Maëlle Gavet

She restructured Techstars from top to bottom.

Some called it overdue. Others called it too much, too fast.

At 16, Maëlle Gavet was organizing birthday parties in Paris to earn extra cash.

At 25, she held three degrees.

From the Sorbonne, Sciences Po, and the École Normale Supérieure.

Fluent in French, Russian, and English, she was already rewriting the rules of where ambition could take you.

After a six-year stint at BCG, Maëlle made bold moves: leading Ozon (the “Amazon of Russia”), running global ops at Priceline, then becoming COO at Compass.

Along the way, she co-founded two startups, joined five boards, and wrote Trampled by Unicorns, a widely discussed book on empathy and accountability in tech.

But her biggest test came in 2021, when she became CEO of Techstars.

She inherited a complex organization: 60+ accelerator programs, sprawling operations, rising costs, and no clear strategy.

So she got to work.

Fast.

Unfortunately, you don’t fix an institution this large without making enemies.

Programs were shut down.

The org was restructured.

Local control gave way to central oversight.

“Scale” became the mantra.

The vision? Invest in 5,000 startups a year... nearly 10x the current pace.

But not everyone bought in.

Managing directors pushed back.

Founders protested the closure of programs in cities like Stockholm and Austin.

Corporate partners like JPMorgan quietly pulled funding.

One former employee called it a “cold war” between HQ and the field (source: TechCrunch)

Still, Maëlle stayed the course.

She raised a $50M fund, slashed a $7.2M operational loss, and streamlined operations in over a dozen countries.

She also launched what she called Techstars 2.0.

Her focus? Efficiency, equity, and access.

She expanded Techstars’ reach into emerging markets and championed diverse founders globally.

Then, in May 2024, she stepped down, citing health reasons.

Her farewell message: “I would not exchange the last 3.5 years of hard work for the world.”

Her time at Techstars certainly left no one indifferent.

Bold reformer? Strategic misstep? Sometimes the line is razor-thin.