Increase the breadth and depth of the entrepreneurial ecosystem
1122_ 12/8/11 - Recently w3w3® attended the very exciting public launch event of Startup Colorado. We're here now with Dave Mangum, a Silicon Flatirons Research Fellow and the Executive Director of the Startup Colorado program. Dave tells us Startup Colorado is a regional project to increase the breadth and depth of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Colorado. The goal, over the coming years, is to build the communal backdrop for new companies to emerge. The national program, Startup America is basically a convener bringing together different startup regions to share best practices, to learn a little big about what they're all doing. So Startup Colorado is really where the action happens for Colorado. As the executive director for Startup CO, Dave's responsibility is to be the driver on the first year goals. Dave says of these goals he feels Startup Summer will have the biggest impact. They will get college students from across the state come to Boulder for a summer, working as interns for Boulder based startup companies. The students will by day work as interns, by night they will have a full range of courses and dinners, through the summer that will help them get a stronger sense of what entrepreneurship is really about. The second example is to expand the very popular and successful community events in Boulder, like Community Office Hours, Open Coffee Club or New Tech Meetup, we want those same events that have the community component to expand outside of Boulder to Fort Collins and Colorado Springs. Larry noted it is a grassroots movement. Dave said, "Absolutely. It's not going to work if we don't have entrepreneurs working with us each step of the way ay." There are two ways of being involved. The first is just being cognizant of what's going on and showing up - it's always great to have a strong community spirit at our public events. More deeply, at this stage, they're trying to have as many conversations as they can with people across the Front Range and tell us what they want to do and how they want to get involved. So start the conversation. Listen for more
Related Links: Startup Colorado || Startup America Partnership || Startup Colorado public launch || Silicon Flatirons Home || House of Genius || Entrepreneurs Channel || Photos || Keywords: Dave Mangum, Silicon Flatirons Center, Startup America Partnership, Startup Colorado, Startup Colorado Public Launch, Entrepreneurs - bytes=6652972
LISTEN TO: Dave Mangum, Exec. Dir., Startup Colorado

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