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Today, seed fund and accelerator TechStars hosted its “Demo Day” in Boulder, where it showcased its 11 newest startups. With an average funding of $1.28 million raised per TechStars-backed company so far, it was an important day for these new companies as the room was full of investors at the Boulder Theater. TechStars was founded in 2006 in Boulder but now holds programs in Boston, New York City and Seattle as well. Last April, it debuted a new accelerator called TechStars Cloud that focuses exclusively on backing cloud computing and infrastructure startups. Right now, TechStars invests $18,000 in seed funding and provides an optional $100,000 convertible debt note for every startup. Only 17 out of 126 startups have failed since 2006. 13 were acquired. WP_SLIDESHOW_IMAGES = {load: 'http://s1.wp.com/wp-content/mu-plugins/slideshow/slideshow-loader.gif?m=1289605033g',};WP_SLIDESHOW_LABELS = {next: 'Next',prev: 'Previous',stop: 'Toggle Playback'};WP_SLID...

Biggs is the East Coast Editor of TechCrunch. Biggs has written for the New York Times, InSync, USA Weekend, Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, Money and a number of other outlets on technology and wristwatches. He is the former editor-in-chief of Gizmodo.com and lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. You can Tweet him here and G+ him here. Email him directly at... ? Learn More Disrupt has long been the birthplace of software startups – but that’s changing. With the launch of Hardware Alley at Disrupt NY, we’ve inaugurated a very cool opportunity for hardware startups to grab a little Disrupt floor space and we’re doing it again in San Francisco. Hardware Alley happens on the last day of Disrupt and lets you get into the event at a discounted rate for one or all three days. Smaller startups should contact me directly at john@techcrunch.com but if you’re funded, ready to rock, and interested in holding court with some of SF’s preeminent VCs and thinkers, head over here to buy tickets. Here’s ...

Anthony Ha is a writer at TechCrunch, where he covers media, advertising, and startups. Previously, he was a staff technology writer at Adweek, worked as a senior editor at the tech blog VentureBeat, and was also a reporter at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing.... ? Learn More Startups seeking desk space in San Francisco will soon have another option to consider — the first floor of the offices of gift-giving startup Wantful, an area that it’s calling the Sutter Street Workspace. It’s a pretty common practice for startups, in anticipation of future growth, to move into offices that are too big for their current workforce, then rent out the excess desks to other companies. But this effort, in particular, seems worth pointing out because it’s not just a few random desks, and it seems like there’s some attempt to build a real community, with Wantful promising advice, introductions to ...

Rip Empson is a writer and rabble-rouser at TechCrunch. He covers startups, music, social, mobile, health, and education. You can reach him at rip[at]techcrunch[dot]com ? Learn More Earlier this year, young venture capital fund and startup accelerator 500 Startups announced some changes that indicated its intent to move beyond adolescence into adulthood, and expand its scope beyond the U.S. The firm raised a new, bigger fund, added new partners, and increase its focus on identifying and investing in talented international entrepreneurs. Dave McClure and company have already invested in startup incubators in Mexico City and Beijing, along with taking its “Geeks On A Plane” tour to India last December. This spring, partners McClure and Christine Tsai told us that 500 Startups is redoubling its effort to build ties and make investments in Latin America, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East in particular. And today, beginning to walk the walk, we’ve learned that the fund has made its firs...