This story is part of CNBC’s quarterly series Cities of Success, which explores cities that have transformed into business hubs with an entrepreneurial spirit that has attracted capital, companies and employees.

Most American cities want a piece of the Silicon Valley action, and some are getting more in recent years, as cities in California have experienced, to varying degrees, an exodus of entrepreneurs and workers due to Covid. has increased from

The Denver-Boulder metro area in Colorado is among the winners in the migration shuffle. AgentSync, an insurance compliance software startup, is one example. Neji Sabharwal co-founded the startup with his wife back in San Francisco in 2019. When the pandemic hit in 2020, the couple decided to pack up their minivan and move their business to the Mile High City. It is now flourishing in Denver.

The company has grown from six employees in San Francisco to more than 200 in Denver. Sabharwal said the couple made the move largely in search of “access to talent” to maintain the company’s rapid growth and their admiration for Colorado’s “business-minded” Gov. Jared Polis, who He founded several companies before entering politics. But investment has also increased since making the move, to more than $160 million, according to AgentSync.

More from CNBC’s Cities of Success: Denver Boulder

Sabharwal told CNBC that at first investors were skeptical about the move to the Rockies, but within a few months, he says, “we kind of appreciated, you know, coming to Denver. He was talented.”

Led by Denver and Boulder, Colorado has built a thriving tech industry ecosystem that attracts both startups and tech giants – Google, Amazon and Salesforce all now have a large presence in the area. The region is also becoming a hotspot for the latest frontiers of technology, including quantum computing.

According to the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, more than 24,000 tech businesses call Colorado home, with nearly 73% of those businesses (17,500) located specifically in the Denver metro area. The industry supports nearly 140,000 jobs by the end of 2023, a 37 percent increase over the past decade.

“I think you’d be surprised how much funding is going into this ecosystem,” said Boulder-based venture capitalist Dan Caruso, who recently started his own VC firm focused solely on technology in the area. has focused, told CNBC.

CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla interviews Boulder, Colorado-based venture capitalist Dan Caruso.

CNBC

Over the past five years, nearly $17 billion in VC funding has poured into the area, according to research firm CB Insights.

“It was only when I was able to slow down and really look around that it struck me how many interesting companies, in so many sectors, so many inspiring entrepreneurs,” said Caruso, former CEO and chairman of was in the region under the leadership of The once publicly traded telecommunications company Zio Group.

While the Denver startup community has seen dramatic expansion, it hasn’t made as much progress in diversifying its entrepreneurial community. According to a recent Brookings Institute study, black-owned businesses make up 1.5% of all companies in the area, compared to 7.1% of the metro area’s black population, according to the study. However, the study’s top 10 cities for black-owned business growth also fall far short of the corresponding metro population metrics.

“The founders we serve really face challenges around access to capital, access to capital,” said Zenita Kelsey, co-founder and CEO of AccessMode, a local nonprofit minority-owned tech startup. Working to help startups. -Earth. Since 2022, Access Mode has provided more than 50 startups with $1 million in co-funding, free educational classes, and access to VC networking events.

Donavan Bennett is one of the black business owners helping to make Access Mode a success. Mili Llama, an app created by Bennett in 2023, streamlines the hiring of substitute teachers for school districts.

Donavon Bennett, co-founder and CEO of startup Milli Lama.

CNBC

“You can think of us as Uber for substitute teachers,” Donavon told CNBC.

The $20,000 his startup received was just what he needed to turn his idea into a live app, and it helped him score two school districts as paying clients.

Bennett said there is work to be done when it comes to developing a more inclusive industry in Denver and Boulder, but he says it’s a great place to start and run a business. “The beauty of being here in Denver is that there’s a lot of support for a new startup in the city of Denver. And as a new startup, that’s what you’re looking for, you’re looking for support, validation. . to that next level.”



Source link