Colorado’s tech ecosystem is going through a moment that mixes excitement with a healthy dose of concern.
That was exactly the tension that took center stage during the BizWest CEO Roundtable, held in Boulder and hosted at Google’s local office, where executives from different sectors gathered to speak openly about what’s working — and what still needs attention — in the state’s tech landscape.
The conversation was straightforward: Colorado has an enviable foundation for anyone just getting started, with an active investor community for early-stage rounds, heavyweight universities, and cutting-edge federal labs.
But when the topic shifts to growth, the tone starts to change.
Retaining startups after the initial fundraising stages has become one of the biggest headaches in the local ecosystem, and neighboring states like Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico are already capitalizing on that gap to attract companies born on Colorado soil.
From life sciences to quantum computing to the unpredictable impacts of artificial intelligence, what you’ll find below is an honest snapshot of where Colorado stands today — and what still needs to happen so the state doesn’t lose the leadership position it spent decades building. 🚀
What Colorado has going for it — and why that’s not enough
There’s no denying it: Colorado has built, over the years, a solid foundation for anyone looking to launch a tech business. The presence of universities like the University of Colorado Boulder and Colorado State University, combined with major federal labs, creates an environment rich in research, talent, and intellectual property. That’s the kind of foundation many states try to replicate and few actually pull off. For early-stage startups, this ecosystem means access to cutting-edge technical expertise, strategic partnerships with respected institutions, and a pipeline of qualified professionals coming out of those universities ready to hit the ground running.
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Colin Larson, Google’s regional manager of government affairs and public policy in Boulder, summed up the situation well when he said the state is in an excellent position but needs to pay attention to the trajectory it’s following and the business climate it’s creating for future startups and scaleups. He pointed out that the investor community is fantastic when it comes to Series A companies, but that two forces are pulling those companies away from Colorado after that point.
The first is that mid- and late-stage investors — the Series B and Series C crowd — mostly aren’t based in Colorado and don’t even have a physical presence there. The second is that the state, especially for hard tech, is still a latecomer in this space, while neighbors like Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico are literally opening their wallets to invite Colorado’s hard tech companies to relocate. According to Larson, this is already showing up in the portfolio of companies he tracks, and more and more companies have options in other places that didn’t exist years ago.
The problem is that a runway doesn’t guarantee a long-haul flight. When companies grow and need larger rounds, the picture changes dramatically. The capital available for those later stages hasn’t kept pace with the growing number of startups in the state, and that gap is getting expensive. Companies that were created in Denver or Boulder, that received their first checks from local investors, and that built their products with homegrown Colorado talent are migrating to other states in search of funding. And along with them go jobs, tax revenue, and the intellectual capital that took years to develop.
The startup exodus and what’s at stake for investors
During the BizWest CEO Roundtable, one of the points that sparked the most debate was exactly this trend of companies leaving Colorado after reaching a certain level of maturity. The topic of acquisitions came up strongly in comments from Loren Burnett, president and CEO of Prometheus Materials, a company that develops carbon-negative cement for construction and works with six hyperscale data centers. According to him, a very common pattern in Colorado is that people found companies, those companies do well, they get acquired, and the acquiring company has zero interest or operations in the state. The result is that the company disappears — along with its management team, engineers, and all the staff associated with it.
Retaining startups isn’t just a matter of regional pride or ecosystem branding. It’s a real economic issue with measurable impact. When a growing company leaves, it takes its leadership team, senior engineers, operations, and consequently the entire supply chain and partner network that formed around it. Burnett, who describes himself as a serial entrepreneur currently on his sixth company, said he loves Colorado’s entrepreneurial community but admitted his concern is precisely what happens after the initial success. For him, it’s critical that companies can sustain operations and that the state retains not just capital but also talent.
There’s also a cultural component in this equation that can’t be ignored. Colorado has a strong identity tied to quality of life, nature, and a certain lifestyle that attracts talent from outside the state. Dede Willis, president and CEO of Orbit Genomics, shared that a lot of people are surprised when they discover how strong the local economy is, but she acknowledged that the investor side is still a challenge, especially in life sciences. She mentioned that there’s a massive effort by the Colorado Bioscience Association to put the state among the top five in the country for life sciences startups, and that bringing more investors from that sector to Colorado is a key piece of that strategy.
The perception that Colorado is a great place to start but not necessarily to grow is something industry leaders are actively trying to dismantle — and the Boulder discussion made it clear that dismantling it requires concrete action, not just narrative. 💡
Cutting-edge tech: quantum computing, AI, and life sciences on the radar
One of the most interesting aspects of Colorado’s tech ecosystem is the diversity of sectors developing in the state. Quantum computing has stood out as one of the brightest spots in the recent landscape. As Larson noted, Colorado is genuinely on the national map when it comes to quantum. Boulder Valley, with its powerful federal labs and the University of Colorado’s world-class physics department, has become a global epicenter for quantum research over the past several decades.
It’s no coincidence that in 2024 the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Tech Hub program granted Elevate Quantum — a nonprofit consortium with around 70 stakeholders spanning industry, academia, capital, and labs in Colorado and New Mexico — a Phase 2 Tech Hub designation. That unlocked 127 million dollars in state and federal resources, with expectations of generating several billion dollars more in private investment in the region’s quantum industry.
Alison Karp, senior program manager of the Colorado Quantum Fund under the state’s office of economic development, described the moment as extremely exciting for anyone working in quantum in Colorado. She noted that the state has an incredible opportunity to tell its story and show the country and the world the century of work already dedicated to the quantum industry. And that’s not an exaggeration: Chris Muldrow, executive director of the Colorado Quantum Incubator, reinforced that quantum science is over a century old and that Colorado has been an epicenter for this technology for more than 60 years through the University of Colorado Boulder and its local partner institutions.
But it’s not all smooth sailing. Muldrow warned that while the state has invested in quantum with a 74-million-dollar matching fund tied to the Tech Hub designation, other states are putting 200 million, 500 million on the table and trying to catch up with Colorado. The question he left hanging was direct: what’s the strategy now? If the state doesn’t ensure that the companies already there stay put while also recruiting new ones into the ecosystem, it faces a real risk of losing its leadership position in quantum.
And that’s where artificial intelligence enters the picture, which participants described as a double-edged element for Colorado’s ecosystem. Valerie Eastman, CEO of WinterWinds Technologies, pointed out that there’s maybe even an excessive focus on startups right now, but that not every tech company is a startup. She observed that in tech companies that aren’t startups, buying cycles are getting longer due to micro and macroeconomic forces, and there’s a certain restlessness in the air. Every week brings a new AI model, and as she put it, if everything is AI then nothing is AI — and the question becomes which one to adopt this week. 🤖
What the ecosystem needs to get stronger
The conversations in Boulder delivered a clear message: Colorado has more than enough ingredients to be one of the top tech hubs in the United States, but it still lacks more efficient coordination among the different players in the ecosystem. Stan Hickory, director of the McNeil Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Colorado School of Mines, recalled that before the pandemic the startup ecosystem was wonderful, but that COVID practically devastated everything, including the departure of major accelerators like Foundry and Techstars. The good news is that he believes the recovery is moving forward and the landscape could end up even better than before, largely thanks to collaboration between universities like the University of Denver and the University of Colorado.
Government, universities, the private sector, and the investor community need to work in a more integrated way to create the conditions that will keep the best startups in the state throughout their entire growth journey. Amy Dodenhoff, director of venture development at Venture Partners at the University of Colorado Boulder, described the local ecosystem as something truly special, highlighting that the culture of mutual support really stands out. According to her, a recent study found that the University of Colorado Boulder alone generates a 5.1-billion-dollar impact on the state’s economy.
The strength of research universities also came through in comments from Puja Gupta, executive vice president of Marvel Fusion, a company headquartered in Munich, Germany. Through an emerging partnership with Colorado State University, Fort Collins is about to house one of the most powerful laser facilities in the world and become an international epicenter for laser fusion energy research. The 150-million-dollar venture created a public-private partnership to support the construction of a next-generation laser facility on CSU’s Foothills campus. Gupta shared that the main reason for building there was the existing lab at the university, which made a significant commitment to make the project viable.
Another point raised was the importance of more favorable public policies. Burnett was emphatic in saying that the state needs policies that make it attractive for mid-size and large companies to want to set up shop in Colorado, citing states like Texas and North Carolina as net importers of businesses. He praised Google’s presence in the state and argued that attracting larger employers is essential to sustaining infrastructure in the long run. Zoning and the ease of building out operations also came up as a sensitive point, especially when compared to the receptiveness that states like Texas offer.
This debate gained even more momentum with the open letter titled Ensuring Colorado’s Innovation Future, sent in late April by Dan Caruso of Caruso Ventures, along with more than 230 business leaders, to state officials including Governor Jared Polis. The letter called for an honest assessment of the structural, regulatory, and legislative factors causing Colorado to lose ground to competing states — and Polis himself endorsed and signed the document, acknowledging the concerns. Cody Moore, vice president of Caruso Ventures, explained that Caruso’s intention wasn’t to present a ready-made solution but rather to get government leaders to recognize that a problem exists and that the current trajectory, if maintained, will create more complications.
At the end of the day, what became evident at the BizWest CEO Roundtable is that Colorado is at a defining moment. Matt Wiggins, associate vice president of economic vitality at the Boulder Chamber, brought a dose of optimism by stating that the state is moving in the right direction, with a strong first quarter of investment and around 30 new company prospects crossing the table in 2025, with expectations to grow that number by 50%. The return of the Techstars accelerator to Colorado was also pointed to as a positive sign. As Wiggins put it, Colorado is where people want to be, where the talent is, and where the networks are. The foundation is built. What’s needed now is the collective will to go beyond just getting started. 🌐
