7 tips for getting into the Boulder start up scene
January 23rd, 2009
I was contacted by a recent college grad who is looking to get to know the companies and the people in the Boulder start up community. I rattled off a bunch of resources and thought I’d share the list.
- If you can, attend a few of the key boulder start-up events that happen each month. The Boulder New Tech meetup is coming up in Feb, and people always stand up and talk about jobs. Another is the Boulder Open coffee club. Both are on the first tuesday of the month and have websites to get the schedule and connect with people.
- Check out http://bouldertwits.com/ and follow a bunch of us on twitter and you’ll start to get clued into whats up around here. If you are not on twitter, sign up!
- Read coloradostartups.com, feld.com, sethlevine.com for starters. Techstars.org and andrewhyde.net are great blogs also.
- Sign up for a free Filtrbox account and set up some Filtrs for the companies and people you have learned about or are interested in. You’ll get articles all the time that can help you in the interviewing process and you can demonstrate some knowledge. (I can help you with this if needed, just ask!)
- Check out http://boulder.me - its all about the boulder start up scene, probably your new favorite site.
- If you are interested in Marketing/PR, become a social media expert. Start reading http://www.capturetheconversation.com/, and doing some searches for “social media engagement” and “brand monitoring” so you get familiar with the tools. Check out room214.com, a local web marketing company that does it right…again, they are on twitter, facebook, etc.
- There is a nacient group forming, the “Social Media Club” of Boulder/Denver. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=31030772326 Lots of PR/marketing people there…great place to meet people and network.
Note: After re-reading this I’m sure I left a bunch of key things out so feel free to leave a note with suggestions…
Thanks for the list and the shout out – Boulder is such a good scene that sometimes I miss all of the techie events that are happening in our small community..
Nice one, Ari! I think this town is amazing. There is so much going on, I can barely keep up
If folks truly are serious about meeting people, there are so many opportunities to do so. Along with the more networky events, I'm also starting to see more programmer-centric events (hackspace and podcamp, both events can be found on the resources you listed above) which is very cool.
Good developer-centric events are key, so it's great to see them happening. The first boulder.me job fair was great, I thought it was a good sign of how the community is getting organized. FYI – Filtrbox will be hosting a hack day soon also (details to follow in a few weeks).
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Ari Newman
Mobile: 303-810-8435
Sent from my iPhone
Ari, I really do believe Boulder is a very unique start up community. There is a level of cooperation and open support – even amongst competitors – that is not realized in other locales. I've seen it time and time again when someone comes here from say Austin, NYC or SV and they are floored about how the community connects and supports itself. If someone tries to pull the kill – kill – kill mantra here they find themselves on the outside looking in.
James Clark
Haha, great post..Thanks man.