Your Startup Community Won't Build Itself
Here Are 5 Ways Founders Can Support It
Welcome back to The Rural Startup! Before we dig into today’s topic, we have some exciting news to share: the call for speakers is now open for West Slope Startup Week, October 5–9 in Durango.
If you are a founder, advisor, or community builder, we would love to see you apply. We are looking for hands-on workshops, practical networking sessions, focused panels, and other formats that offer tangible value to founders in Rural Colorado.
Proposals should align with one of our core tracks: Climate, Money, Communications, People, Tech, Toolbox, Creatives, FUN!, and Latine.
Learn more and apply here.
If you’ve ever attended West Slope Startup Week, you’ve probably noticed it feels different than other business events. It’s got a certain… vibe. That’s because the best part is not the stage; it is what happens around it. People share leads, trade lessons learned, and make it easier for the next founder to get started. That kind of culture is intentional, and it segues directly to today’s topic: how rural founders can support their local startup community.
Where you choose to build your business matters. The people and organizations around you can shape your ideas, determine who you hire, and provide guidance when you hit a wall. Just as important is the culture—whether folks share leads, celebrate wins, offer straight answers, and make it feel normal to ask for help.
We often describe a “startup community” as something entrepreneurs benefit from, but it’s entrepreneurs who are ultimately in charge of the vitality and resilience of their community. As Brad Feld and Ian Hathaway wrote in The Startup Community Way, “it’s vital to have entrepreneurs as leaders—they set the tone, are an essential source of knowledge, and help establish a culture of entrepreneurship in a startup community.”
That can feel tricky anywhere. In rural areas—where networks are smaller and support can be spread out—it is often a slow burn, kindled through intentional relationship building and steady, progressive efforts. Still, we’re seeing it work across rural Colorado as even the smallest towns are developing strong cultures of entrepreneurship. And in some cases, these smaller startup communities are offering advantages that their urban counterparts do not—such as peer support that helps founders gain early market traction, as founders like Mike Milakovic have shown.
Below are our top tips for how rural founders can engage with and strengthen their local startup community—supporting business growth, creating local jobs, and helping more people see the investment potential in their region.
1. Show up and set the tone
The culture of a startup community is shaped by how people participate. A “give first” mindset—popularized by the Boulder Thesis—means sharing what you know, making thoughtful introductions, and looking for ways to help early on. Over time, that kind of participation builds trust and strengthens the whole network.
If you want a community where people share knowledge, spark creativity, and work together, model that from the start. How you show up today influences what others think is normal tomorrow.
2. Engage with existing efforts
Entrepreneurs like to start things. No surprise there! But before you launch a new meetup or networking event, check out what’s already in place. Even a program or group that has gone quiet is useful. It means someone cared enough to try, and there may be partners who would welcome fresh energy.
Start with your local SBDC or other business support organizations like the Chamber of Commerce. Ask what has worked in the past, what hit a wall, and why. Those conversations can save you time and help you build on lessons already learned.
Plugging into existing efforts also builds trust by showing that you are willing to collaborate, share credit, and strengthen what your community already has. If it’s truly crickets out there, your SBDC or local support partners may still be able to help you get something off the ground by sharing venue spaces, promotional channels, or connections to other local founders. Showing up consistently and offering to help makes it easier for them to say yes.
3. Organize activities that promote connectivity
Startup communities work when people know and trust each other. Strong, horizontal connections make information, talent, and capital easier to find and access.
You can support that by creating simple, repeatable ways for founders to come together. That might look like speed networking, a pitch practice, or a “founder f***up night” where people share what went sideways and what they learned.
In Steamboat Springs, a group of outdoor recreation CEOs and founders started a monthly meetup called Garage Beers to collaborate on local issues affecting their businesses, including affordable housing.
When you plan something, a few basics make the difference:
Consistency: Choose a schedule people can rely on. Even if only a handful show up at first, keep it going so others can find their way in.
Adaptability: Pay attention to what people ask for, and adjust the format as you go.
Diversity: And we do not just mean demographics. A healthy startup ecosystem needs a mix of insights, backgrounds, knowledge, and experience. Open the door to business owners across industries to create more chances for useful conversations and new ideas.
Learn more about how to organize successful startup community events.
4. Build local partnerships to create network density
If you have connected with other local founders who are running into the same constraints as you, look for ways to partner. That might include expensive shipping, limited warehouse or commercial kitchen space, shared equipment needs, or gaps in recycling and waste management. In many cases, the fastest (and most cost effective) path forward is to work with another business that has a shared pain point.
Partnership does not have to mean merging your companies or giving up your edge. It can be practical and specific:
Share purchasing power: Combine orders for packaging, freight, or supplies to negotiate better rates.
Share space and infrastructure: Split warehouse space, staging areas, commercial kitchens, or storage.
Co-advocate for solutions: Approach your county, municipality, or a service provider as a group when you need infrastructure like recycling, broadband upgrades, or more industrial space. A single business asking is easy to ignore. A group showing demand is harder to dismiss.
Trade expertise and referrals: Make introductions to contractors, bookkeepers, attorneys, and reliable vendors. These small handoffs add up.
5. Share what you have learned
One of the fastest ways to strengthen a startup community is to make the learning curve less steep for the next founder.
If you are a seasoned entrepreneur, that can mean mentoring someone who is early in their journey or sharing how you solved a problem that is common in your region. If you are interested in mentoring but are not sure where to start, reach out to your local SBDC or entrepreneurship group and tell them what you can offer.
If you are not in a position to mentor one-on-one, you can still contribute in meaningful ways:
Share your templates and tools: A hiring scorecard, onboarding checklist, pricing worksheet, or a simple cash-flow tracker can save someone hours.
Document a local solution: If you found a way to reduce food waste in your kitchen, lower energy costs, or streamline shipping, write up what you did and what it cost. Even a short summary helps.
Offer a short talk or workshop: Teach one topic you know well and keep it focused on what people can use right away.
Show up at startup events: Events like West Slope Startup Week are a great place to share lessons learned, meet other founders, and make introductions that help people move forward.
Rural Startup Community Building in Action
A great example of startup community building is in Southeast Colorado, particularly La Junta and Rocky Ford. Over the last few years, local founders and business support advocates have steadily created more opportunities for connection and learning.
That groundwork opened the door for Startup Colorado to support the first Rural Startup Days, a multi-day event focused on networking and education. It likely would not have worked five years ago when connectivity and capacity were low, but consistent effort from local community builders made it possible.
“At Rural Startup Days in Southeast Colorado, founders talked openly about building businesses in what some call the ‘forgotten corner’ of the state,” Vanessa McCrann, Managing Director at Startup Colorado and Lead Organizer of Rural Startup Days, said. “But what stood out was the pride and determination in the room. When entrepreneurs connect and start sharing knowledge and support, that’s when a real startup community begins to form.”
This newsletter is powered by Startup Colorado. We believe that anyone should have the ability to start and scale a business in the place they call home. And in Rural Colorado, we’re seeing the power of entrepreneurship transform communities and lives, proving that the spark of innovation can—and should—be kindled outside urban hubs.
Produced by Margaret Hedderman, Director of Communications at Startup Colorado.