Boulder Startup Week 2025

Creative thinking and analytical rigor – they seem like an either/or but really organizations (and individuals) need both to generate inspiring ideas and execute meaningful innovation. Especially at the startup stage where design-centric voices tend to be outnumbered, purposefully practicing creativity can help you build a brand that better resonates with customers and craft a product experience that users love.

As an early non-technical hire at Scythe, and as the first self-proclaimed creative on the team, Billy Otteman jumped from a decade of branding agency experience straight into the deeply analytical engineering environment of the Boulder County-based robotics startup. He quickly learned to navigate the software and hardware spaces while building what has become one of the most engaging and exciting brands in its industry (again, self-proclaimed).

In this talk, Billy will share best practices for fostering a creative culture that leads to more compelling customer communication. He’ll also present strategies for conducting illumination exercises that increase customer empathy and discuss how impactful collaboration between design and engineering teams can make your products stickier. And so you leave inspired, he’ll lead the group in a few creative exercises for you to conduct with your coworkers.

Whether you’re a marketer surrounded by strict rationality looking for a creative spark or an engineer hoping to better communicate with your crazy creative counterparts, you’ll return to your team with effective creativity tactics that you can put to work right away.

Through Donor Advised Funds, companies can accept checks for fundraising and investors and corporations can fund investments in a highly tax efficient way.

Come explore this (charitable) funding strategy with us!

This session will be held in a fireside chat format at the Boulder Chamber. 

Natalie Levy, Managing Partner of She's Independent Investments, will interview Sarah Angello, Cofounder of Get Daffodil.

Audience Q&A will be welcome and encouraged.

My session will focus on how to infuse SaaS products with AI capabilities to stand out in a competitive market. I’ll share practical steps, lessons learned, and real-world examples from my own experience implementing AI – covering everything from small, incremental improvements to game-changing features like AI-based matching. My expertise lies in product strategy, AI integration, and helping SaaS teams discover ways to differentiate themselves through innovation and forward-thinking technology adoption.

The hiring process is often seen as a complex and tedious endeavor, weighed down by outdated systems and rigid workflows that frustrate both recruiters and hiring managers. In this engaging session, we’ll explore how innovative tools, designed to be both fun and functional, can revolutionize the way organizations approach hiring.We’ll delve into common recruitment challenges—such as aligning stakeholders, capturing job requirements, and navigating candidate bottlenecks—and demonstrate how a fresh, intuitive approach can foster collaboration, save time, and improve hiring outcomes. Using real-world examples and data-driven insights, this talk will highlight the transformative power of technology that prioritizes user engagement and simplicity.Whether you're a recruiter, a hiring manager, or a tech leader, this session will leave you inspired to rethink your hiring process and excited about the tools that can help you build better teams.

Brands of all kinds struggle to build trust and demonstrate authority to their customers, but in today’s crowded digital era, this is more important than ever. Effective communication about your products, services, or organization is what sets you apart from your competitors.

The human brain is drawn to CLARITY and away from confusion. Most organizations are confusing their customers, and they don’t even know it, causing them to lose sales, and donations, or be passed up by their competition. In this session, Ian will teach you how to tell your story using the StoryBrand framework, giving you the tools to clarify your message and get your customers, donors, event attendees, or audience to respond.
You will walk away with a plan to effectively communicate about your organization and be able to start applying what you have learned that day.