Denver’s startup scene faces setbacks, seeks solutions | Business [Video]

When venture capitalist and entrepreneurial coach Nicole Glaros moved to Denver in 2000, she described much of Colorado as still a “cow town.”

The state’s startup community then could fit into a small conference room, she recalled on Thursday.

Jumping forward to 2024, the number of companies and investors exploded. Colorado is much more diversified and less reliant on oil and agriculture, Glaros said.

This week, the city’s annual Denver Startup Week hosted approximately 12,000 technology professionals within downtown.

“I always say that building these ecosystems, it’s a 20-year project,” Glaros told a room of nearly 100 people at one of the conference panels. “And it starts over every single day.”

But recent headlines have cast doubt on the state of the Denver metro startup community, said Denver Startup Week co-founder Erik Mitisek.

On the last day of the yearly tech conference, organizers put together a session titled “Colorado: Peaked or still climbing?” to discuss how Denver went from being considered a rising startup hub …