Of Indefensible Positions and Town Gown Crashes (by Matt Burns, SFC Fellow)

Boulderstartups.org gained traction during 2011-2012 as a useful resource for entrepreneurs concerning the CU and Front Range startup scene.  In particular, the startup calendar (at right on the site), resource listings, and several blog posts received favorable community response.  We’re not as viral as, say, Carl Rae Jepsen playing with the Roots .  But the blog is useful.  And less likely to be an ear worm.

A challenge of a blog with several guest writers is, well, coherence.  In a blog, as with dinner parties, individuals talking past each other is not as interesting as people having a good conversation.  As we look ahead to our 2012-2013 Entrepreneurship Initiative, we aim to take the next steps forward in the blog by generating more community, more coherence, and greater interaction.  Toward this end, boulderstartups.org blog kicks off three new blog series.

#1:  Friday’s Indefensible Position: This series’ purpose is to have some of the best minds in the entrepreneurial community present a position that is counter to the community’s conventional wisdom.  This series intends to spark conversations by spotlighting disruptive angles about startups and the entrepreneurial community. Topics can be funny, controversial, or bizarre – just so long as they stimulate critical thinking on the subject.  The Indefensible Position is intended to challenge widely-held ideas that otherwise receive little scrutiny.  Bonus points for humor, good writing, and a pointed perspective.  The Indefensible Position series will come out on Fridays and, when successful, should give you something to argue about with your friends and co-workers at a Friday happy hour.

#2:  The Town Gown: This series highlights the intersection of CU-Boulder and the area’s startup scene.  It goes beyond calendar announcements of campus events to highlight substantive activity at CU that the Front Range should know, but don’t (yet).

#3:  Crash Course:  Silicon Flatirons’ in-person Crash Course offerings, which provide a focused discussion on startup topics for free to the public, have proven popular in the area startup community.  We now hope to port some of these insights to the blog.  The Crash Course series will pass on some of the insights of the members of Boulder’s entrepreneurial community. Our community possesses a vast wealth of experience in entrepreneurship (both good and “character-building”) from entrepreneurs, investors, lawyers, accountants, and even customers. Crash course posts aim to share these insights.

We look forward to building this on-line community.  Ideas for blog topics or ways to enhance the blog are most welcome.  If so, please feel free to post a comment to this blog post or to reach out to me at matt.burns at colorado.edu

Matt Burns is a Fellow at the Silicon Flatirons Center. He is an engineer and J.D. and when he’s not at work you can probably find him outside taking the hard way up.