Colorado Springs Startup Week Celebrates the City’s Community of Entrepreneurs
This August 21-25, Colorado Springs will celebrate and strengthen its booming entrepreneurial community with its third-annual Startup Week, featuring speakers and workshops from some of the major players in the city’s startup scene.
Startup Week will build on last year’s success—which included a total of about 500 attendees—with all-day events and speakers from a full range of entrepreneurial areas. This year’s event schedule will take a unique approach to a Startup Week structure: each day will focus on one phase of the startup process, with various workshops throughout the day that tackle different topics within that phase. In total, the whole week will encompass the full lifespan of a startup from launch to exit:
- Monday: SketchUp: Ideation, Concept
- Tuesday: Lean Startup and MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
- Wednesday: Launch
- Thursday: Traction and Scale-Up
- Friday: Exit
The event is presented by Peak Startup, the Colorado Springs nonprofit that supports local economic growth and provides mentoring, networking and communication for entrepreneurs in the region. One of the culminating events of the week is Peak Startup’s Pitch Night Competition, where entrepreneurs can practice their pitches and receive feedback from peers.
Peak Startup executive director Michelle Parvinrouh says Colorado Springs is becoming a more and more inviting place for startups each year. “The nice thing about Colorado Springs is that it’s easy to live here, so you can make your resources go further here,” she says.
Colorado Springs Startup Week is led by entrepreneurs and will be hosted in some of the city’s best entrepreneurial spaces, such as the local hotspot Ivywild School, and the new Rim Technologies offices that just opened in a historic building downtown that once housed a family-run candy and ice cream shop for more than 50 years. Some of the featured speakers at the event include:
Leif Ullman, KidReports: A father of two young children himself, Leif started KidReports in 2011 as a tool for teachers to digitally manage classrooms and parents to stay connected with their kids.
Michael Larson, Sleep Shepherd: After struggling to find help for his daughter’s sleeping disorder, Michael developed a solution himself–a biofeedback system that aids sleep naturally without the help of pills.
Jan Horsfall, Maxletics: Jan connects world-class athletes, including Olympians and Ironman Triathletes, with athletic brands searching for influential athletes to strengthen their branding.
Stacie Shaw, Pitch Deck Fire: A supporter of fellow startups, Stacie coaches entrepreneurs on how to deliver successful pitches to potential investors and clients.
Startup Week’s events will be held mainly at Penrose House and the National Strength and Conditioning Association headquarters. For a full schedule of events, visit the Colorado Springs Startup Week website.