Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City

BOULDER DENVER NEW TECH MEETUP

Over the past five years, the Boulder Denver New Tech Meetup has become a local institution. Conceived and led by Robert Reich, it has grown from a modest start to regular events of 500 people, making it the second largest known Tech Meetup in the United States, behind New York. The Boulder event is held at the CU Law Courtroom, one of the largest auditoriums on campus, and it is an example of how CU Law supports the Boulder startup community. Following, in Robert’s words, is the story of the Boulder Denver New Tech Meetup.

The first Boulder Denver New Tech (BDNT) was held on August 8, 2006. It was held at the Me.dium offices (a company I had co-founded) and 39 people attended. We promoted the event through word of mouth. Today, almost six years later, the group has 8,000 members and is growing faster than when it first launched.

The basic format has not changed since the original event. Five presenters get five minutes to pitch their new technology followed by five minutes of Q&A. The original format was created at the New York Tech Meetup, but we refined it for Boulder and made it our own.

Our guiding principles for the event are to keep it real and keep it moving. This means if a presenter is not getting to the point, they are nudged along or even cut off. If they are talking at the audience, selling too hard, or presenting something that seems unrealistic, it will be questioned publicly. On the flip side, if they are delivering something ...