When most people think of Colorado’s tech and startup scene they think of the area stretching from downtown Boulder to downtown Denver — and for the most part, they’re right. A recent analysis of major tech funding events found that the vast majority of venture capital flowed into just a few zip codes in those two cities. But, upon closer look, there’s some pretty interesting stuff happening that tends to get overlooked in Northern Colorado.
Colorado State University has over 30 thousand students enrolled, anchoring the area and ensuring startups have ample supply of eager, young and educated employees. Galvanize recently opened a location in Old Town Ft. Collins, and Innosphere is supporting the area’s cleantech, software, biosciences and digital health startups. But, probably the most promising thing for the area is that it’s already home to some really innovative and promising startups.
Don’t believe me? Check these out:
Aleph Objects: These are the makers of the Lulzbot 3D printer. In a nondescript warehouse located in a field outside of Loveland, they are busy programming 3D printers to print more 3D printers. It’s an awe inspiring and somewhat creepy spectacle — and it has resulted in the company pulling in $4.7 million in revenue last year, a 809 percent increase over the course of two years.
RemoteGeo: Imagine a utility company throwing open a garage door, releasing a swarm of airborne drones that are tasked with inspecting thousands of miles of power lines. It might sound like science fiction, but it’s the sort of thing that RemoteGeo’s software is enabling.
Living Ink: You probably didn’t realize it, but ink is one of the most expensive liquids in the world. The stuff costs around $5.5 thousand a gallon — about 2000 times as expensive as gasoline. Well, a couple of scientists from Colorado State University have figured out how to literally grow ink out of algae. You can expect a Kickstarter to get the company’s product into development early next month.
Madwire Media: This company started back in 2009 and has grown remarkably since then (their $5.5M Series A last July probably helped). Basically, they combined a SaaS marketing software company with a full service digital marketing firm. It’s kind of like Don Draper got together with a software company and moved to Loveland.
AllProWebTools: Located up in Ft. Collins, AllProWebTools is something like a digital swiss army knife for small businesses. Their software lets small businesses manage website content, email marketing efforts, employees, shipping, lead generation, task management and a whole lot of other stuff from one dashboard.
Ok, so let's be honest, the Ft. Collins/Loveland area has a long way to go before it stacks up with Boulder or Denver’s startup scenes. But it certainly has a healthy start and everyone has to start somewhere. Who knows, maybe sometime soon Colorado’s tech scene will be characterized as a tech triangle, from Denver along US 36 to Boulder and up I-25 to Ft. Collins.
