Employee Ownership as a Path for Succession Planning and (Maybe) Growth
Imagine securing a fair-market exit, protecting your company’s culture, and potentially positioning your business for higher profits. Transitioning to employee ownership offers a unique pathway for rural founders to secure […]
How Rural Founders Are Scaling Responsibly, Faster, and Smarter With AI
Love it or fear it, artificial intelligence is officially part of building and scaling a business. For rural entrepreneurs, the opportunity is massive: unlocking capabilities that used to require massive […]
What Three Recent Investments Reveal About Rural Colorado’s Startup Ecosystem
By the end of the first quarter of 2026, Howdy Partners (formerly Greater Colorado Venture Fund) was prepared to invest in more rural startups than all of 2025. Cory Finney, […]
How to build a “belonging business”
Can you design a profitable, investment-ready business that also bridges social divides? As our Belonging @ Startup Colorado accelerator reaches its mid-way point, we’re exploring what it takes to build […]
Standing With Rural Colorado Through the Fires
Across Southern and Western Colorado, our rural communities are facing one of the most difficult periods in recent memory. The Aspen Acres Fire outside Pueblo has grown to more than […]
Entrepreneurship is a Unifying Force
To Colorado’s Rural Founders: We talk a lot about building something out of nothing. Disrupting the status quo. Assuming risk without any guarantee of reward because we believe in something. […]
Meet the Seven Founders Advancing to our Belonging Growth Challenge
What happens when you ask twelve founders to transform business into a mechanism for belonging? That’s what we aim to find out in our Belonging @ Startup Colorado accelerator program. […]
Roadtrip Series Recap
It’s home to a major state university. It’s one of Colorado’s most productive agricultural and energy-production regions. And it has a population over 100,000. Yet Greeley experiences many of the […]
Put your guerrilla suit on
When you don’t have unlimited capital, easy retail access, or instant industry buy-in, guerrilla marketing is one of the most practical ways to build visibility. For rural founders, this “little […]
How Rural Founders Can Tap into the Circular Economy
When you’re at the end of a long freight route and local waste infrastructure is limited, resourcefulness isn’t just a value—it’s a necessity. Creative businesses in rural Colorado are leveraging […]
Can Rural Colorado Tap into Climate Innovation?
Margaret Hedderman, Director of Communications at Startup Colorado, recently attended the ChangeNOW conference in Paris. Here she shares her top takeaways and insights for Colorado’s rural entrepreneurs. What does a […]
Ready to scale? Here’s how strategic partnerships can drive growth
For many rural founders, growth is often framed as a high-stakes financial trade-off: taking on debt, sacrificing equity, or pulling back due to upfront costs. But what if the key […]
Announcing the Inaugural Belonging @ Startup Colorado Cohort
Startup Colorado and Belonging Colorado are pleased to announce the cohort of our new business accelerator program for belonging. We received more than 100 applications from founders across the country, […]
Rural Startup Days Debuts with High Engagement and Early Momentum
“Rural doesn’t mean unimaginative or undeserving when it comes to innovation and access to resources.” Those were the words of one attendee at Rural Startup Days in La Junta, Colorado […]
Two Rural Startups Just Closed New Funding Rounds. Here’s Why It Matters for Their Communities
This story was produced in partnership with the Howdy Partners, a fund that focuses on investing in innovative companies outside Colorado’s urban centers. Venture capital accounts for less than 1% […]
Startup Colorado’s Demo Day Kickoff Showcases Rural Founders and New Business Growth
Last week, Startup Colorado kicked off its virtual Demo Day series, bringing together rural founders, community members, and business leaders for an event that highlighted innovation across Colorado’s rural economy. […]
The Sweet and Spicy Sides of Rural Entrepreneurialism: High Plains Spice Company in Eastern Colorado
This story was produced in partnership with the Logan County Economic Development Corporation in Sterling, Colorado. This one’s for anyone out there who: a) sees a startup as a road […]
Your Startup Community Won’t Build Itself
We often describe a startup community as something entrepreneurs benefit from, but it is entrepreneurs who are ultimately in charge of its vitality and resilience. In rural areas where networks […]
