A new effort is underway to coordinate and encourage technology startup companies in Southwest Colorado because they are environmentally friendly and could bring high-paying jobs to the region.
The eight-county Southwest Innovation Corridor aims to build a startup culture that would bring together separate efforts.
Director Thea Chase started connecting startup companies to potential investors, mentors and programs across the region last year.
To reach students, she teaches workshops to senior engineering students at Fort Lewis College, so they can turn ideas into businesses. The corridor is also partially funding internships for students to work at startup companies.
The Southwest Innovation Corridor received $900,000 from the Economic Development Administration, the state of Colorado and the Johnson Family Foundation to foster technology companies. The Telluride Foundation applied for the grants to start the corridor.
To encourage a regional approach, Chase might connect businesses from Durango to the Telluride Venture Fund and the Telluride Angels, both investment funds. She also refers startups to the Southwest Colorado Accelerator Program for Entrepreneurs so the founders can work on developing their ideas.
“It really helps to build capacity around the region, so we can have some fundamental change,” she said.
The region is reliant on the volatile mining, tourism and construction industries, a statement from the Economic Development Administration said.
As part of the effort to encourage technology companies, the corridor paid for a coordinator to organize for the state’s Go-Code Challenge Weekend in Durango. Otherwise, the event would not have been held here this year.
“We are getting a huge of amount of interest,” Chase said.
This year, the challenge is to build an app that uses public data to solve a problem for a business decision-maker, according to a news release.
To help create community, the corridor is funding monthly meetups in Durango to bring entrepreneurs together to hear from speakers on topics such intellectual property rights.
“We are trying to stir up and create opportunities for new ideas,” Chase said.
The corridor is working with Fort Lewis College because it is the only college on the Western Slope offering a four-year degree in engineering, she said. The school also received $150,000 from the state grant to pay for equipment in the new Geosciences, Physics and Engineering Hall.
During the fall semester, she brought speakers to the college, and this semester, she is leading workshops on how to write a business model and how to design a product with a potential customer in mind.
“If you have a mindset that understands the whole lean-launch mentality... you are going to have a much higher level of success, in terms of the success of that product in the marketplace, and you are going to be better engineer as a result,” she said.
To introduce the students to this idea, she had them make models of their products from Play-Doh, and she planned to have them interview potential customers about whether they would use the product, she said.
She wasn’t sure if the workshops would continue next semester, or if part of her curriculum might be adopted by the college in the future.
Ryan Haaland, the head of the physics and engineering department at Fort Lewis College, said it was too soon to say exactly how business concepts would be incorporated into the curriculum.
“We are just scratching the surface of what this process looks like,” he said.
One possible option would be to create teams of students from different majors to work on business ideas as part of a senior capstone.
This semester, the corridor also made it possible for five FLC students to intern for startup companies by paying for half of their wages, up to $1,000.
It’s an unusual opportunity because startups typically can’t pay interns, so students don’t have the opportunity to work in high-growth companies.
For Holly Shure, CEO and founder of Amia Friends for Elders, and her intern, Fort Lewis College student Keisha Green, it’s worked out well. Amia connects people with older adults to provide paid social visits.
Green is an international business major and she has helped Shure test the company’s website, promote the company on social media and make videos.
“I have help with these projects and she has the opportunity to apply her knowledge,” Shure said.
Another round of internships will be offered over the summer.
When it comes to measuring the success of the corridor, Chase is looking at how many people attend events, new companies and jobs that are created.
“We are seeing a lot of activity in Western Colorado and want to make sure we are capitalizing on it,” she said.
