Jan 2 2012

Starting Up Startup Communities

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog post on Feld Thoughts describing a new book I’m writing called Startup Communities: Creating A Great Entrepreneurial Ecosystem In Your City. This is a topic I’m incredibly passionate about as I believe you can create great startup communities in cities all over the world. While some people believe Silicon Valley is the only place one should start a company, I firmly reject that notion.

I live in Boulder, Colorado and have been part of an incredibly entrepreneurial renaissance during the 16 years I’ve been living here. Boulder, which has been recognized in many different ways as a great example of a startup community – including recent profiles in the New York TImes and BusinessWeek – is where I spent a lot of my time. But the VC firm I’m a partner in, Foundry Group, invests around the US and we’ve experienced great growth in the startup communities in cities like New York, Boston, Seattle, and Los Angeles over the past few years. Finally, through our work with TechStars and the TechStars Network, we are experiencing (and participating) in the creation of startup communities all over the world.

As part of writing this book, I’ve decided to start a blog to explore some of my thoughts, build a community around this topic, and highlight other amazing things going on in other startup communities that we can learn from.

Come join me on this exploration. If you’ve got a startup community story to share, email me and I’ll get it up on this blog.