Bailey Anselme via Unsplash.
At Antler, we’re on a mission to create a global ecosystem of startup founders and invest in the world’s most exceptional people. In the US, we’re excited to announce that we’re launching our third location in Boulder, Colorado. Starting June 27th, we’ll be kicking off our summer residency for founders in Colorado. Our goal is simple: to support founders in the Mountain West region, investing in them at the earliest stages of their business.
Our decision to invest here isn’t just happenstance. We believe that Colorado is right for many reasons, and hope to support the entrepreneurial foundation that the state has already established and will continue to promote.
Historically, the overwhelming majority of VC funding goes to just 3 states: California, New York, and Massachusetts. However, in 2021 we saw newer tech hubs emerge with more startups, funding, and fervor, in the biggest year in VC investing to date. Colorado ranked in the top 10 states in the US with more than US$4.3B closed in VC funding, close in ranks to Texas, Washington and others. There were more than 580 venture deals in the state, with the largest fundraising round of US$1.4B invested into Sierra Space.
Antler’s Colorado launch will be led by Ryan Sommerville.
“We’re incredibly excited about the potential of Colorado’s startup ecosystem,” says Sommerville. “Boulder and the Mountain West region as a whole has massive tailwinds converging from existing & incoming founder talent, significant downstream capital, an extraordinarily supportive community — not to mention a breathtaking landscape and fantastic climate.”
We’re excited to invest and grow our firm in the state of Colorado for several reasons. Here are the top things we noticed that set the Centennial State apart from the rest of the pack:
Colorado has a history of a strong tech community of founders, investors, and evangelists, and the talent pool is only increasing.
Techstars and Foundry Fund, to name a few Colorado pioneers, were some of the earliest entrants in early stage incubation and investing, creating a DNA rich in early stage innovation
Today, Colorado has a growing ecosystem of talent from universities like CU Boulder, Colorado School of Mines, and CSU, as well as talent from larger tech companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Slack.
Transplant talent
Over the past two years, the number of transplants from neighboring states like California has dramatically increased as remote work options become widely available and people seek better standards of living. That means new tech talent, startups, and venture firms will be cropping up and will need support.
It’s never been easier to start a business for an entrepreneur but pre-seed funding has fallen as a percentage of VC dollars in Colorado, presenting a big opportunity.
In 2018, 25% of VC deals in Colorado were pre-seed/accelerator stage. But since then, these deals have fallen to 15% as checks get larger and firms move further upstream with growth stage or late stage companies. We see this as an important gap in the market and want to encourage and support founders in the earliest stages of their startup.
Ideally, we want to be the onramp for the highest quality founders that can then access downstream capital as they grow their businesses, starting their journey with Antler.
Colorado is a startup friendly state with low startup costs
In our time here, we’ve seen nothing but support for our cause and have felt a great attitude in the community focused on building together, not at odds with one another.
As a major metropolis, Denver specifically has some of the lowest startup costs while still managing to have a high median salary, making it a perfect place to start a company or add a second office, and we’ve seen some large companies like Palantir move operations to the state to take advantage of the talent pool and lower cost of operation.
More here: https://www.embroker.com/blog/startup-cities/
Quality of life now commands quality of startups
Finally, we think that Colorado fits in the crosshairs of many talented founders because of the diversity of things to do, beautiful environment, and fantastic culture. Where work used to largely dictate our location, we’ve seen a diaspora from places like San Francisco and New York for those optimizing for where they want to live without sacrificing their ambitions.
Learn more about Antler US here.
