On Thursday, July 20, 听celebrates the one-year anniversary of the . Open to the public, the variety show will be held at the Center for Academic Success and Engagement (CASE).
Presenters at the first annual Startup Variety Show
The show includes , co-founder of the seven-time Emmy Award-winning company听StoryBots. Spiridellis鈥櫶齟ntrepreneurial journey spans from JibJab听and听StoryBots听to his current company, HiHo. , executive director and entrepreneurship initiative director of Silicon Flatirons, will host.
鈥淚 love the way that the Variety Show gets the spotlight onto the most innovative minds and projects in the Front Range,鈥� said Bernthal. 鈥淚t is also crucial for the emerging company scene to have this connective fabric to bring campus and community together.鈥�
In addition to Spiridellis, the July 20 show features Patrick Walsh, CEO of IronCoreLabs, who will discuss developments in cryptography. It also showcases world-class research, presented by CU Professor , a publishing powerhouse at the Institute of Cognitive Science, about using AI technologies to facilitate socio-collaborative learning experiences for students. Finally, the variety show will highlight , a nonprofit that works to make higher education accessible for under-resourced students. and will co-present about Greenhouse Scholars' work.
The goal of this regularly convening event series is multifaceted鈥攊t intends to highlight companies and ideas, while also facilitating in-person interactions across campus and within the emerging startup community.
鈥淭he past few years have disrupted our startup community鈥檚 rhythms of in-person interactions, limiting touchpoints for established members, as well as points of entry for newcomers,鈥� said Nate Mariotti, managing director of Silicon Flatirons. 鈥淭he Startup Variety Show series was created to address this issue head on in the spirit of the philosophy, which champions selfless contributions of individuals to each other听and the strength and cohesiveness of the network that develops as a result.鈥�
Through the Startup Variety Show series, Silicon Flatirons hopes to share stimulating ideas and mobilize community resources to support teams pursuing new innovations while increasing accessibility for and encouraging newcomers.
Boulder serves as an excellent location for this kind of event. Described as a , Boulder has been dubbed by Richard Florida as 鈥�.鈥� Silicon Flatirons鈥� role as a nerve center for Boulder and the entire Colorado Front Range entrepreneurship scene was featured prominently in Brad Feld鈥檚 book听鈥�,鈥� which praised Silicon Flatirons for turning the university 鈥渋nside out鈥� and highlighted its role as an important feeder and convener for the Boulder startup community. With this in mind, faculty and staff at Silicon Flatirons hope to continue carrying the Startup Variety Show鈥檚 momentum into its second year.
鈥淕rowing the audience is a big internal goal for us,鈥� Mariotti shared. 鈥淚 think it's safe to say that we'll continue to bring together diverse speakers from all over the community working on unique startups/solutions, and focus on that knowledge share as well as community interactions.鈥� 听
The is an event you don鈥檛 want to miss. Come network with the local entrepreneurial community and help us celebrate this Thursday!
