Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City

SILICON FLATIRONS

A dozen years ago, Phil Weiser, now the dean of the CU Law School, started an initiative that is now called the Silicon Flatirons Center. I tease Phil constantly about the name because I strongly believe “Silicon [Insert Geographic Landform here]” is not a good name for anything. He responds, as every dean should, that a significant financial contribution will cause a name change. Phil started Silicon Flatirons as a project in the law school around “international telecommunication policy and innovation.” Over the years, it has become a key national convener of the various constituents around telecommunications, software, and Internet innovation. Several important concepts have emerged from Silicon Flatirons’ discussions, including the idea of net neutrality.

In 2005, Phil and his colleague Brad Bernthal started focusing some of their energy on entrepreneurship. Phil and Brad realized that entrepreneurs drove innovation activity, especially around software and Internet. Given this, the policy discussion needed to include entrepreneurs, and Silicon Flatirons could be a great convening force for this.

Phil and Brad took it one important step further. Rather than trying to control the discussion, or create a dedicated entrepreneurship center at CU as a part of Silicon Flatirons, they simply turned things inside out. They put the word out to the Boulder startup community that Silicon Flatirons was a resource for them to use. They opened the doors to their building ...