NewCo Boulder grows in second-year peek at city’s entrepreneurial scene

BOULDER – NewCo Boulder, billed as a sort of “choose-your-own-adventure” peek at the city’s entrepreneurial scene, is adding participating companies to its programming and joining forces with the Boulder Chamber to help try and raise the profile of the event in its second year.

Tim O’Shea, co-founder of Engage Colorado, the local company running the event, said NewCo Boulder has about 60 companies opening their doors to ticket holders to give inside looks at their company cultures and what has helped make them thrive in the city’s startup scene. That’s up from about 45 companies last year. Companies like Google, Fate Brewing, Quick Left and Agribotix are among those hosting events.

NewCo Boulder is slated for Nov. 19 this year.

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NewCo is a “non-ballroom” conference model started four years ago in San Francisco by entrepreneurs John Battelle and Brian Monahan. Boulder was one of just eight cities to host NewCo events last year, but there is double that amount this year, including five in other countries.

The format includes six different hour-long time slots throughout the day where attendees can visit different companies around town. O’Shea calls it a cousin of Startup Week, which occurs in the spring. NewCo has plenty of tech influence, but tries to include companies from all of Boulder’s different innovation sectors, like natural and organic foods, craft beer and clean tech, among others.

“It’s what can we do in one day to shine the light broadly across the community,” O’Shea said.

Tickets range from free for a one-session pass to $25 for access to unlimited sessions to $100 for unlimited access and entrance to a pair of VIP events. Attendees signed up for unlimited sessions can plot out their own day, with most participating companies centered near downtown or central Boulder.

Sessions aren’t pitch-focused, but more geared toward providing some sort of insight that can add value to the rest of Boulder’s startup community.

“It’s not just a corporate tour,” O’Shea said. “It really is a conversation, and an engaging one at that.”

NewCo Boulder had about 600 attendees last year, O’Shea said, and is on pace for similar numbers this year.

One new wrinkle is that NewCo Boulder is partnering with the Boulder Chamber on its Esprit Entrepreneur awards program on Nov. 18 and using it as a kickoff event to NewCo the next day.

“It’s been an opportunity to cross-pollinate some of the up and comers with some of the established folks who will be in that room,” O’Shea said.