Creating an Intermountain West Startup Economy

Mark Solon | Managing Partner, Highway 12 Ventures

My life’s work is spending time with entrepreneurs and startups in the Rockies: Boise, Salt Lake City, Bozeman, Helena, Boulder, Denver, and a handful of others.

My partners and I have invested and helped fund over 30 startups in the region over the last 10 years. We’ve spent time with thousands of entrepreneurs. I’ve had a front row seat to the ongoing transformation in this region from an agrarian and natural resource based economy to the inevitable future of a knowledge based economy.

That’s going to happen whether you like it or not.

I’ve witnessed how different communities are handling this, some exceptionally well and some not. So what can we do to help create a better environment for entrepreneurs to succeed in Montana and in the Rocky Mountain Region?

A mentor of mine taught me not to reinvent the wheel. His favorite expression was, “C.A.S.E.” which stands for copy and steal everything. And there is no town in the Rockies that’s done a better job of managing this transition to a knowledge economy, in my opinion, than Boulder, Colorado. Today Boulder is arguably the hottest startup town in America. The town is for startups.

On Pearl Street in Boulder, on the main thoroughfare through Downtown, I can meet with a half dozen startups in one day and walk to each of their offices. Each building is brimming with startups, sometimes 3 to an office. The landlords even cooperate in facilitating the sector by taking equity for rent, making it affordable for startups to get off the ground. When you walk around downtown and go out in the evenings, the town vibrates with excitement, with discussions amongst growing companies.

What is really amazing is how the community did it. There was no government task force that invested a bunch of money into different programs. There were no state funded incubators or huge investments into research and development. None of that. Boulder really created a blue print for reinventing America’s economy by creating a nurturing environment for young entrepreneurs to start companies.

They made it cool to be an entrepreneur.

It’s my opinion that no community in the country has done a better job embracing the concept of community mentorship than Boulder. In roughly a decade this city of 100,000, that the locals like to call 25 square miles surrounded by reality, has transformed itself from a place where they said the hippies stopped on their way to California, into a town where tech entrepreneurs are flocking to from all over the country.

A hundred years ago, when a family was started and they wanted to build a house, the whole community showed up for a house raising. That is very similar to when a startup gets off the ground in Boulder; the whole community gets behind it. There is no organization in Boulder that better exemplifies community than TechStars, a successful technology accelerator program. My partner Phil says, that for a venture capitalist, TechStars is like fishing in a stocked pond.

It didn’t take long for this phenomenon to happen. It really just took a few dedicated, influential people in the community who were committed to a long term vision. It’s been an amazing experience to be a part of.

Moving from community to mentorship, if you go back to the pioneers of our region, there was mentorship for young people. If somebody wanted to learn a trade as a cobbler or a blacksmith, an experienced merchant would take them in and mentor them. The town of Boulder has embraced this same philosophy. The well-known CEOs in Boulder, those who have been through the grind, despite having full time jobs graciously give their time to entrepreneurs and startups, helping them through the inevitable difficulties in getting a company off the ground. They have the road map in their back pocket and they are willing to share. It’s very unique.

You may be thinking, well I haven’t started a company; I can’t be a mentor. But I’ve learned over time that anyone can be a mentor. If you know how to write code you can help a young coder coming out of college. If you’ve got a background in marketing, well you can help a startup. If you’re inclined to help grow your local community there’s no better way to do that than in mentoring startups.

It’s all about creating a nurturing environment where young people feel safe to start a company, where they feel safe to try and to fail.

In Boulder they have the Open Coffee Club, where a few times a month the local teams get together for a few hours in the morning and discuss the common challenges that they are all facing. Just like the pioneers on the Oregon Trail who couldn’t make it through the long journey to the West Coast, sometimes startups don’t make it. And in Boulder they don’t have funerals for these startups, they have a wake. When a startup fails, the community takes out the team for an evening of drinks and dinner and stories and sharing of lessons learned. Usually within a few weeks all of those members have jobs at another of the exciting startups in town.

All of this happened in 10 short years because Boulder willed it to happen. The government didn’t play a hand. The university didn’t play a hand. There were no handouts. All it takes are a handful of experienced and respected people, committed to a very long term vision, willing to provide leadership.

So what about the twenty-somethings in Montana, or Idaho, who are thinking about their career and what they are going to do next?

Whatever you do, don’t get a job, start a company.

Start a tiny company. Start a donut shop or start a local blog about the fly fishing holes you’re fond of, or open up a ski rental shop. I guarantee you, you’ll thank me. You’ll learn more than getting a job. You’ll probably make more money than getting a job. And you’ll certainly have a lot more fun. And you’ll learn more in your failures than you will in your successes.

During the failures is when you learn the lessons that will make your next startup successful.

There are no excuses. It’s easier than ever for someone to start a company. Even if you don’t know how to code, it’s easy to learn. Pick up a book and pretty soon you’re building yourself a website. There’s not a lot of risk in starting a business today. And really, is there anything like job security anymore? There is no such thing as a golden parachute, or job loyalty, or the gold watch after 20 years on the assembly line.

If you’re bright, you can start a company.

I’d like to finish with a story about some friends of mine. Nate and Natty are my favorite entrepreneurs in Boulder. They have been friends since kindergarten. They stayed close friends throughout college and both got good paying jobs on Wall Street. After about a year Nate picked up the phone and called Natty. He was losing his mind and couldn’t work there anymore. He decided to quit and take his little bit of life savings and put a backpack on and travel the world. He asked Natty to come with him. At first he said no.

Six months later, Nate called him up again and said he was sitting on the Arabian Sea drinking a piña colada, it’s time to quit that job and come join him. And they spent the next six months traveling the world together. What they learned during their travels was that it was really hard to share their experiences with loved ones back home. They decided that when they finished their trip they would move back to Boulder and they would start a company to fix this problem.

They went home and got into TechStars and started a company called Everlater, an anagram for traveler. They didn’t even know how to code. They took out some books. They went to the experienced coders on Pearl Street. They taught themselves. And about a year and a half ago my partners and I invested in their company.

It was just the two of them; it was just an idea.

A year and a half later they have just signed up one of the largest tour operators in the world with over 100,000 customers, with half of their customers signed up on Everlater. They’ve built a tremendous business. It’s just a great example that anybody anywhere can start a company today. All you need is passion and hard work and a relatively good idea.

The only risk really, that I see, is in not trying.