Last August, when Entrepreneur magazine ranked U.S. metro regions according to the highest ratio of tech startups compared to the national average, Boulder came out on top; but did you know that the Fort Collins-Loveland area came in a close second?
Boulder gets a lot of startup attention, but thanks in part to the legacy of early tech leaders like Hewlett-Packard, along with Colorado State University and local and regional economic development efforts, digital startups are regularly springing up in Northern Colorado, too.
Here are five, each taking its own path to innovate and solve significant problems in the industries they serve.
Bulb
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Fort Collins-based Bulb launched its current beta form last summer, after being in the making for nearly two years. Maggie Shafer, who works in user engagement at the software company, describes Bulb as a web app for publishing, in its most basic form. “Bulb provides an easy, simple, elegant way to publish online,” she said. “It allows users to structure their content in the way they’d like it to be explored, unlike a blog, and requires no web design or development skills at all.”
Epic River
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Epic River Senior Partner Jeff Grobaski said he and his partners wanted to create an atypical software development company that was focused on improving the process of building a product. “We have seen so many companies live and die by the just one product,” he said. “The creation and growth phases of product development are fun and exciting; but the back side of the product curve can be fatal to so many organizations.”
DataTraks
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DataTraks grew out of founder and president Jim Bilodeau’s work for TTCI, the Transportation Technology Center, Inc., which is the American Association of Railroads’ research and development center near Pueblo, Colorado. “I first started doing work as a consultant on specific projects for TTCI. Later, as those opportunities grew I set up an office and hired additional help,” he said.
YouSeeU
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YouSeeU founder Jeff Lewis, an associate professor of business at Metropolitan State University in Denver, was struggling to find an accurate, reliable way to assess his students’ verbal presentation skills when he taught online courses. So in 2009, he went about creating a platform to allow him and other educators to solve the dilemma of how to verbally assess students in an online course environment.
Aleph Objects
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Jeff Moe’s Aleph Objects is getting a lot of attention lately for its industry-leading LulzBot TAZ 3 desktop 3D printer; but Moe is quick to point out that his company is not a 3D printer company, it is an open source hardware company, and its first product happens to be a 3D printer.
