

Rocky Mountain High Tech - tbrooks
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/14/business/14boulder.html?adxnnl=1&ref=technology&adxnnlx=1273802402-UGIi3+hezMTE6drCspymQg

======
apsurd
Recently Andrew Hyde from techstars dropped us a line at HN about boulder
startup week, which just passed. <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1283461>
(details here: <http://boulderstartupweek.com/>)

Techstars, courtesy of pivotal labs made good on their offer and they paid for
my plane fare to and from Boulder. I am working on a blog post about my honest
experiences there but since this thread is here I might as well post!

Boulder is a beautiful place. It is pristine, very nature-y and the people are
quite friendly -- they smile as they yield to you crossing the street. There
is no graffiti, no littering, and everything is in walkable distance.

I am from L.A. born and raised so going to Boulder was quite the experience.
Everyone is white, white and tall! I am not white, and I am not tall. There
are 3 trashcans most places; compost, recyclables, landfill. The "Trident"
coffee shop is (from what I been told) the latest shop you can go to; it
closes at 11pm.

Boulder is a bubble, and the boulderites know and are proud of their bubble.
The people there love their lifestyle and many are quick to say how much "they
aren't like L.A. or S.F.". It's not disdain so much as it is pride in their
town -- I like that.

Above all I think it is correct to say that everyone in Boulder is open to
helping out. I mean that as generally as that sounds. Sure people in tech get
all happy when they talk to other people in tech, but when we were holding a
meeting at "Atlas" coffee shop, the manager of the store joined in on the
conversation. I asked her some follow up questions as a "local small business"
and we now follow eachother on twitter. At "The Cup" I talked to a worker that
that had a lot of tattoos about my ideas regarding tattoos and tech ... it was
nice.

I think in Boulder.... people are _on the same team_ , they like to think of
it like that.

I love L.A. though, I have been to S.F. and aside from it having to deal with
a lot of tourism, it is a great place as well. S.F. is big so naturally the
bar is high. I think it is wrong to say just because Boulder is _so helpful_
that SF is not helpful. YC is very helpful, I enjoyed startupschool and YC
alumni are some of the most proactive and helpful people I've met.

Boulder is great, but all places have their worth. Boulder is a bubble, and
some people like that - nothing wrong there. I would work in Boulder for a
startup. I love the friends I've made there. Boulder is authentic in its
specific and niche way. But there is no denying that in bigger cities, you've
got to deal with a much larger sampling of "authenticity" - L.A. may be dirty,
but it's more indicative of a wide range of the world than Boulder is. There
is no correct lens to view the world through though.

Maybe I'm not making sense. Boulder is a great startup scene. But in the end,
a real entrepreneur is going to make the best with what he's got. Don't get
the impression that because you are not in xyz town you are handicapped.

Thanks for reading.

------
spking
I left the SF Bay Area for the Boulder/Denver area (Westminster) in 2005, and
stayed through 2007. I enjoyed Pearl Street, walking around the CU campus and
hiking in the Flatirons. However, I'd point out that many native Coloradoans I
encountered lamented the influx of Californians (like me) and felt that we
were ruining the vibe, which is quite possible.

If you wanted to take advantage of the startup scene in Boulder (especially if
you're bootstrapping it), I'd recommend checking out surrounding communities
like Westminster, Broomfield and Longmont. You'll save a ton of money on rent.

~~~
wyclif
The same thing happened in Montana; a lot of big Cali money tried moving into
Bozeman. That was OK with the locals, but what wasn't OK was that after buying
up some ranchland and putting up a few McMansions and Olympic-sized pools,
they put a bunch of spotlights up (on poles) to illuminate their spreads 24/7.
That pissed the locals off, and the lights mysteriously got the shotgun
treatment. I think the Californians got the picture ;-)

I think that as long as you're respectful of local mores and customs, you'll
be OK.

~~~
trafficlight
Are you still in Bozeman? I'm in Helena myself.

~~~
wyclif
No, I'm on the East coast. I have friends that live out there though, and I
love Montana and try to get out there every chance I get. It's one of the last
best places in the US!

------
r0s
_Boulder - usually seen as an enclave of hippies, marijuana dispensaries and
rock climbers - has become a hotbed of capitalism._

As a native Coloradoan, I must say Boulder has been commonly known as a white
bread, vastly overpriced, pretentious suburb for the last 30 years.

Populated mostly with college students who leave after graduating. Rent and
SUV maintenance being prohibitively expensive in that city without a real job.

Affluent college town coddles young businesses? It would be shocking if they
didn't.

(Did I mention I hate Boulder?)

~~~
ynniv
Not being from the area, I was quite surprised to find that Boulder was not
the hippie enclave (a la Burlington, VT) that people say it is. Vast tracts of
shiny new development overshadow the few remaining vestiges (ie, Naropa
University) of a more philosophical time. At any given moment you are more
likely to be run over by an expensive SUV than to bump into an honest hippie.
When you do find an honest hippie, they are generally ranting about the way
things have changed.

On the whole, it was a nice place to be, but it should no longer have a
reputation of counterculture... a 30+ person SWAT team keeps the kiddies in
line. Boulder is now best described as a nature oriented suburb of Silicon
Valley.

------
mkramlich
I live in Colorado and visit Boulder about once a week for one reason or
another. I also attend most of their tech/startup meetups and events.
(Returned home just an hour ago from the Colorado Green Tech Meetup, for
example.) One of the great things about Boulder compared to the rest of
Colorado is that it is the closest thing we have to a community built around
ideas, innovation, education, science, progress, justice, health and
sustainability. And therefore draws and keeps people who care about these
things. Sounds like great stuff to me. How could one _not_ like those things?

The negative stereotypes are also true, in some ways, (ex-60's-hippies,
trustafarians, spoiled university kids, so-called-environmentalists-driving-
huge-ass-SUV's-with-black-windows-talking-on-cellphones-while-driving-in-the-
rain, etc.) but I think the positive aspects of the town far outweigh the
negative. You go to Boulder, you can mentally mask out the occasional
dreadlock. You go to Colorado Springs or Federal Heights, you are not going to
simply mentally will into existence a coffee house or auditorium full of
techies, progressives, investors, serial entrepreneurs, or scientists. Because
they are just not there. Not enough anyway.

~~~
mkramlich
Also, you gotta love an outdoor street mall that goes like this: coffee house,
art store, coffee house, bongs, Tesla Motors showroom, bongs, big retro book
store, coffee, pizza.

It pretty much illustrates all the demographic groups of Boulder.

------
davidw
I'm nearly sold. Life in Italy is good in some ways that it likely never will
be anywhere in the US (apsurd's comment about the latest place closing at 11),
no piazzas like here, no beautiful old buildings and jumbled architecture. But
I'm getting pretty sick of the wages here and the general condition of the
economy. Actually... everywhere has problems, what's important is whether
places try and tackle them, hard as it may be, and over the past 20 years,
Italy really hasn't made much progress.

I could pretty easily find a job in Boulder, I think, but the last bit of the
puzzle is seeing what's available for my wife in biotech or a related field...

------
bbb
_[...] said Chad McGimpsey, who moved to Boulder a month ago and is now a
regular at the twice-a-month coffee club._

Wow, I wish I could recognize trends that quickly. At most two observations,
and already a "regular."

------
blackguardx
I am moving there next month just for the climbing. It seems to be the only
place where you can get a decent tech job and still be within walking distance
of some sweet rocks.

------
hesdeadjim
Lived in Boulder for two years now and I love it out here. Weather is, for the
most part, amazing and it is really hard to beat the view. Also an outdoor
sports heaven.

I should mention that the startup I work for is hiring, so if you want a
change of pace and have real experience with iPhone and/or game development,
send a resume to justin@backflipstudios.com

------
starkfist
Are there any women there? Silicon valley is for the celibate, and every
snowboard town ive been to, he dudes all have to, uh, share. From its
description boulder sounds like it should be the worst of all worlds if you're
single. But maybe I'm wrong...

