade investors to participate. It is a useful operating challenge, but no audited cohort loss or return figures are available from that account. Brown says he was born and raised in Montreal and lives in Boulder with his wife and two daughters. A former ski instructor, he continues to enjoy skiing. Names and private details of family members were not pursued.
From David's own website — common ground for a warm intro.
Co-founder at Techstars
Intro paths
In turn, David can intro founders to Techstars's investors below.
Techstars's investors · 9
Co-founders at Techstars
Experience
- ZINTINUSPartnercurrent2021 — present
- University of Colorado BoulderAdjunct Professorcurrent2021 — presentBoulder, Colorado, United States
- TechstarsFounder & Board Membercurrent2006 — presentBoulder, Colorado, United States
- TechstarsFounder and CEO2013 — 2021Boulder, CO
- ZOLLPresident2006 — 2013
- iCentric CorporationFounder2004 — 2006
- Pinpoint TechnologiesPresident & Founder1993 — 2003
- TransCare CorporationDirector of Technology1994 — 1995
- Automated Dispatch ServicesOperations Manager1990 — 1994
Education
- McGill UniversityB. Sc., Mathematics and Computer Science1983 — 1986
- Marianopolis CollegeDEC, Pure & Applied Science1981 — 1983
- Ecole Secondaire Pierre LaporteThat's French for High School1975 — 1981
Skills & more
+11 more
LeadershipCardiologySoftware DevelopmentStart-upsAgile MethodologiesManagementMobile DevicesStrategic PlanningStrategySmall Business MarketingSmall Business Financial ManagementLanguages English · French
- Brad Feld on Raising Capital — LinkedIn
From David's professional profile.
Investments
Per curated public sources.
Controversies & responses
Where David has drawn public criticism — with what happened, his response, and the criticism itself, side by side.
▶Later Techstars criticism is board context, not a Brown misconduct finding2023
- What happened
- Reputable 2024 reporting described employee and managing-director complaints about culture, centralization, layoffs, sponsor dependence and accelerator closures under CEO Maëlle Gavet. Brown had left executive leadership in January 2021 but remained publicly identified as a director. The reporting did not establish personal misconduct by Brown or specify his votes; board oversight is relevant, but Gavet-era operational allegations should not be reassigned to him.
Podcasts & interviews
featuring David BrownFaculty Spotlight: David Brown - Techstars
University of Colorado Boulder · colorado.edu
Episode 3: Featuring David Brown, Founder of Techstars
Net Effects · neteffectspodcast.com
How Techstars' Give First Mantra Became a Road Map
The Colorado Sun · coloradosun.com
No Vision, All Drive
DavidGCohen.com · davidgcohen.com
Writing
First-person CEO succession announcement defining Brown's continuing board, shareholder, adviser, spokesperson and founder commitments.
Downturn guidance on spending, hiring, fundraising, revenue, shared sacrifice, furloughs and layoffs.
Author archive covering sustainable scaling, leadership, hiring, culture, downturns, personal life, failure and entrepreneurship.
Brown's memoir and practical company-building account of Pinpoint, revised through three editions; Wiley's third edition was published in November 2019.
Colleagues at Zintinus
Network7
Investors connected to David in public investor directories — a warm-intro map.
Frequently asked questions
- Who is David Brown?
- David Brown is a Montreal-born, Boulder-based entrepreneur, company builder, investor, educator and author. After studying Mathematics and Computer Science at McGill and joining startups in Canada and Florida, he met David G. Cohen and co-founded Pinpoint Technologies in 1993 with Cohen and Robert Durkin Jr. Brown led the EMS-software company as president; ZOLL acquired it in 1999, and Brown later returned to lead the ZOLL Data Systems business through 2013. Between Pinpoint/ZOLL tenures, Brown and Cohen built the mobile location-sharing startup iContact, also described in professional records as iCentric, which failed before the smartphone app-store era. Cohen originated Techstars in 2006 with Brown, Brad Feld and Jared Polis. Brown initially served as investor, adviser and director, joined full-time in 2013 to run global operations, became president/managing partner and then CEO or co-CEO, and stepped down when Maëlle Gavet took office in January 2021 while retaining his board seat and major-shareholder status. He now teaches entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado Boulder and is a partner at food-tech venture fund Zintinus. His book No Vision All Drive uses Pinpoint's growth and sale to teach sustainable company building. His public guidance emphasizes problem-led motivation, humility after failure, destination-oriented execution, people and culture, nontransactional Give First behavior, transparent leadership transitions, self-care, cash and revenue discipline in downturns, and sustainable scale. This dossier separates Brown's founder-company holdings, Techstars governance and accelerator exposure, and Zintinus institutional investments; no complete verified personal angel portfolio or personal check range was found.
- Where does David Brown work?
- David Brown is Co-founder of Techstars and Partner at Zintinus.
- What check size does David Brown write?
- David Brown typically writes checks of $100K – $5M.
- What companies did David Brown found?
- David Brown founded Techstars.
- What boards does David Brown sit on?
- David Brown holds tracked board seats at Techstars.
- What companies has David Brown invested in?
- Investments tracked here include Techstars, Techstars accelerator portfolio, Zintinus food-tech portfolio.
- Where did David Brown go to school?
- David Brown studied at McGill University (B. Sc., Mathematics and Computer Science); Marianopolis College (DEC, Pure & Applied Science); Ecole Secondaire Pierre Laporte (That's French for High School).
- What awards has David Brown received?
- Governor Jared Polis named Brown and Cohen 2019 Colorado Governor's Citizenship Medal recipients in the Growth and Innovation category for ingenuity, growth and creating possibilities for others.
Same school
Also attended McGill University415
+ 409 more
Also attended Marianopolis College22
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Shared employers
Also worked at University of Colorado Boulder44
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+ 38 more
Also worked at Techstars428
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+ 422 more
