By Margaret Hedderman
At this year’s Startup Colorado Pitch Competition, Matt Allen, founder of DifferentKind, was awarded a $25,000 coding bootcamp scholarship. Recently, he decided to pay it forward by donating his scholarship to a long-time Chaffee County resident who has been seeking a way to advance his career in tech without leaving the community he calls home.
Through his connections with local business support organizations, Matt identified Nick DeBruin as an ideal candidate, and in January, he will begin Skill Distillery’s coding bootcamp.
This decision aligns with growing efforts in rural communities to create local pathways to high-skill, high-wage careers, allowing residents to build fulfilling work opportunities without relocating to urban centers. Matt’s choice to reinvest his award locally demonstrates how entrepreneurship, bolstered by community partnerships, can strengthen rural workforce development and economic sustainability.
Identifying the right fit
To find the right recipient for the scholarship, Matt collaborated with local organizations, including the Chaffee County Community Foundation and individuals connected to Colorado Mountain College (CMC) and the local high school.
“We knew we probably didn’t know the right person, but our partners in the community did,” Matt said.
Word got around and eventually the opportunity reached the ears of Fred Maxwell, a former high school teacher of Nick’s. A few weeks ago, he stopped by Moonlight Pizza—where Nick has worked for a number of years—and floated the idea. Though Nick was interested in working in IT, he said he’d always been “kind of nervous pursuing programming itself.”
When his former teacher shared this opportunity, Nick said “something clicked.”
“He recognized something in me—an interest and a drive—to really develop in this way,” he added.
With Skill Distillery’s program, Nick will be able to gain full stack coding experience, making it possible to transition into a new career.
This partnership approach underscores how local organizations can be instrumental in connecting resources to the people who need them. Identifying Nick as the scholarship recipient was not only about finding someone eager to learn; it was about selecting someone committed to staying and building a career in Salida.
As Matt shared, “We wanted to find someone who wanted to be here too, right? And stay in rural Colorado, not immediately move to Silicon Valley.”
As remote work and new job opportunities with rural startups begin to reshape career paths “outside city limits,” rural communities continue to face the challenge of out-migration, particularly among early-career workers like Nick. In fact, the Covid-19 pandemic transformed many rural areas into excellent places to start a business that leverages a remote team.
“What we’re trying to prove-out with DifferentKind is that you can build a company here,” Matt said. “You can build an industry changing software company, and people can work here… You don’t just have to work for a company that is based in Denver or the Front Range.”
By awarding the scholarship to Nick, Matt and DifferentKind aim to push back against out-migration trends by supporting a local resident’s technical education. Together with local partners, they hope to show that high-skill, meaningful careers are possible within rural communities, enabling individuals to stay and build their lives locally rather than relocating to urban areas.
For Nick, the Skill Distillery bootcamp will create new career opportunities. “It also leads me to a path for some personal development that I didn’t really have access to before,” he said, underscoring the broader impact that local investments in education and skills training can have on both individual lives and community stability.
Startup Ecosystem Building in Action
Matt emphasized that DifferentKind’s success has been significantly supported by the local Chaffee County business support ecosystem, including the Chaffee County Economic Development Corporation and Central Mountain Entrepreneurs. He highlighted the impact of the Ascent Program—in which he participated in 2023—and the connections to angel investors and other essential support structures it offered.
DifferentKind was awarded $250,000 from Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade’s Advanced Industries Accelerator grant program, as well as $155,000 investment from the local angel group Ark_Angels.
“I think that there’s this kind of general sense in rural Colorado … of people who are truly invested in other people’s success,” Matt said.
The Skill Distillery scholarship demonstrates how such investments can lead to a web of positive outcomes. Nick’s immediate goal upon completing the bootcamp is to find a job that enables him to utilize his new skills while remaining in Salida. Long term, he has bigger plans: “Starting my own business and keeping it here in town—or at least locally— to give other people similar opportunities.”
