As I’ve mentioned earlier in posts this week, I’m currently up in Boulder, Colorado for Startup Week, a week-long smorgasbord of startup events organized by Andrew Hyde of TechStars. It’s been my first time visiting Boulder, and to be completely honest, I’ve been blown away by its close-knit friendly community of startups, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and more. I had always heard that Boulder was a very unique atmosphere for entrepreneurship, but I had no idea just how special this place was until I was invited to come visit.
Part of the reason I think Boulder has such a closely bonded community is that the entire downtown area is no larger than a few square miles. There are hundreds of startups located in and around Boulder, and their proximity to one another creates an amazing sense of solidarity throughout the city. When a new startup launches in Boulder, the entire town gets behind it to provide a base of enthusiastic early adopters.
Groups of designers, developers and founders are constantly meeting-up and sharing ideas and advice for each other’s companies. Tuesday night, the Boulder New Tech Meetup became a standing-room only event, and tonight’s Ignite Boulder will fill the Boulder Theater with the equivalent of 1% of the entire city’s population.
These are just a few of the valuable reasons why startups should think about moving to Boulder to launch their business. Everyone here is extremely supportive of each other, and access to the city’s entrepreneurial resources make it a haven for young companies to get off the ground. Plus, the weather is beautiful, and the small town feel of the city is a nice change from the hustle and bustle of big cities like San Francisco and New York. But if you miss that, Denver is just a half-hour drive away.
I will be looking forward with much anticipation to the next chance I get to come to this wonderful city. I would encourage any company contemplating the idea of moving to the area to spend a few days in the community before making a decision. The city and its people are incredibly welcoming and chances are that once you show up you won’t want to leave. Granted, I haven’t been to Austin and haven’t spent a significant amount of time in Silicon Valley, but something is in the air up here in the Rockies.
Disclosure: Boulder Startup Week covered the author’s travel cost to attend the above event.
