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<br /> For most of us, <keyword id="1829745" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="thinking-machines">thinking machines</keyword> happen to be sci-fi stuff, but for those working in the <keyword id="107950" type="TECHNOLOGY" weightage="100" keywordseo="artificial-intelligence">artificial intelligence</keyword> (<keyword id="6355999" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="AI">AI</keyword>) space, that is just a ground reality. AI is slowly gaining traction among <keyword id="100363" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Indian-entrepreneurs">Indian entrepreneurs</keyword> and a handful of companies are already working on one product or the other, targeting specific segments. But here is one brand new <keyword id="6404679" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="start-up">start-up</keyword> which is hoping to open up this field and make it super easy for <keyword id="6357020" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="developers">developers</keyword> to <keyword id="1973991" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Incorporate-AI-components">incorporate AI components</keyword> in their apps as per their requirements. Chennai-based <keyword id="1973988" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Mad-Street-Den">Mad Street Den</keyword> (interestingly, ‘<keyword id="6707506" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Mad">MAD</keyword>’ stands for <keyword id="1973989" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Mind-Abled-Devices">Mind Abled Devices</keyword>) will be offering easy-to-access <keyword id="1973997" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="AI-solutions">AI solutions</keyword> via a Cloud-based platform, thus delivering intelligence to the world, on a broad scale. The <keyword id="1974000" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="IA-stack">IA stack</keyword> comprises <keyword id="1974001" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Sensory-processing-layers">sensory processing layers</keyword>, as well as <keyword id="1974004" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Contextual-binding-layers">contextual binding layers</keyword>, and aims to deliver three categories of <keyword id="1974005" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Consumer-experiences">consumer experiences</keyword>.<br />
 <br /> But that does not mean lack of more intriguing products on the part of the start-up. Mad Street Den is all about intelligent innovation and the company is working intensely on a series of products using vision, speech and touch-based processing (among others), aiming to cater to verticals like <keyword id="6357332" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="gaming">gaming</keyword> and <keyword id="4578" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="entertainment">entertainment</keyword>, <keyword id="6354750" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="health">health</keyword> and <keyword id="15482" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="lifestyle">lifestyle</keyword>, and <keyword id="6355300" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="security">security</keyword> and <keyword id="6359249" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="analytics">analytics</keyword>. Here is a snapshot that captures the start-up’s vision and viability.<br />
 <br />
<strong>Who runs Mad Street Den (www.madstreetden.com): </strong>A core team of four including <keyword id="1718234" type="POSITION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Co-Founder-CEO">co-founder &amp; CEO</keyword> <keyword id="1973987" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Anand-Chandrasekaran">Anand Chandrasekaran</keyword>. Anand holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT-Madras and a PhD in Neuroscience from <keyword id="503459" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Baylor-College-of-Medicine">Baylor College of Medicine</keyword>. During his Post Doctoral stint at <keyword id="33081" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Stanford">Stanford</keyword>, he specialised in <keyword id="1974014" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Neuromorphic-Engineering">Neuromorphic Engineering</keyword>, building <keyword id="1974017" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Custom-silicon-chips">custom silicon chips</keyword> that emulate various regions of the brain. At that time, Anand was part of the <keyword id="10875" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="IBM">IBM</keyword> team and working on <keyword id="265122" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="DARPA">DARPA</keyword>’s <keyword id="1974019" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="SyNAPSE">SyNAPSE</keyword> project (for the curious, let’s tell you this project focuses on building all sorts of <keyword id="1974020" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Smart-hardware">smart hardware</keyword> that emulate higher intelligence).<br />
 <br /> Prior to starting his own venture, Anand joined a Palo Alto-based start-up called Evolved Machines, Inc., as a research scientist and developed various neural algorithms that could connect to real-world sensory perceptions like vision and smell. “As part of Evolved Machines, I was involved in another DARPA project called <keyword id="1974022" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Neovision2">Neovision2</keyword>,” he recalls.<br />
 <br /> There are three others in the core team – another <keyword id="170488" type="POSITION" weightage="100" keywordseo="co-founder">co-founder</keyword> who has some very useful experience in designing products that use the <keyword id="294572" type="TECHNOLOGY" weightage="100" keywordseo="machine-learning">machine learning</keyword> approach; an experienced and distinguished professional with a similar background to Anand’s and another expert who builds the kind of network infrastructure the company requires. Although development work started in March this year (a month after Anand returned from <keyword id="6357722" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="silicon-valley">Silicon Valley</keyword>), the start-up was officially launched in August 2013 and has recently shifted its headquarters from Bangalore to Chennai.<br />
 <br />
<strong>What inspired the venture:</strong> During his stint at Evolved Machines, Anand decided that he would work on AI projects of his own. So he worked as a <keyword id="17182" type="POSITION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Consultant">consultant</keyword> with <keyword id="1973986" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Zort-Technologies">Zort Technologies</keyword> for a couple of years while trying to figure out what to do next.<br />
 <br /> “Although building great AI is a good thing, we did realise that there were very few solutions in the market that would help create great <keyword id="1974006" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Consumer-experience">consumer experience</keyword>,” says Anand. “That’s because there is no unified platform that allows easy and cheap <keyword id="1974027" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Access-to-AI-elements">access to AI elements</keyword> – no suitable infrastructure for handling the requirements of the applications using those elements. So we decided to create such a platform. That way, we can build a whole new ecosystem for everyone who wants to create new experiences enhanced by AI.”<br />
 <br />
<strong>What’s the pitch: </strong>Making machines more useful by making them a bit more human: Fun, intelligent and relevant. They will sense as babies, observe and play as youngsters, learn and change with you as they grow older. In brief, the start-up aims to provide AI support across three categories of experiences – fun and play, usefulness &amp; convenience, and helpful &amp; revealing. “Someday in the near future, we hope to bring everyday objects to life, not just the devices we use today,” the site notes.<br />
 <br />
<strong>How it works: </strong>Mad Street Den is in the business of delivering artificial intelligence to the world – in varied formats and across industries. The primary product is a Cloud-based <keyword id="1974029" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="AI-platform">AI platform</keyword> that developers can leverage to incorporate <keyword id="1973990" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="AI-components">AI components</keyword> into their applications. This ‘MAD’ (Mind Abled Devices) stack currently focuses on <keyword id="1974030" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Vision-based-applications">vision-based applications</keyword> and delivers elements such as <keyword id="1974031" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Facial-gesture-analysis">facial gesture analysis</keyword>, <keyword id="406688" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="face-recognition">face recognition</keyword>, <keyword id="1974032" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Gaze-tracking">gaze tracking</keyword> and so on. However, the start-up will expand and diversify its offerings as the platform grows. As of now, the target sectors include apps, <keyword id="34609" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="services-industry">services industry</keyword>, gaming and analytics (imagine test-marketing a product and getting insightful feedback through AI apps that can decode facial gestures of potential customers and correctly surmise their reaction to the product in question). But in the next few years, Mad Street Den may also develop low-cost <keyword id="1974033" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Custom-hardware">custom hardware</keyword> to support its existing stack; create <keyword id="1974034" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="High-end-cognitive-hardware">high-end cognitive hardware</keyword> for big enterprises/software companies and finally make foray into <keyword id="62549" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Robotics">robotics</keyword>.<br />
 <br />
“All these are in the pipeline and we intend to create more apps and new products by leveraging our own AI platform,” explains Anand. “That will further create new and wonderful experiences enhanced by our AI solutions and speak volumes about our quality.”<br />
 <br />
<strong>Claim to fame: </strong>Novelty of concept and the tremendous potential are the key factors at this point. Very few <keyword id="770060" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Indian-start-ups">Indian start-ups</keyword> are currently working in the <keyword id="1974055" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="AI-space">AI space</keyword> and it could be the next big thing when Web 3.0 – widely assumed to be a combination of artificial intelligence and the semantic Web – finally arrives.<br />
 <br />
<strong>Show me the money: </strong>Till date, the start-up has been bootstrapped and has not started earning revenues. As of now, the <keyword id="232730" type="POSITION" weightage="100" keywordseo="business-model">business model</keyword> is essentially B2B, but Anand has high hopes about B2C earnings as the company is also building its own products. “We are a very early-stage company, completely self-funded and in the process of building our scalable infrastructure and our first B2C product (a game) by early next year. In fact, we will be demoing our prototype at MobileSparks 2013 in Bangalore tomorrow (December 14), he says.<br />
 <br /> “As we have many potential <keyword id="598465" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="revenue-streams">revenue streams</keyword>, it is a little difficult to gauge the market size at present,” he observes. “But it spans everyone – from the <keyword id="1974050" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="College-dorm-developer">college dorm developer</keyword> to <keyword id="1974051" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Small-product-companies">small product companies</keyword>, to service providers and <keyword id="163194" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="OEMs">OEMs</keyword> who want to enhance their offerings. Even <keyword id="1974052" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Large-corporations">large corporations</keyword> might want their own custom stacks and proprietary <keyword id="1974026" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="AI-elements">AI elements</keyword>,” he adds.<br />
 <br /> Although bootstrapped, Mad Street Den is not looking to raise funds just now. “We intend to work on our product pipeline first and come up with 1-3 more products by mid-2014,” says Anand. “Once we have the process in play and are getting considerable traction at consumer and enterprise levels, approaching investors will make sense. Also, we have gone past the incubation stage now. Neither are we limited to a single platform or product. Therefore, we will be looking at a very large angel round or maybe a small <keyword id="919124" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Series-A">Series A</keyword> within a year, depending on our requirements. Given our <keyword id="1974053" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="RD-requirements">R&amp;D requirements</keyword>, we would like to expand our operations to the US as well.” <br />
 <br />
<strong>Biggest challenge: </strong>Competition is always there as several companies are working in the AI space – both in India and abroad. But the field is vast and almost completely untapped; so there is space for everyone. “Currently, there’s no delivery model like our Cloud platform, especially in the vision space. So that gives us some competitive edge and we are building the rest of the USP,” concludes Anand.

<b>This
Start-up Offers Artificial Intelligence Solutions To Enhance Experiences, Aims
To Tackle Analytics Challenge</b>

<div style="float: right; margin: 15px 0 20px 20px;"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td colspan="2"><a href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/category/chart-of-the-day"> </a></td></tr><tr><td><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/chart-of-the-day"></a></td><td><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nfl-fines-detroit-lions-2014-8"></a></td></tr></tbody></table></div><p>It is no secret that football programs are the big money-makers at large universities so it should be no surprise that the football coaches also make more money than other college coaches.</p>
<p>However, the disparity between the pay for football coaches and other sports is quite jarring when they are stacked up next to each other in the chart below.</p>
<p>In 2013, head football coaches in the Football Bowl Subdivision (née Division I-A) had a median salary of $1.9 million, while their assistant coaches had a combined median salary of $2.6 million. The only sport even close is men's basketball where head coaches had an median salary of $1.2 million in 2013.</p>
<p>Women's basketball coaches had a median salary of $374,000, the only women's sport where the head coaches have a salary over $150,000.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div></p>

Here Is How Much More College Football Coaches Are Paid Compared To Other Sports

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><br>If you were watching the live broadcast of the most recent episode of WWE's "Monday Night Raw" on the USA Network, you might have noticed an unusual change occur in the first hour of the show. For the first two segments of last night's taping in Des Moines, IA,&#xa0; a group of fans sitting at ringside were seen dressed as such WWE superstars of yesteryear such as Ric Flair, Ultimate Warrior, "Macho Man" Randy Savage and IRS. <br><br>Approximately 30 minutes into the show, the costumes were gone. The fans had changed into what appeared to be an assortment of WWE t-shirts. <br><br>Here you can see the fans in costume:<br><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><br>And here's a shot of the fans after being ordered to remove the costumes:<br><br><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><br><strong>We reached out to WWE for comment, and while they did not address the reason for the change, they issued this statement:</strong><br><br><em>"WWE apologized to the fans for the inconvenience and offered them tickets to an upcoming show."</em><br><br>Business Insider talked via phone to one of the fans forced to change his costume. Des Moines-based accountant Chris Andersen, 33, went to the event dressed as Ric Flair. Andersen said that after the second segment of the show, a WWE representative politely informed the group that they would either have to remove their costumes or be forced to give up their ringside seats that were in clear view of what's known as the "hard camera," or the main camera that shoots the in-ring action.<br><br>Andersen said that the WWE official told the group "we love your enthusiasm, but it's a distraction."<br><br>Andersen said the official presented the fans with a stack of WWE t-shirts they could wear for the rest of the broadcast. <div><div></div></div><p class="embed-spacer">According to Andersen, he and his 9 friends each paid about $107 each for the ringside seats.<br><br>Today a <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/2zazee/wwe_makes_fans_take_off_costumes_dressed_as/" target="_blank">reddit post</a> about the incident became the top post on the popular pro-wrestling sub-reddit known as <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle" target="_blank">Squared Circle</a>. One of the fans posted this email that he sent to the WWE:<br><br /></br></br></br></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>Andersen forwarded Business Insider the WWE's response to this email, wherein the company said this:<br><br><em>"</em><span><em>We apologize for any inconvenience you encountered.&#xa0; We would like to offer you and your 9 friends tickets to the next WWE event in Des Moines.&#xa0; At your convenience, please e-mail back your mailing address and phone number so we can work on the specific ticket arrangements.&#xa0; Thank you very much."</em></span></br></br></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/wwe-insider-terms-lingo-vince-mcmahon-chris-jericho-2015-2">This video will change the way you watch the WWE</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="Q1NDdsczp4E6do27gAgWNP3DqcN9zpd7" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br></br>

WWE forced these guys to change their costumes or lose their ringside seats at 'Monday Night Raw'

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div>Google's artificial neural networks are supposed to be used for image recognition of specific objects like cars or dogs. Recently, Google's engineers <a href="http://googleresearch.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/inceptionism-going-deeper-into-neural.html">turned the networks upside down and fed them random images</a> and static in a process they called "inceptionism."<p>In return, they discovered their algorithms can turn almost anything into <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/these-trippy-images-show-how-googles-ai-sees-the-world-2015-6">trippy images of knights with dog heads and pig-snails</a>.</p><p>Now computer programmers across the internet are getting in on the "inceptionism" fun, after <a href="http://googleresearch.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/deepdream-code-example-for-visualizing.html">Google let their AI code</a> run free on the internet. The <a href="https://github.com/google/deepdream">open-source AI networks</a> are available on GitHub for anyone with the know-how to download, use, and tweak.</p><p>Gathered under the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/deepdream?vertical=default">Twitter hashtag #deepdream</a>, the resulting images range from amusing to deeply disturbing. One user turned the already dystopian world of "Mad Max: Fury Road" into a car chase Salvador Dali could only dream of.</p><p>Mad Max's face is transformed into a many-eyed monster with the chin of a dog, while the guitar now spews out a dog fish instead of flames.</p><div><div></div></div><p>The AI networks are composed of "10 to 30 stacked layers of artificial neurons." On one end, the input layer is fed whatever image the user chooses. The lower layers look for basic features, like the edges of objects.</p><p>Higher levels look for more detailed features, and eventually the last layer makes a decision about what it's looking at.</p><p>These networks are usually trained with thousands of images depicting the object they're supposed to be looking for, whether it's bananas, towers, or cars.</p><p>Many of the networks are producing images depicting "puppy-slugs," a strange hybrid of dog faces and long, sluggish bodies. That's because those networks were trained to recognize dogs and other animals.</p><p>Here's what a galaxy would look like if it was made of dog heads.</p><div><div></div></div><p>"The network that you see most people on the hashtag [use] is a single network, it's a fairly large one," said <a href="http://www.samim.io./">Samim Winiger</a>, a computer programmer and game developer. "And why you see so many similar 'puppyslugs' as we call them now, is it's one type of network we're dealing with in most cases. It's important to know there's many more out there."</p><p><a href="https://twitter.com/dunknicoll/status/616527408955588608">Duncan Nicoll's</a> half-eaten sprinkle donut was transformed into something much less appetizing once Google's AI was done with it.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>An intrepid user can emphasize particular features in an image, by running it through the network or even a single layer multiple times.<p>"Each layer has a unique representation of what [for example] a cat might look like," said Roelof Pieters, a data and AI scientist who <a href="https://github.com/graphific/DeepDreamVideo">rewrote the code for videos</a> and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/googles-dreaming-ai-watches-fear-and-loathing-in-las-vegas-2015-7">ran a clip of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" through the network</a>.</p><p>"Some of these neurons in the neural network are primed toward dogs, so whenever there's something that looks like a dog, these neurons ... very actively prime themselves and say ahh, I see a dog. Let's make it like a dog."</p><p>Networks trained to search for faces and eyes created the most baffling images from seemingly innocuous photos.</p><div><div></div></div><p>The networks were also taught to look for inanimate objects like cars. Below, Winiger turned the National Security Agency headquarters into a black double-decker bus.</p><div><div></div></div><p>Many more images are beyond description. You'd have to see them yourself.</p><div><div></div></div><div><div></div></div><div><div></div></div><p>Winiger also <a href="https://github.com/samim23/DeepDreamAnim">tweaked the code for GIFs</a>, which is available on GitHub. Here, a volcano spews dog heads into the atmosphere.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>With Winiger's help, I was able to test the network on a photo of myself drinking tea in an antique shop.<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>This lower level on the AI network seems to be primed to search for holes and eyes, inadvertently adding dog faces in the background.<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>While this image produced by an upper layer looked for faces, pagodas, and birds. Notice the grumpy little man in what looks like a space suit appearing in the bottom right.<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Winiger and Pieters both hope that the images from #deepdream will have people talking and learning about AI visual systems as they become more integrated into our daily lives.<p>"One of the things I find extremely important right now is to raise the debate and awareness of these systems," Winiger said. "We've been talking about computer literacy for 10 to 20 years now, but as intelligent systems are really starting to have an impact on society the debate lags behind. There's almost no better way than the pop culture approach to get the interest, at least, sparked."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/batman-arkham-knight-gameplay-video-2015-5">Here's the best look yet at the next big game starring Batman</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="h0MTJkdTrJr4RUNkugPMay1bP53ZZ1Gw" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Google released their AI dream code and turned the internet into an acid trip

<p class="p1"><table class="image-container float_right" width="200"><tr><td><div class="image"></div><p class="caption">David Cohen, founder of TechStars</p></td></tr></table>In just a few years, <keyword id="296431" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="TechStars">TechStars</keyword> has become one of the world's leading startup accelerator programs.</p>
<p class="p1">But as it heads into its fourth cycle in New York City, there are a lot of questions that need to be answered. </p>
<p class="p1">Founded by David Cohen in 2007, TechStars incubates <keyword id="6362513" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Startups">startups</keyword>, offers mentorship, and coaches founders on scaling companies and raising capital. <span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The competitive program accepts between nine and thirteen startups per class, and it </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">runs in multiple cities: New York, Seattle, San Antonio (TechStars Cloud) and Boulder.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Although the program was founded in Boulder, its most popular city seems to be New York, where former Managing Director <keyword id="1762742" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="David-Tisch">David Tisch</keyword> helped attract more than 1,000 applicants per class from all over the world.</span></p>
<p class="p1">Last summer, Tisch resigned to focus on his own fund, Box Group.<span> TechStars hasn't picked a permanent replacement and it's unclear if the program can run successfully without Tisch and his contacts. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span>In addition to Tisch's departure, startups are experiencing the "Facebook Fallout" -- the negative effects of Facebook's underwhelming IPO on new companies. Fewer startups are being founded and funded, which could hurt accelerator programs like TechStars.</span></p>
<p class="p1">Finally, TechStars has yet to see billion-dollar startups arise from its program, the way Paul Graham's Silicon Valley program, Y Combinator, has. Can Cohen's company compete at the same level and produce companies like Airbnb or Dropbox?</p>
<p class="p1"><span>We met with Cohen and Nicole Glaros, who will be running TechStars NYC's Spring 2013 program. Here's what they had to say about the future of TechStars NYC.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><strong>About 1,100 startups have already applied to the spring program. </strong>Last spring, the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nyc-is-getting-ready-for-these-promising-startups-at-techstar-demo-days-2012-6?op=1">TechStars NYC program attracted more than 1,600 applicants</a>. There's always a surge in applications during the final week, and TechStars could easily see the same number of applications this year as last year, despite Tisch's departure and the Facebook fallout. About 30% of the applicants are international startups. One of the applicants is a 3-time Emmy nominee and another is a New York Times best-selling author. (<a href="http://www.techstars.com/program/locations/nyc/">Startups can click here to apply</a>)</p>
<p class="p1"><strong>Many of the mentors are back, and more mentors are on board.</strong> TechStars has built its brand on the quality of mentors it attracts. Fred Wilson, Brad Feld and Dick Costolo have all mentored its startups. This year, impressive entrepreneur and investor mentors are still on board. <span>Joel Spolsky of Stack Overflow, Alexandra Wilson of Gilt, Ben Siscovick of IA Ventures, former Associated Content CEO Patrick Keane and Jay Levy of Zelkova Ventures are just a few who are participating.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><strong>TechStars has narrowed Tisch's replacement down to 5 candidates from 35. </strong>TechStars takes founding teams very seriously when selecting startups for its program. So naturally, Cohen wants to make sure he finds the right replacement for David Tisch. Cohen says he's already met with 35 people about the position, most from New York and a few from California. He's narrowed the search down to five candidates. No offers are currently on the table, but Cohen says he hopes to announce a new hire soon.</p>
<p class="p1"><strong>There some TechStars companies that could soon be worth billions.</strong> Most people believe <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/techstars-biggest-exit-yet-thinknear-gets-acquired-for-225-million-2012-10">ThinkNear, which was acquired for $22.5 million</a>, is TechStars' most successful portfolio company. But it's just the biggest exit to date. Cohen believes one TechStars company, SendGrid, could be worth $1 billion soon. It isn't a sexy consumer company like Airbnb, but it's a fast-growing transactional email business that's used by companies like Pinterest and Foursquare; it has more than 150 employees.</p>
<p class="p1"><strong>Yes, the Facebook Fallout could mean trouble for startup accelerators. But TechStars is a survivor. </strong>There are now about 700 programs like Y Combinator and TechStars that incubate startups. But Facebook's botched IPO and Zynga's struggling stock have spooked investors and founders alike. Many accelerators will take a hit. But Cohen says accelerators aren't actually that expensive to run. The TechStars brand has grown big enough that it's attracting applicants from all over the world, and it's one of a few programs you can bet will survive.<span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p>

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