THE EXAMPLE OF BOULDER

Through this book, I use the Boulder startup community as an example. Since I’ve only lived here since 1995, this is not intended to be a comprehensive history of the Boulder startup community. I don’t mean any disrespect to all of the other people who have helped make the Boulder startup community amazing, or who were involved before I moved to town. However, by not trying to create a history, I can cover enough ground to give you a feeling for how things evolved, while I focus on the underlying principles that you can apply to building your startup community.

As I’ll discuss in a later chapter, Boulder actually has five startup communities: tech (software/Internet), biotech, clean tech, natural foods, and lifestyles of health and sustainability (LOHAS). These five startup communities exist in parallel universes. My time and expertise have been focused on the tech segment. I periodically have intersection points with the other startup communities through friends, events, and an occasional personal investment in a company outside of tech, but my understanding, experience, and engagement with these other segments are limited.

Throughout this book I’ve asked others to give their perspective on the key events and activities around the startup community. It will be clear whenever the example is in someone else’s voice. I’ve also brought in several examples from other startup communities when there were activities in Boulder that touched them in a meaningful way, ...

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