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Courtney Gras
Community Lead, AWS Startup BD | Former Director @ Techstars
Courtney Gras is a dynamic leader in the tech and startup ecosystem with a multifaceted professional background. She currently serves as the Startup Community Lead at Amazon Web Services (AWS), where she manages strategy and operations for a global community of over 6,000 startup CTOs.1
Professional Background
Key Roles and Experiences::
- Startup Community Lead at Amazon Web Services (AWS)1
- Former Director at Techstars, a global startup accelerator network13
- Author of The Student Startup Guide, a book making entrepreneurship more approachable12
- A former cleantech startup founder herself1
Mentorship and Entrepreneurship
Gras is deeply passionate about supporting entrepreneurs. Her mentoring journey began when she was a first-time founder at the University of Akron, where she was paired with an entrepreneur-in-residence.1 She has extensive experience in mentoring, having been involved with:
- Burton D. Morgan Mentoring Program in Northeast Ohio
- Techstars startup accelerator programs
- Providing guidance to tech startup founders
Personal Interests
Beyond her professional work, Gras is known as an ultra runner and maintains that her opinions are her own across her professional social media profiles.24
Her professional mission centers on helping entrepreneurs succeed, leveraging her experiences as a founder, director, and community leader in the startup ecosystem.35
