Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City

by Brad Feld

GIVE PEOPLE ASSIGNMENTS People approach me on a daily basis and ask how they can get involved in the Boulder startup community. These requests come in many different forms and with various levels and amounts of background information. It’s impossible for me to spend the required time filtering out who is serious and who isn’t, so I’ve come up with a simple approach that I use both in dealing with these offers to get involved and with anyone else who wants to engage with me in something I’m involved with. My approach is to give the person an assignment. The assignments are straightforward. I try to quickly think of something the person could do that would immediately be helpful. Often the actual assignment is trivial, but it does require that the person do something. These are always assignments that can be completed within an hour, and often within a few minutes, with minimal specific knowledge.