Fort Collins to host first Startup Week May 20-25

FORT COLLINS – Fort Collins will join the ranks of cities such as Denver and Boulder this spring by hosting its very own Startup Week.
The inaugural event will take place May 20-25 in Old Town Fort Collins and will host attendees from across the nation, bringing together entrepreneurs from all industries.

Event creator Chris Snook moved to Fort Collins from California seven months ago after spending 14 years starting various companies, including technology and consulting firms. Once he arrived here, Snook observed the entrepreneurial activity taking place in Fort Collins and decided to do what he could to help local startups.

Entities such as the Rocky Mountain Innosphere and Colorado State University, and events such as the Blue Ocean Enterprise Challenge stood out to Snook. He created yet another business, Launch Haus Fort Collins, to serve as a mentor to startup businesses here.

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Meanwhile, he gathered support from the city of Fort Collins, CSU and local businesses such as Community Funded to create Fort Collins’ first-ever startup week.

“It seemed like an opportunity to glue all these things together,” he said.

The event will take place in multiple venues throughout Old Town, with programs geared toward work and play.

In addition to workshops and talks from people such as Boulder-based venture capitalist Brad Feld, there will be social hours held at different startups around town, and perhaps bike rides or similar activities, Snook said.

The lineup is still evolving, Snook said, but Gerd Leonhard, an author of five books on the future of content, technology and the energy and environmental sectors will give the keynote address to kick off the week. Leonhard will speak on the future of business and capitalism.

The week will culminate with the Blue Ocean Enterprise Challenge Finals Event, held May 24, Snook said. The challenge includes what is currently the largest prize package in the country for an entrepreneurial challenge, Snook said. The grand prize winner will take home $250,000 and 12 months of strategy support.

Thirty-two finalists are competing in the contest, and had their first workshop at the end of February, said Charisse Bowen, director of the Institute for Entrepreneurship at CSU, which is partnering with Fort Collins-based Blue Ocean on the challenge.
Organizers at Blue Ocean were in the midst of planning their own “venture fest” to complement the Blue Ocean challenge when they were approached about Fort Collins Startup Week, Bowen said.

“A lot of the events suggested were similar to what we had planned conceptually,” she said. The Blue Ocean challenge team passed along the interest they had garnered for their event to Fort Collins Startup Week and let Snook and his team take the reins.

Tickets to Fort Collins Startup Week are free, said Snook, who expects the event to attract angel investors and venture capitalists as well as startup companies.

Molly Armbrister can be reached at 970-232-3139 or marmbrister@ncbr.com. Follow her on Twitter at @MArmbristerNCBR.