Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City

BOULDER STARTUPDIGEST

Tom Markiewicz is another example of a newcomer to Boulder who was quickly welcomed into the community. Tom co-founded a company called StatsMix and went through TechStars Boulder in 2008. Following is his story of Boulder StartupDigest (http://startuprev.com/b2) along with some suggestions about how to have a great startup event.

I came to Boulder four years ago to be part of the TechStars Boulder 2010 class. I knew the best way to meet other entrepreneurs was to attend local events, but finding the best ones was a challenge. As an entrepreneur, time is my most precious resource.

Despite the fact that many events were promoted by or held at TechStars, it was difficult to find them without a central reference source. Not all organizers posted events on the same web sites, some were on various mailing lists, and others just randomly posted to Twitter.

Luckily, I stumbled on the StartupDigest, a free weekly e-mail in over 80 cities worldwide that highlights the best startup events for the upcoming week. Sites that aggregate listings are a nice start, but make it difficult to determine which events are the most useful. In the case of StartupDigest, each city’s e-mail is curated by a local entrepreneur, which ensures someone with similar priorities scours all the events.

In Boulder, Andrew Hyde initially curated our StartupDigest. When I noticed the weekly e-mail stopped as he moved on to other projects, I reached out and volunteered to start writing the ...