In 2008, we sat in the back of the room at the Boulder Denver New Tech Meetup listening to Brad Feld and others talk about building an entrepreneurial / startup ecosystem in Boulder, Colorado and beyond. A core tenet of their theory at the time was that the startup community would grow exponentially faster if most parties adopted a ‘Give First’ philosophy. The core principle is that you give of yourself, your time, and your expertise, with NO expectation of anything in return – don’t set relationships up to be transactional, and we would all grow and thrive as a community. It seems at first a bit far fetched- but in 2015, Boulder is nationally recognized to have the highest density of startups in the US– and that’s no accident.
Technical Integrity has proudly built this Give First philosophy into our DNA as an organization, and we thought it was an important message to share with other startup communities and entrepreneurial ecosystems that have not yet adopted this powerful and effective idea.
During Boulder Startup Week this year, we sat down with four amazing thought leaders to discuss their thoughts on what Give First means to them, what their favorite Give First success stories are, and how both individual communities and entrepreneurs can benefit from this philosophy. We hope you enjoy this four part series!
