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.

Employee ownership is a proven yet often overlooked business model that drives productivity, stability, and wealth distribution. Companies where at least 30% of shares are broadly owned by employees experience faster growth, higher wages, better benefits, and greater resilience against economic downturns. With the passage of House Bill 24-1157, Colorado has doubled down on its commitment to employee ownership, codifying the Colorado Employee Ownership Office and establishing a $1.5 million annual tax credit to support businesses in their first seven years of employee ownership.

This panel will explore how more entrepreneurs can approach shared ownership—whether they’re launching a startup, scaling a business, or planning an exit. Experts will break down state incentives, legal considerations, governance models, and strategies to mitigate risks in financing and decision-making. Panelists include Matt Licina (National Center for Employee Ownership), Allie Clark (Foley & Hoag), Ashley Ortiz (Rocky Mountain Employee Ownership Center), Jason Weiner (Jason Weiner PC), and David Henry (Namaste Solar)—leaders with deep expertise in employee ownership transitions and operations.

As wealth inequality grows and business leaders play an increasingly crucial role in balancing the economy, shared ownership offers a sustainable, strong alternative to status-quo business approaches. Entrepreneurs have an opportunity to build stronger, more equitable companies—and Colorado is making it easier than ever to do so.

Our economy is not well designed for the work of care.
Social cooperatives are a kind of business designed to put workers and recipients of care at the center. The model emerged in Italy and has been spreading around the world—including to the United States. This discussion will explore how the social co-op model is already at work in Boulder and its prospects for taking hold more widely around the country.

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.

Do you feel ill-equipped to be selling, yet here you are? Are you struggling to articulate your value in a way that resonates with investors, customers, and partners? Are you struggling to stand out in a crowded digital landscape? In this high-impact session, you'll learn how to harness the power of strategic storytelling to drive measurable business growth across multiple channels—even if you consider yourself a "technical person" who doesn't naturally gravitate toward sales.

Perfect for technical founders, engineering leaders, and product-focused professionals who struggle to communicate their value effectively, as well as marketers bridging the gap with sales, and sales leaders short on time. Especially valuable if you're preparing for fundraising, sales meetings, or product launches and your expertise isn't generating the traction you deserve.

Through a combination of proven frameworks, real-world case studies, and interactive exercises, you'll discover:
• How to craft a compelling elevator pitch that translates complex solutions into clear value propositions in 30 seconds or less
• Techniques to transform technical features into captivating product demonstrations that highlight customer benefits
• Narrative structures that address investor concerns while showcasing your vision and market opportunity
• Content frameworks specifically designed to trigger buying decisions and build trust without feeling "salesy" or inauthentic
• Cross-platform storytelling strategies that maintain cohesion while optimizing for different audience behaviors

Unlike theoretical communication sessions, this workshop delivers actionable techniques developed and tested in competitive startup environments. You'll leave with customized narrative tools for fundraising conversations, sales presentations, and marketing materials that you can immediately implement.

By the end of this session, you'll understand how today's most successful entrepreneurs use strategic storytelling to secure funding, close sales, and build customer loyalty. More importantly, you'll have the tools to craft your own revenue-generating narratives that resonate with investors, partners, and customers alike.

At the intersection of AI and Biotechnology, meet a panel of founders that are making life-saving medicine. Each founder has raised significant venture capital and is developing technology in cancer, immunology, or metabolic disease. Panelists include Joel Dudley (Partner @ Innovation Endeavors VC), Jerome Fox (Founder/CEO @ ThinkBio, CU Boulder), Doug Chapnick (Founder/CEO @ BioLoomics, ex-CU Boulder), John Meyer (Founder/CSO @ Ambrosia Tx), and Joey Azofeifa (Founder/CEO @ Arpeggio Bio, ex-CU Boulder)

This panel followed by networking will feature folks from the AI realm - talking about the hurdles involved and best practices in maintaining company culture as you scale up- should be as interactive