Boomtown, a prominent accelerator based in Boulder, hosted a Demo Day last night at the Boulder Theater for its 5th class of graduates. “A major focus at Boomtown is on developing and adapting a program that is best suited for the start-up.” By definition, an accelerator’s purpose is to provide resources for entrepreneurs to accelerate the growth of their companies, usually in exchange for a portion of equity in the company. But what I realized last night, as I watched a stampede of almost all male founding teams parade across the stage at the end of the night, that the support provided by... Read More

This column has traditionally focused on businesses located in Boulder or nearby Front Range communities. We here at aboutboulder.com live in Boulder, we work in Boulder and we care about the Boulder community. However, we are also citizens of the state of Colorado and there has been much buzz in the state capitol about building businesses beyond the Front Range. Governor Hickenlooper has focused extensively on expanding the economies in rural Colorado communities. His new program, the Blueprint Initiative “invites the state’s rural communities and regions to apply for specialized resources... Read More

After winning Super Bowl 50, Gary Kubiak, the Broncos’ head coach goes on record to say, “we grinded all year and we just had to do it once more”. Kubiak just gave everybody an insight into the mind of a champion. You see, The Broncos’ season was nothing like the Panthers’. The Panthers destroyed teams and then danced all over the field like children (by the way, I would’ve danced just as much as Cam. Judge all you want.) Their victories were spectacular. They scored points at will. They dominated. Everything they did was stylish. The Broncos’ season was very different. It was a... Read More

In previous articles, I’ve touched on concepts related to creating mission-based organizations and I’ve highlighted companies that have built a culture of impact and sustainability into daily business practices. More than any defined monetary contribution, these cultural and community-based efforts are crucial to ensuring that the future of our world is as bright as the future of our businesses. However, for companies that are looking to create lasting impact through monetary contributions, apart from or in addition to more qualitative efforts, the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado has created... Read More

For the past several months, I have written about business in Boulder and throughout Colorado with a particular focus on businesses with an impactful or sustainable mission. These businesses have run the gamut from technology to consumer products to non-for-profits. The Colorado Impact Initiative is a push to bring many of the diverse impact businesses in Colorado together in one place at one time. The culmination of the Initiative’s will be the Colorado Impact Days, a public showcase and investor-focused event to highlight many of the impact businesses in Colorado. While it is important to give... Read More

The statistics around female entrepreneurship are either non-existent or depressingly bleak. Alicia Robb, a senior fellow with the Kauffman Foundation and a prominent researcher on issues of gender, race, and entrepreneurship notes that over the last 15 years 85% of all venture-funded businesses have completely male executive teams with no females in leadership roles. What’s worse is that only 2.7% of venture-funded businesses have female CEOs. Right now, in 2016, the face of entrepreneurship is still male. How can we change that face? How can we make that face more diverse across gender and... Read More

No, the B Corp is not some new Transformers sequel or some government program designed to eliminate the lingering ills of the 2008 recession. The B Corp is a certification: nothing more than a label, plain and simple. It’s not even an official legal registration designation, it’s simply a signal to consumers that a company intends to behave in an ethically, socially responsible way and, in turn, the company intends to be held accountable for that promise. According to B Lab, the organization that issues the B Corp certification, “B Corps are for-profit companies certified by the nonprofit... Read More

New Years resolutions are tough. They are tough to narrow down, tough to commit to, and, as we all know, tough to keep. But they are also useful. Mind tricks of any sort (or behavioral economics if you want to get fancy about it) can actually work and the scientific community would agree that making and attempting to keep New Years resolutions can sometimes lead to positive behavioral change. Over the last few years, in the hopes of actually keeping my resolutions, I’ve tried to stay away from small, superficial ones that force me into an all or nothing thought pattern. For example: Lose 10 pounds.... Read More

Boulder is a town filled with doers: people who would rather get up at the crack of dawn and summit a mountain than sit on their couch and watch television. I believe that this characteristic, the preference toward action over inaction, is what drives so much of the entrepreneurial success in our community. For a town of around 150,000 people, Boulder pulls more than its weight in the international entrepreneurship scene. This means that each of us Boulderites have to do more individually, and thus be stronger as a community. This holiday season, think about the entrepreneur in your life, whether... Read More

We’ve all heard the ancient proverb: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime, right? Well, the meaning behind this proverb seems to be at the heart of a debate that has been sparked by Mark Zuckerberg and Dr. Priscilla Chan’s announcement that they would give away approximately $45 billion worth of Facebook shares over the course of their lifetimes. Any announcement made in such a public way by such a public figure is likely to ignite a firestorm of pushback and the Zuckerberg announcement was no different. Critics disparaged the Zuckerbergs... Read More