Boulder Startup Week 2025

This workshop challenges the conventional wisdom that "no one wants to be sold to." The truth is that people eagerly welcome solutions that address their specific needs and desires—they just don't want to be treated like generic targets.
Our approach transforms selling from a pushy monologue into a collaborative discovery process where:
You develop deep listening skills to understand your prospects' actual challenges
You ask insightful questions that help clients articulate needs they may not fully recognize
You craft compelling narratives that connect your solutions to your clients' aspirations
You position yourself as a trusted advisor who genuinely understands their situation
This workshop equips you with practical techniques to uncover what customers truly want and demonstrate how your solution helps them achieve those goals. When selling becomes about the client's journey rather than your product, people don't just tolerate being sold to—they embrace it.

What makes a good founder a great founder? Sometimes it’s not more hustle, it’s clearer thinking.
Join us for a lively panel of founders and funders who’ve tested strategic decision-making tools in the wild. These aren’t abstract theories, we’re talking about practical mental models and frameworks used in real startups to clarify priorities, unlock growth, and navigate the chaos of early-stage building.
You’ll hear stories from Boulder-area founders and investors about the frameworks they’ve tried and failed, and the ones that actually stuck. Whether you're deep in the trenches or just getting started, you’ll leave with tangible tools and new ways of thinking you can apply immediately.

Session Description:Have an amazing startup idea but lack technical skills or a tech co-founder? Join us for an energetic, hands-on workshop designed specifically for non-technical founders. Discover how today's cutting-edge AI tools can empower you to build, validate, and launch your ideas without coding experience!In just one hour, you'll get hands-on experience with powerful platforms like Loveable (for beautiful UI mockups), Replit (to instantly host and share apps), and Cursor (AI-assisted coding and development). You'll learn how combining these tools can dramatically lower costs, accelerate your timeline, and help your startup scale rapidly without needing massive funding.Come ready to collaborate, create, and leave with your own working prototype. Perfect for entrepreneurs, innovators, and anyone ready to bring their ideas to life quickly and affordably!Session Outline (60 minutes total):Intro & Icebreaker (5 mins):Quick introduction and energetic opening to set the tone.Show & Tell – Real World Examples (10 mins):Demonstration of prototypes built using Loveable, Replit, and Cursor.Share success stories highlighting minimal startup costs and rapid scalability.Rapid Tool Overview (10 mins):Quick, engaging introduction to each tool (Loveable for UI mockups, Replit for app hosting, Cursor for AI coding assistance).Emphasis on ease-of-use for non-technical founders.Interactive Group Brainstorm (10 mins):Guided session to rapidly generate startup ideas.Encourage collaboration and creativity, ensuring everyone has a concept to prototype.Hands-on Prototyping Sprint (20 mins):Participants build a simple, functional prototype of their idea using guided prompt engineering.Individual support and feedback provided throughout.Wrap-up & Takeaways (5 mins):Share prototypes, celebrate wins, and discuss next steps.Brief Q&A, highlighting how these skills/tools support lean startup methodologies and scaling efficiently.Participants will leave inspired, equipped, and ready to build faster, smarter, and cheaper.

Join David Bernstein and Ann-Clarke Bailey for an interactive conversation at the nexus of design, purpose and community. As founders of 2 unique yet interconnected startups, David and Ann-Clarke want to invite you inside their projects to learn about what makes them tick and hopefully glean insight from you as well. Perspective is a valuable, two way street when building a business. This event will be programmed with perspective in mind, enabling attendees to not only learn from our founders but to contribute ideas and opinions to their projects as well. Attendees will learn about the challenges and opportunities of forming a collaborative partnership, how to integrate design with values, and the benefits of holding complex and sometimes conflicting viewpoints at the same time. 

SAGE Boulder is a pro-bono mentoring group that meets regularly in Boulder. We have helped over 200 founders over the past 11 years. In this session, you have a chance to watch a live SAGE session. You might find that SAGE is a great option for your company. An early stage tech founder will present to a group of expert SAGE advisors. But they aren't pitching for money, they are pitching for customized help from SAGE advisors to move the company forward. Here’s how it will go:
Founder Presentation
Structured, facilitated feedback on the following questions:
What is compelling about this company?
What are the risks?
What key steps should be taken in a 3 months to help mitigate those risks?
SAGE is sponsored by Innosphere, Cozen O’Conner Law and Venture Partners at CU Boulder.

In this highly interactive workshop, you’ll learn a new way of thinking about imposter syndrome – your Imposter Monster! You'll meet your Imposter Monster, and we'll discuss ways to turn them from a whisper that makes you feel small to a champion who helps you do hard things. This research-supported method encourages participants to reframe imposter feelings as a coping mechanism, rather than something that is wrong with them. We explore the 5 types of Imposters and how to interact with your Monster based on your type.

The result:

→ Healthier perspective on imposter feelings.

→ Decreased stress in situations that were previously difficult.

→ Improved ability to do brave things.

Join two Boulder founders for a detailed and personal look at what it REALLY takes to build a $1M+ revenue company. This session isn’t about sales, marketing, pricing or product - it’s about the Inner Journey that all founders go through as they find product-market-fit and scale their companies.
Alex Raymond, Founder of AMplify and Host of The Conscious Entrepreneur Summit and Ret Taylor, Co-Founder and former Co-CEO of Ned, will discuss:

• What does it really take to be a successful entrepreneur?
• How do we deal with the Inner Demons like self-doubt, burnout, impostor syndrome?
• How must founders evolve as our companies grow?
• What happens if we don’t build a unicorn?
• When is it time to hand over the reins or pivot?

This session is for current, former and future CEOs, founders and entrepreneurs who want an unvarnished look at the ups-and-downs of building a company.

Boulder is quickly becoming a global hub for quantum technology. In this session, meet founders, researchers, and community leaders helping to grow this next-gen industry here. We’ll talk about what it takes to launch a quantum startup, what resources are available, and why Boulder is uniquely positioned to lead in this space.

Do you have questions around syndicating funds for investment?
Are you curious what it looks like to participate as an investor alongside others as one line on the cap table?
How costly and complex is it really to run a syndication? Is it worth it?Join this session to learn about the ins and outs of syndicating investments and what to expect (as an investor and as a founder.)Natalie Levy, the Managing Partner of She's Independent, will lead this session. She's Independent is an investment group syndicating (group investing) in early-stage businesses from Pre-Seed to Series A.

Too many founders treat financials like a black box - only checking in when asked by investors, tax preparers or worse - when things go wrong! But understanding your financial statements is a superpower that can help you make smarter decisions, attract investors, accelerate growth and build a more resilient business.

In this hands-on session, we'll break down the three core financial statements (P&L, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow Statement) in layman's terms. You’ll learn how to read them, what key metrics to watch, and how they all connect. We’ll also cover how to spot red flags early and use your numbers to tell a compelling story to stakeholders.

No finance background needed - just curiosity and a willingness to take control of your numbers.

What You’ll Learn:
1. How to read and actually understand your financial statements
2. The 3-5 KPIs every founder should track
3. How to connect your numbers to business strategy
4. Common financial mistakes and how to avoid them
5. Tips for working smarter with your accountant or bookkeeper

Who It’s For: founders, startup operators, and small business owners who want to level up their financial literacy and lead with confidence — no spreadsheet wizardry required.

Dive into the core techniques behind building and evaluating AI agents. This workshop will cover how to design effective evaluation frameworks, test agent behavior, and iterate quickly with confidence. You’ll walk away with practical tools to improve reliability, performance, and usefulness—whether you’re just starting or scaling production systems.

Presenters will be Jeremy Silva, Sarah Niemeyer, and Morgan Cox

Forget the myths and hype cycles of “lovemarks”, “1,000 True Fans”, and “Growth Hacking”. Shoppers, brands, and ads all follow regular, empirical, predictable patterns (aka scientific laws). Sadly, most business owners and marketers don’t know these laws — much less how to use them — and end up wasting massive amounts of time & money on fruitless things. In this workshop, you’ll learn the most important of these Brand Laws for startups, and we’ll go through ways to apply them to your business so that you can grow efficiently & effectively. Session Learning ObjectivesLearn the 3 most important Laws of Brand Growth for startups (it’s unlikely you’ve ever heard them).Learn practical, useful ways to apply Brand Laws to your own business.Learn the limits of how Brand Laws impact you — which is where Brand Levers come into play.A little about EthanCross a scientist with an improv comic, and make him do marketing for 20 years for some of the world’s great brands, and you end up with something like Ethan Decker. Through his company Applied Brand Science, Ethan teaches business leaders the “new science” of how people really shop, how ads really work, and how brands really grow. He makes complex ideas simple, useful, and sticky. Ethan was voted “Best session at SXSW” in 2023, has 12,000 followers on LinkedIn, and his TEDx talk is among the top 1% most-viewed TEDx talks of all time. He’s also a nice guy & easy to work with.

Innovation Unleashed: The Power of Customer Discovery highlights the vital role customer discovery plays in truly understanding and shaping a successful business. Through insightful panel discussions, attendees will explore how customer discovery is essential for validating market fit, refining strategies, and driving sustainable growth. Panelists will share firsthand experiences of how customer discovery helped them refine their business plans, pivot effectively, and build stronger, more customer-centric ventures. This event underscores why deeply understanding customer needs is not just beneficial, but fundamental, to startup success.Drawing on the expertise of NSF I-Corps Hub West founders and instructors, we will explore the intricacies of identifying target customers and key decision-makers as innovative ideas progress toward commercialization.It's okay to pivot (REALLY IT IS)! Through real-life examples and experiences, the panelists will provide insights into the process of pivoting in startups, including the factors that necessitate a pivot, the strategic considerations involved, and the potential outcomes.