Stop Pitching and Start Connecting

Recently, GNIP hosted the Big Boulder Conference in Boulder, Colorado and Sandy Grason got a behind-the-scenes look at what the conference was all about. In this video, Sandy talks with Foundry Group and Tech Stars co-founder, Brad Feld about what Big Boulder Conference means to entrepreneurial communities like Boulder and what YOU can do to foster this kind of support and excitement in your community too.

This invite only event brought together the top publishers, industry leaders and consumers of publicly-available social data to discuss trends, best practices and how this data is changing industries of all kinds.

Brad said the main event is really what happens around the event, beyond people just pitching each other their sh*%, the conversation gets to "how are we going to solve this problem".

How To Build A Startup Community with Brad Feld

So you want to make your town the next  Silicon Valley? In Brad Feld's new book Startup Communities, Brad gives us mere mortals a glimpse in to how to form, build and grow a startup scene in your town. Brad explains, "I was convinced to move to Boulder when my wife Amy said that she was moving there and I was welcome to join her, or not. She made a convincing argument!"

The problem, for a burgeoning technology tycoon like Brad, Boulder was a backwater. Sure there was a great university. Sure there were interesting people doing interesting things but there was no SCENE!

Fast forward to 2012 and Boulder is one of the hottest place  to start a high growth company in the world. So what changed?

According to Brad, it was a group of a committed entrepreneurs, It was not the VCs, not the professors, not the service providers. They all had a role to play but the formation of a booming startup community was lead by the entrepreneurs themselves.

So how did they do it? Sorry, you'll have to buy the book! But for a sneak peak I got a chance to sit down with the Jedi Master and rap about his new book, how the machines are already in control and much more.

Brad Feld Explains Start Up Communities

Brad Feld, founder of TechStars, comes into the ICOSA Studio to discuss his new book, Startup Communities with Chris Franks and the rest of the STARTO team. Brad Feld has been connecting and collaborating in the startup communities of Boston, Boulder, and beyond. He has proven leadership as entrepreneur, angel investor, venture capitalist, and community champion. Feld is often considered the foremost subject matter expert. We here at STARTO look forward to reading his new book, "Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City." Check out the book here.

How Do You Start the Next Great American Company?

Starto Shorts: Great Companies are created by great entrepreneurs, this week we talk to Brad Feld & David Cohen about how you create a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem in your community. Brad Feld dropped by the garage to give us a sneak peek at his new book StartUp Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your Community, he explained one of his key ideas called The Boulder Thesis.  Brad suggests that taking a long range, 20 year view and staying invested in your community will get you some pretty amazing results.

We also took a trip behind the scenes at Tech Stars, met some of this year's founders and sat down with David Cohen to learn more about what the last six years of working with new start ups has taught him.