Colorado Startups win the VC Superbowl
The Denver Broncos established a clear win over the North Carolina Panthers on Superbowl Sunday following a strong season. Colorado startups are following many of the same gritty principles that led to the Broncos win, showing that Colorado is ready to compete with Silicon Valley, New York, Boston and other startup centers. Colorado company Arrow Electronics had an awesome ad in this year’s SuperBowl, and here’s a look at how Colorado’s startups compete in the big leagues.
Defense
Nobody will dispute that the Bronco’s owe their win to an awesome defense. The startup equivalent of defense includes creating what Lean Startup aficionados call “unfair competitive advantage”. Colorado companies are killing it with unfair competitive advantage – they’re filing patents at remarkable rates, and those concepts that don’t lend themselves to patents are working hard to build first mover advantage and strong brands to compete in their fields. Colorado received 3184 patents in 2014 – beating out many larger states and beating out the total of all patents awarded to the bottom fifteen states in the U.S. combined.
Probably the biggest defensive characteristic of Colorado companies we’ve seen is “grit”. Colorado companies are doing more with less capital and resources that may be available to companies on the coasts. Despite their limited resources, they are accomplishing more and growing more quickly than other companies around the U.S. For example, Colorado Company, P2BInvestor, Inc. has grown to the same valuation and loan portfolio amount that Lending Club did with one seventh of the amount of capital raised at the same point in their development. P2BInvestor is growing at an exponential rate, but is being careful with its expenses and making the most of what it has.
Offense
You’ve got to score points to win a SuperBowl game and you’ve got to grow to beat out the competition and attract acquirers. Colorado companies such as MyRounding, QwikCart, SlopeJet and Main Street Power have all grown quickly and built value for acquirers in just one to three years – far faster than the average for early stage acquisitions. They’re scoring points in the first few quarters of the game and attracting the interest of acquirers who are paying top dollar to acquire Colorado companies. This benefits all of the stakeholders including the founders and employees of the companies, investors and the startup community in Colorado.
Colorado companies are taking the saying “the best defense is a good offense” seriously and they’re attracting world class investors to help take them to the next level.
Colorado is proud of the Denver Broncos, but we should all be equally proud of our great startup ecosystem and the companies that are creating jobs and bringing economic development to the state.
To see top Colorado Startups pitching to a national audience, check out the Angel Capital Summit, coming up March 14-15 at the DU Campus. Visit www.angelcapitalsummit.org for registration and more information.
