Places

For starters, Amy and I are fine. The fires are not threatening our house (yet). But all we talked about at dinner last night at Ruby Tuesday was fire. Colorado is having a horrible fire season. We are only at the end of June and have four massive wildfires going on in the state, including the High Park Fire in Fort Collins and the Waldo Canyon Fire in Colorado Springs. Yesterday afternoon as the Flagstaff Fire began in Boulder, I heard from a friend that she’d lost her house in the High Park Fire. Everything – totally burned to the ground. They were on a trip so they literally have nothing other than the clothes they had with them. ...

Boulder Startup Week , a five day celebration of the tech scene here in Boulder, is offering several free plane tickets to people who would consider relocating. Since I moved to Boulder in 1995, I’ve watched and participated in the evolution of an amazing startup community which I believe currently has the highest entrepreneurial density in the United States. On top of the the hundreds of open tech company positions, Boulder has an incredible quality of life which I believe makes it the best small city in the United States to live in. ...

One of the fun projects I am involved with is Startup Colorado, a community focused initiative to spur new company creation in Colorado. One of Startup Colorado’s most promising projects is Startup Summer. Startup Summer is an immersive summer program offering the opportunity to work as a paid intern for a Boulder/Denver startup and attend a variety of evening events, including a weekly seminar series on entrepreneurship. We are looking for students at any four-year college or university in Colorado who are aspiring entrepreneurs and want to participate in a program that could change their lives. If you know a Colorado college student who would want to participate, tell them to apply to Startup Summer: ...

Put this in the “every business traveller thinks this on a regular basis” rant category. Sure – I’m whining, but I imagine I’ll feel better after I get done. I doubt it has any impact on the universe, but hopefully it’ll be a story that rings true to some of you out there who travel as much as I do. And to my friends at Starwood and AT&T, you made my day yesterday, which was already intense, a lot harder than it needed to be. ...

I’m a big fan of the CLEAR card and the CLEAR service. When it first launched, I got it immediately and used it wherever it was available. Fortunately this included Denver, New York, and San Francisco. If you don’t know of CLEAR, it’s a biometric card that you use in the exclusive CLEARlane at airports to bypass the security line. It’s saved me from missing plenty of flights over the past few years. ...

I’ve talked a lot on this blog about the great things about the Boulder entrepreneurial ecosystem. Over the past five years it’s been awesome to see things really blossom. But there are always problems of some sort. And we have a few here in Boulder which – in the spirit of helping understand how entrepreneur ecosystems work over time – are worth pointing out and talking about. The most visible problem her is that Boulder’s booming businesses are running out of room . Downtown Boulder is not large – maybe 10 blocks by 5 blocks – and very few of the buildings are more than three stories tall. Once you get outside the downtown Boulder core, you get some larger buildings and some office parks, but you are no longer in the core of downtown. If you get in your car and drive to the next towns over, such as Broomfield and Westminster, there is plenty of office space and some larger buildings. ...

On a daily basis I get an email from someone, either in Boulder, or considering a move to Boulder, who asks how they can best get involved in the Boulder entrepreneurial community. My response is simple – get involved, show up, and participate. I then list a set of regular activities that exist, with my favorites being: Boulder Open Coffee Club Boulder New Tech Meetup Silicon Flatirons Events Boulder Beta Ignite Boulder There are also a handful of sites that help you figure out how to plug in and list other events. The two I recommend are Boulder.me and Boulder Startup Digest . ...

I travel a lot. I’m not a particularly high maintenance traveller as I can sleep from wheels up to wheels down on most flights. When I fly west to east I usually fly at night; east to west I usually fly early in the morning (much to the chagrin of my partners who don’t enjoy getting up at 4:15am to go to the airport quite as much as I do.) ...

Colette Ballou, the CEO of Ballou PR , is hosting a party in honor of me in Paris on Wednesday, July 27th, 2011 from 6pm to 8pm. I put this in the category of “go have a nice hang out on a bridge in Paris and drink wine with tech people” category, which sounds like a lot of fun to me. The details, according to the invitation, follow. When: Wednesday, July 27th, 2011, 6pm to 8pm Where: Pont Solferino, otherwise known as Passerelle Léopold Sédhar Senghor — the pedestrian bridge between Musee d’Orsay and Tuileries. 4th & 5th bench on south side, facing west. Metro: Solferino,Tuileries, RER: Musée d’OrsayIf it rains, we will provide you with a new place/address. Who: You, bring friends!What to bring: you know the drill, it has served us well over the years — each invitee brings a bottle of wine, Ballou PR provides the cups and bottle openers Come join us!

We all love The Onion , right? It’s the best news right after Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert. We also all love Boulder. Those of us that live here love making fun of ourselves and our town because, well, there’s a lot to make fun of. The Prairie Dog is Boulder’s home grown version of The Onion. And it is hilarious. Some sample headlines follow: Oklahoma lashes out, accuses Colorado of being “anorexic” Republican spotted on Pearl street, children alerted Local venture capitalist raises alarm when magic 8 ball goes missing from desk After years of derision, gluten declares intolerance for Boulder You get the idea. The posts are still short but artfully (and sharply) worded. I love it. Thanks @djilk for the tip. ...