Being a bootstrap entrepreneur in Boulder can be tough but one of my favorite activities is sharing what I have learned. I often meet new entrepreneurs who are trying to find their way around our community. I usually follow up with an email listing out some (hopefully) useful links. This blog post contains pretty much what I have sent via email so I look forward to pointing to it the next time I need it.

Got more to add?  Let us know.  Perhaps we will create a page called “Quick Guide to Getting Connected” or something and keep it updated (with help from the community).

Boulder Beta

• Startup mixer event which started in 2011.
• Great social format for local startups to present what they are working on.  Don’t miss it!

Boulder Denver New Tech Meetup

• Monthly feedback forum for startups (400+ attendees in Boulder and 100+ in Denver).
• From their Meetup page: “The local community gets together to network, socialize and show-and-tell new technology. Join us.”

Boulder.me

• The place to go to find out about local tech startup activities.
• From their website: “organization devoted to informing and serving the vibrant startup community in beautiful Boulder, Colorado. We do that on this website; on Twitter, and with outreach and events all year long.”

Boulder Open Coffee Club

• Casual biweekly forum to discus local and national tech business activities. Held on Tuesdays starting at 8am at Atlas Purveyors, 1505 Pearl.
• Get there early if you want a seat since it is usually SRO.
• Search the #bocc hashtag on Twitter for updates, they don’t have a Twitter account.
• Want to find out if it is tomorrow?  Check out this handy website.  Thanks Eoin Coffey!

Boulder StartupDigest

• Weekly email update on local tech startup activities.
• Subscribe to StartupDigest and select the Boulder edition (lots of other interesting cities too).

House of Genius

• Smaller feedback forum for startups (~20 attendees).
• From their website: “House of Genius assembles diverse minds to disrupt normal thinking patterns and ignite new ideas. … 15 professionals … engage in an open, intense dialogue and debate to spawn truly innovative views and solutions.”

Ignite Boulder

• Event which happens about every 6-8 weeks in which presenters get 5 minutes to “teach something, enlighten us, or simply inspire”.  It is a good time and you usually walk away with a new appreciation for something.

Startup Women

• Biweekly networking forum for female entrepreneurs.
• Meets every other Tuesday (opposite of Boulder Open Coffee).
• There is an early conversation session at 8am that usually meets at Ozo Coffee on west Pearl and a more formal session (speakers, topics for discussion) at noon at Boulder Digital Arts.
• Join the Meetup site for details.

Finally, if you are not on Twitter, fix that fast. Many folks in the Boulder tech community use it as their primary means of communication.  You can find out things like what Jason Mendelson (@jasonmendelson) is thinking, usability best practices from Lyn Bain (@lynbain), frank social media advice from Erika Napoletano (@RedheadWriting), podcast and BOCC updates from Michael Sitarzewski (@msitarzewski), food blogger noms from Grace Boyle (@gracefullplate) and so much more.  Get on it!

[Note: Fiona intends this to be the starting point for others to add their two cents - use the comments to add your thoughts on how newcomers can get connected in our community! - Bing]

Boulder has friends in high places these days.  Yesterday “Boulder Is for Startups” was posted on WhiteHouse.gov, shining yet another light on the entrepreneurial ecosystem here.  Boulder Startup Week, TechStars, and Silicon Flatirons all got some love.

Here are a few of the highlights:

• Boulder was one of eight cities on the Startup American Roadshow.
• “Today, Boulder is home to one of the strongest entrepreneurial communities in the country, with close to 200 fledgling tech companies and a city campaign that proclaims ‘Boulder is for startups.’”  Note: boulder.me is not a city campaign – it’s a volunteer campaign.
• “The rabbi of the Boulder entrepreneurial ecosystem…is my good friend Brad Feld.”
• “From May 18-22, the city’s startups will be rolling out the red carpet for talented developers, designers, marketers, and general startup enthusiasts.”  If you haven’t registered for Boulder Startup Week events yet, register now.
• “Many entrepreneurial communities ask how they can be the next Silicon Valley?  As Brad has often explained, that’s the wrong question.”

If you’re interested in reading the post in its entirety, check out “Boulder Is for Startups” on WhiteHouse.gov.

I love Boulder.  Now I love I Love Boulder too.  What better way to embody the spirit of the Boulder community than to have local organizations and businesses create a structure for individuals to tweet, blog, video, and photograph their love of Boulder together?

Boulder is regularly recognized as a great place to live, work, and eat by its inclusion in a variety of Top 10 lists each year.  It’s great PR for the city, due in no small part to the fine folks at the Boulder Convention and Visitors Bureau and other organizations with the budget and structure to elevate Boulder’s profile for our collective benefit.

Adding my photo to Flickr was a piece of cake.

With the recent launch of I Love Boulder, individuals like you and me now have a variety of tools to add our personal perspective.  Tweeting about something inspirational you heard at Startup Women?  Add the hashtag #iloveboulder.  Snap a cool photo of kids frolicking in the jet fountains on Pearl Street?  Add it to the Flickr pool.  Many of you already pimp the Boulder brand; making it part of the I Love Boulder effort is a natural extension.

Hats off to my friends at Quick Left and Cypher13 for building out the website and creating the branding.  The fact that they’ve donated their services is a reflection of what makes the Boulder community so great.

Quick Left’s role in this project is no surprise if you’ve read Jennifer Roberts’ post about them.  Steve Hubert had this to say on behalf of the Quick Left team:

Giving money wasn’t an option for our small startup but we could give something we had plenty of, engineering talent.  Being in Boulder has been amazing for Quick Left on both a professional level and on a lifestyle level.  So, when the opportunity came to support this community, we were excited to jump in.

When I got in touch with Todd Berger and Lucian Föhr about getting Cypher13 involved:

Cypher13 Design studio considers itself part of the fabric of Boulder and…has been provided with exceptional opportunities from within the Boulder community… When Cypher13 sees an opportunity to give back to Boulder and make a difference, it’s very happy to do so.

I can tell you from first hand experience that both Quick Left and Cypher13 are companies that have loads of talent and take a huge amount of pride in what they do.  The fact that they are willing to share their talents with the Boulder community as a whole is a wonderful thing.

As a beneficiary of what the Boulder community offers, I feel it is my giri, my duty, to do my part in spreading the Boulder love.  I’ve uploaded a few photos to Flickr and written this post to get started.  I can hardly wait to see what our collective creativity will come up with.  What do you have in mind to help out?

A fantastic conference is taking place in Boulder about Interaction Design by IxDA and Boulder Digital Works.

Awesome to see such a great group (and sexy website) grace our humble city.

There is a geek meetup tonight at The Bitter Bar hosted by Andrew Hyde and Jake Nickell at 8pm.

How do you follow along and learn (as the conference is sold out)? @ixdconf on Twitter and the hashtag #ixd11.

The area’s newest event for startups and everyone who loves entrepreneurship.

What is it?
An opportunity for community members to get together in a casual, social atmosphere. Attendees can catch up with familiar friends and colleagues, meet new people with like interests, and learn about emerging companies and products in the Boulder & Denver area. Starting this month, Beta will be held at a local venue on a regular basis (ie, monthly or every other month) and will feature about 8-10 companies at every event. Each company will have its own table so you can visit them on your own time, meet the founders and see a demo of the products/services their companies are developing.

Boulder Beta 1.0.0 will be held Tuesday, February 15 from 6-9pm.

To learn more, visit www.BoulderBeta.com.

To register now, visit: www.BoulderBeta.eventbrite.com.

Why Boulder Beta?

Boulder has a lot of stuff going on in the tech/startup scene. So why add another event to the mix? Because this event represents a missing link. Think about all the popular events, like BDNT, BOCC, (both extremely awesome!). Often times the most enjoyable part of these events is the pre- and post-event networking segments, which are typically limited in time. Boulder Beta offers a chance to extend that social interaction, while integrating more informal and personal engagement with the “presenting” entrepreneurs.

Boulder Beta also has a greater mission: to increase the quantity and improve the quality of interaction between our surrounding universities and the vibrant community of entrepreneurs, investors, and other community members. Unfortunately, a large number of students miss out on the amazing collection of entrepreneurial resources around them, due to a number of factors. I hope to leverage my relationships with the community & campus groups to bridge the gap between students/faculty and the companies that need and want their talent and expertise. In the end, any level of success in this effort will surely benefit the community as a whole.

My name is Tim Falls, and I am the primary organizer of Boulder Beta. I’m doing this for all the people who make our area such a great place to live, so I want to know how my efforts can best serve everyone. I welcome any and all feedback you have- feel free to leave a comment below, email me, or hit me up on twitter.

Finally, I could use a volunteer or two to help with the registration table at the event. If you’re interested in lending a hand, please let me know!

Cue the trumpets, horns, and iPhone Lighter App!  We’re back with a new group of witty and informed writers to provide a more colorful perspective on the startup community here in Boulder. We will continue to showcase and interview emerging tech companies but we also intend to broaden our focus to include some of the cool things going on in the renewable energy and clean tech space, yummy street food vendors and record some of the insights and wisdom from our seasoned veterans of start-ups.

Do I hear a virtual “whoa, where the hell have you been”??!! If you are meeting the announcement of our glorious return with a little skepticism, we understand. But like any software upgrade, enhancement or fine-tuning, you always encounter unexpected issues. And so it was with our new roll-out.  So, please give us a second chance and if you have ideas on topics, want to contribute a post or want to get more involved in your community, drop us a line at robertsjennifer at gmail dot com.