By David Migoya, The Denver Gazette Colorado paid more than $630,000 last year to a group of personal and business associates of Gov. Jared Polis that had ostensibly volunteered to help the state manage its way through the COVID-19 pandemic by tracking people’s movements, records show. Then, when that group’s work was done in late […]
Techstars
Posted inBusiness, COVID, News
Colorado entrepreneurs already faced a steep startup curve. Coronavirus increased the grade.
Beanstalk, a children’s video site in Denver, was preparing to launch at the end of March. That would be exciting enough for any entrepreneur. But founder Amy Klein Molk found herself in an even more exhilarating situation. She was participating in the fast-paced business accelerator Techstars to turn her idea into a high-growth, venture-backed business. […]
Posted inBusiness, News, Politics and Government
Tech startups come to the Mountain West, but can they grow?
BOISE, Idaho — Tech startups have been migrating into cities all around the Mountain West, from Denver to Salt Lake to Boise. However, when it comes to them taking over as the nation’s next Silicon Valley, Nick Crabbs, a partner at the tech startup Vynyl, has his doubts. “We’re not going to be the next […]
Posted inBusiness, Education, Growth, News, Technology
Colorado’s newest billion-dollar B Corp is part of a movement to make a social impact — and profits
Fast-growing Guild Education figured out how to help more than 400,000 service workers take college classes — and get their employers to pay for them. It’s no wonder that investors have been drawn to the profitable-ish business model and a nearly unlimited number of potential users. Last week, investors led by General Catalyst managing director […]
Posted inBusiness, Growth, Technology
A Denver startup asks every potential investor: Have you faced sexual harassment complaints?
Last spring, Elizabeth Giorgi was shocked but not surprised by the inappropriate questions from potential investors about her relationships and whether she planned to have children. The cofounder of Denver video-startup Soona decided — enough! She understood the funding world’s reputation for bad behavior. It blew up in mid-2017 when several prominent Silicon Valley male […]
Posted inBusiness, Technology
$1 billion has flowed from venture investors to Front Range companies this year
Natty Zola remembers pitching potential investors back in 2009 on his first startup, a digital travel-journal company in Boulder. He found one — in Boise, Idaho. Back then, the Denver-metro area’s reputation for entrepreneurship was just emerging. Boulder tech accelerator Techstars was in its third year of cohorts. Prominent Boulder venture capitalist Brad Feld had […]
Posted inBusiness, Environment, News, Outdoors
First-ever Techstars Startup Week on the Western Slope pushes innovation, investment off the Front Range
EAGLE — Justin Bradshaw and Mark Roebke knew where they wanted to be: close to the ski hills and trails in a riverside mountain town. They just had to convince investors that Colorado’s West Slope was the perfect place to anchor their global technology company. The entrepreneurs who founded Rever — the Eagle-based motorcycle navigation […]
Posted inBusiness, Growth, News
How Techstars’ “GiveFirst” mantra became a road map for the startup community in Colorado and beyond
David Cohen gets a kick out of hearing “GiveFirst,” an oft-repeated phrase that can be traced back to Techstars, the Boulder technology accelerator he co-founded in 2006. “Someone pointed out a thread to me about Denver Startup Week, and the value of ‘GiveFirst,’ and it never mentioned us or Techstars. And I thought, ‘Awesome,’” said […]
Posted inBusiness, Growth, News
Denver’s tech ecosystem is a work in progress as companies come and grow — and others get sold
The Colorado tech community cheered when email service SendGrid had its initial public offering in November. Finally, a home-grown business was moving to the level that so many startups aspire to. Less than a year later, SendGrid last week said it was being acquired for $2 billion in stock by Twilio, a firm that does […]