Earlier this month, the team from Engine came to Colorado to continue their regional visits to build the Capital Coalition. We hosted the meeting at Foundry Group, and we were joined by folks from Techstars, GroTech Ventures, Service Provider Capital, Zero G Capital, Boulder Ventures and the University of Colorado to talk about the vision for the Capital Coalition.
As Brad Feld explains in his book Startup Communities, leadership in any vibrant startup community must come from entrepreneurs. But investors can be key “feeders” of those communities (to use Brad’s term), and a critical role investors can play is as advocates for public policies that support entrepreneurs and the the cities where they work and live.
During the session we covered a range of policy issues such as access to capital, economic development, and the role government should play in supporting startup communities. We talked about housing costs, taxes, immigration, tariffs, and how unstable the public policy terrain feels today. And we discussed ways that the Capital Coalition can influence the policy choices that are being made on those issues in Washington, D.C. and in state houses around the country.
Here in Boulder, we have an investor population that understands one of the best long-term investments we can make is in the development of startup communities, here and across the country, that give birth to new companies. We look being a part of the Capital Coalition’s work.
-- Jason Lynch, Foundry Group General Counsel
More About Capital Coalition
What’s Next?
The Boulder area is an exceptional example of a thriving startup community with established VCs leading the way both regionally and across the country with their investments and influence. The level of interest in the coalition was greatly appreciated and we’re confident in having a very active group of folks to keep working with as the coalition grows into the fall. We look forward to sharing more news out of Colorado and hope to visit again soon.
Next up, we plan to visit Austin, Texas in September and will share details here as they come!
How to Get Involved
Capital Coalition will actively keep members informed and caught up with the latest pieces of legislation or rumblings out of Washington. It’s also important for us to better understand what’s most important to you. To gauge this and tailor our updates to individual members interests, we’ve created an intake survey for interested folks that can be filled out here.
We also encourage interested folks to sign up for our updates by visiting our website at http://www.capitalcoalition.com. We hope to hear from you and see many more of you over the coming months.
