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]

On the crowdsourcing bandwagon?  We are, and want to share some news with you: Boulder based Crowdsortium, a crowdsourcing industry trade group, is running a contest to give away a booth at CrowdConf 2011, the first and leading conference on crowdsourcing.

Crowdsortium includes a growing list of companies and organizations, many with Boulder ties (Trada, Kapost, Napkin Labs, boulder.me, and Victors & Spoils, to name a few).  In true crowdsourcing spirit, members are sharing ideas, best practices, and more, just as their own crowdsourcing communities do.  IP protection, incentive systems, and the logistics of distributed work forces are among the topics discussed.

The list of speakers for CrowdConf 2011 was sourced from an impressive list of companies, including Amazon Mechanical Turk, Kickstarter, Quora, and Threadless.  The event will be taking place November 1-2, 2011 in San Francisco.  You can purchase tickets here, but I’d recommend reading on before you spend your investors’ hard earned money.

If you meet these qualifications, you’re eligible to enter the Crowdsortium booth giveaway:

• You’re a Crowdsortium member.  Apply to be a member if you’re not already one – it’s free, but may not be forever.
• Your company/organization is three years old or younger.
• You’ve received at least one round of funding.

To enter, write a short blog post (200-400 words) describing your company and why you should be considered the most up-and-coming crowdsourcing company in the universe.  Rev up your social media machine, because the entries with the most tweets and retweets (important: tweets must include @crowdsortium) by 11am MST on September 23 will be the entries judged by Crowdsortium and CrowdFlower.  The winner will receive a free Crowdsortium Sponsored Exhibitor Booth at CrowdConf 2011; the runner-up will receive two free tickets to the event.  Peep the CrowdConf 2011 Booth Contest press release for all the details and get your social media on.

The TEDxBoulder folks are gluttons for punishment.  After overcoming a series of roadblocks to put together Truth & Beauty last year, the team is back with Time & Change on September 24th at CU’s Macky Auditorium.  My advice: get your ticket now and be ready to exercise your brain.

If you’re new to TEDx, here’s the gist of it:

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x=independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations).

Check out videos from last year’s speakers.  It’ll give you an idea of what you’re in for and will get you pumped for September 24th.

This year’s list includes Chef Ann Cooper, advocate for better food for all children, Phil Plait, astronomer,  Daniel Epstein, Unreasonable Institute President, Jake Nickell, Threadless Co-founder, and six other fantastic speakers.  Co-organizer George Morris tells me singer/songwriter Kimya Dawson will be performing and more speakers will be added, so there’s more fun to come.

That’s about all you need to know.  Here’s a summary:

1. Get your ticket.
2. See you there.

TechStars has been busy. Very busy. Last Friday the incubator launched This Week in TechStars, a weekly webcast under the This Week In umbrella, on the heels of the Do More Faster book tour, the filming of the Bloomberg Television series TechStars (premiering 9/13), and TechStars Boulder Demo Day.  With all of this exposure, count on TechStars to get even busier.

Host David Cohen, TechStars Co-founder, welcomes Brad Feld, TechStars Co-founder and Foundry Group Managing Director, Jeff Clavier, SoftTechVC Founder, and Ari Newman, Filtrbox Founder and TechStars alumnus, to the first episode of the show.

TechStars intends to bring TechStars entrepreneurs and mentors onto the show to talk about real problems facing entrepreneurs.  The premiere did not disappoint.  If your company is struggling with its pricing model, the last conversation with Ari Newman will be invaluable.

The BlipSnips (TechStars Boulder ’10) summary of the show is below.  Please leave a comment if you think having a weekly summary of This Week in TechStars will be valuable to you.

Photos: Andrew Hyde

Another TechStars Boulder Demo Day, another home run.  I had high expectations following last year’s event, but 2011′s class did not disappoint yesterday.

The Boulder Theater had plenty of Demo Day energy from the start, with TechStars alumni manning a variety of posts, investors making their rounds on the first floor, and other Boulder community members heading to their seats on the balcony.

After the event kicked off with an NBA playoff-like introduction of the 12 teams,  it was straight to the action, listed here in super-condensed form:

SimpleEnergy lets utility companies engage their customers with information and game mechanics to help them save energy.  Think Mint for energy consumption.

FlixMaster lets people create videos that allow viewers to choose what happens next and interact in other ways.  Branching-path video: Choose Your Own Adventure in multi-media form.

Creative Brain Studios gives developers the ability to create a game published across a myriad of phone, tablet, and computer platforms at once, letting them focus on creativity instead of headaches.

TruantToday immediately notifies parents by text and e-mail when a student skips class, helping the schools that use it to recover thousands in otherwise lost funding.

Meal Ticket lets food service distributors partner with restaurants to create coupons and other promotions, creating more demand from their customers’ customers.

Mocavo is a free search engine specific to genealogy, allowing users to research their family tree and receive automated updates as new information is discovered.

After the 15 minute break, TechStars Co-founder/Congressman Jared Polis shared a few words, followed by Co-founder David Cohen’s introduction to a trailer for the upcoming Bloomberg Television documentary series about TechStars NYC 2011, premiering September 13th. Then it was back to the presentations:

GoSpotCheck connects brands with a crowdsourced workforce to check on their products’ in-store merchandising.  Mechanical Turk meets the secret shopper.

ReportGrid gives developers an API to add analytics and reporting features into their web applications without having to code them from scratch.

InboxFever turns e-mail accounts into mini-applications of their own, returning stock quotes, driving directions, and other information based on e-mail subject lines and content.

SocialEngine offers message-by-message advice to help businesses manage their social media communications by highlighting negative comments, influential people, and more.

Flextrip lets online travel companies market tours and activities in a vertical marketplace.  It’s Kayak extended beyond travel and accomodations into “what to do when you get there”.

FullContact‘s API takes a chunk of partial contact information, pieces it together with other data, and returns complete, updated contact records.

The rounds being raised ranged from $500k up to $1.5M, many of which had significant commitments coming into the event.  This marks an increase compared to the fund raising efforts of the previous class, which ranged from $250k up to $1M this time last year (The sign of a stronger class or an entrepreneur-friendly fund raising bubble?  Take a peek at the TechStars Results Page, then come back and discuss).

Congratulations to TechStars and this summer’s graduating class – well done.  Thank you for involving the community as you always have, and we’ll see you at Demo Day 2012!

Community members: if you’ve got ideas on how TechStars can do it even better next year, get the conversation started in the comments y’all.

Ryan Angilly is one of Boulder’s relative newcomers, but you’d never know it by how many people he knows here. Who better to organize a Boulder Startup Week event “We Moved to Boulder and…” to help others who recently moved here or are considering moving here feel at home?

The event will be on Friday, May 20th 5-7pm at Aspiringapps on Pearl St.  Take a peek at Plancast to see who’s coming, and better yet, to RSVP.

Ryan’s arranged to have a few other recent transplants talk for a minute about:

• Why they moved here
• Where they come from
• How quickly the got plugged in
• How awesome the ride has been
• What they’re up to now

I scanned the participants list to see who’s coming, and it looks like there are quite a few veterans mixed in as well.  If you’re new to town or Boulder is on the short list of places to move to, this event is a no-brainer.  See you there.