{"id":153738,"date":"2025-09-13T11:19:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T11:19:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/153738\/"},"modified":"2025-09-13T11:19:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T11:19:15","slug":"75-of-colorado-startup-week-sessions-have-ties-to-artificial-intelligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/153738\/","title":{"rendered":"75% of Colorado Startup Week sessions have ties to artificial intelligence"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Quick links: Startup Week stats so far<\/a> | AI tied to 75% of sessions<\/a> | Colorado Springs budget shortfall<\/a> | Denver inflation up 2.1%<\/a> | Are you a FirstBank customer?<\/a> | Take the reader poll<\/a><\/p>\n

There is something very different about Denver Startup Week this year. First, it\u2019s now called Colorado Startup Week<\/a>. The kickoff keynote is Tuesday<\/a>, not Monday, when the five-day event starts. And it\u2019s not just in downtown Denver anymore.<\/p>\n

A Monday session on disruptive medical devices<\/a> will be in Fort Collins. A health-tech pitch event<\/a> Tuesday is in Boulder. A wellness break<\/a> and a midafternoon happy hour<\/a> are set for Thursday in Littleton.<\/p>\n

And if you\u2019d managed to get a spot for Friday\u2019s 9 a.m. \u201cConnect to Creativity Trailside\u201d session (there\u2019s a waitlist<\/a>), the meet-up point is at the Mount Falcon Park trailhead in Jefferson County. From there, it\u2019s a 1.5-mile hike to a scenic view for an outdoor painting class and, of course, networking with other founders.<\/p>\n

\"\"Abstract Adventures founder Sarah Leistico began offering half-day hiking trips with a painting session because she thought others might enjoy what she\u2019s been doing for years. Her Colorado Startup Week session has a waiting list. (Provided by Abstract Adventures)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very much not a sip and paint. We encourage folks to play with different colors, take risks and follow their creative flow,\u201d said Sarah Leistico, who founded Abstract Adventures<\/a> in 2023 to share her love of hiking and painting. \u201cI think that passion for sharing the experience is what pushed me over the edge to be like, yes, I\u2019m going to launch a company because I want to share this experience with others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leistico has been volunteering and attending the weeklong entrepreneurial event since 2021, after moving to Denver from the Midwest. This year seemed like a great opportunity to be part of the newish \u201cCommunity Events,\u201d which are lightly vetted by organizers but rely on the energy and effort of the founder who pitched it to make it happen.<\/p>\n

After all, Colorado Startup Week, much like its original Denver namesake, is run by volunteers. It\u2019s still free and it\u2019s still the scrappy gathering that has long relied on vacant or donated office spaces on or around 16th Street for panels, sessions and networking.<\/p>\n

\"\"Colorado Startup Week, the new name for Denver Startup Week, starts Sept. 15, 2025. (Handout)<\/p>\n

There will still be plenty of milling around downtown Denver, though. The event\u2019s home base is 1900 Lawrence St. But the idea of letting folks organize their own events \u2014 and host them outside the city seemed inevitable.<\/p>\n

\u201cPreviously, we\u2019d have all these submissions but then every single session was curated and managed by the team, by our organizing committee of volunteers,\u201d said Ben Deda, a cofounder of Denver Startup Week. \u201cAnd some, unfortunately, wouldn\u2019t get selected. As we evolved, we just saw an opportunity that there were a lot of people who wanted to do great stuff. Why should we be a barrier to that?\u201d<\/p>\n

Networking outside of Denver<\/p>\n

Taylor Thomas and Christine Hernandez, founders of business consultancy Impact Initiative<\/a>, hope attendees will make the 10-12 mile trek from downtown Denver to Littleton for a wellness break, networking and a happy hour.<\/p>\n

They hosted sessions at past startup weeks focused on team building and communication, which flowed into a cocktail hour that was packed. This time, they wanted to provide a respite from the busy week at the coworking space they office at, Kiln Littleton<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of a break for the fast-paced nature of Startup Week,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cThese are full days. And when you\u2019re finished, you\u2019re wiped. This is kind of an intentional reset and a chance for people to still get a ton of information, a ton of value and a ton of connections but in an intentionally different environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

There will be a cold plunge, sauna, happy hour and, should you so choose, a place to plug in and work. Attendees just have to get down to Littleton.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hope is that people will want to hang out and stay on site,\u201d he said. \u201cIt does take a commitment to get there, but there\u2019s also things to engage in so it\u2019s not just idle time spent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Community sessions, which are in the second year, just needed<\/a> to be \u201csomehow related to innovation and entrepreneurship\u201d with \u201cno self-promotion,\u201d according to event organizers.<\/p>\n

It also helped make the event a little more manageable for volunteers like Deda, whose day job is CEO of Food Maven, which has AI-infused technology to help food service buyers make smart food purchases to minimize waste.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd what we realized is we just saw differences in how people wanted to engage with big events,\u201d Deda added, \u201cand that we could do part of it even more decentralized than we had, and then still focus our efforts on a core set of sessions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The stats so far this year<\/p>\n

Of the 230 sessions this year, 190 of them, or 83%, are community sessions. There\u2019s still 40 sessions, including keynotes (like Jen Millet, president of the new Denver Summit FC women\u2019s soccer team, and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston), managed by event organizers.<\/p>\n

Overall, that\u2019s a big drop compared with Startup Week\u2019s pre-pandemic era. In 2019, sessions numbered 350<\/a>. Registrations were closer to 20,000. COVID moved the event online, and it slowly trickled back in person since. Last year, roughly 12,000 people participated in 230 sessions, according<\/a> to Downtown Denver Partnership, another long-time supporter.<\/p>\n

\"\"A lonely stretch of Denver\u2019s 16th Street (it dropped the \u201cMall\u201d in its name) is cleaned up, renovated and ready for business on Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025. (Tamara Chuang, The Colorado Sun) <\/p>\n

Deda put the early registration count at \u201cthe high four figures.\u201d But since registration is free and one can register anytime during the event, it\u2019s tough to make a good estimate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been right around that for the last couple of years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Expect an AI-infused week<\/p>\n

The annual event has long been fueled by tech startups, the initial attendees during the first event in 2012<\/a> at a now-shuttered bar in downtown Denver<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tech still rules in 2025. Top sponsors are Amazon and Caruso Ventures, the investment firm of Dan Caruso, a cofounder of telecom firms Zayo Group and Level 3 Communications (now part of Lumen Technologies). Connecting with investors and finding funding has also long been a draw of the show.<\/p>\n

But more so than ever before, artificial intelligence has infused most sessions and panels. Approximately 172 of the 230 sessions have some tie-in with AI, Deda said. That\u2019s 75%.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of them are how do you actually use AI? How do you build on AI platforms? And how do you not get replaced by AI,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s the very technical to the very philosophical. But yeah, it\u2019s not surprising with what we\u2019re seeing going on in our world that AI is tied in some way to a lot of the sessions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AFormer teacher and Denver high school principal Adeel Khan founded MagicSchool in March 2023 as a artificially-intelligent resource and service for busy teachers to take the first pass at developing lesson plans, generating math problems or writing letters to parents. The AI-content is akin to what a teacher\u2019s assistant might provide. (Provided by MagicSchool) <\/p>\n

Some of those AI sessions also feature the top local AI founders in the region, including Adeel Khan<\/a>, whose AI startup MagicSchool, which aims to help teachers<\/a> avoid burn out, raised $45 million<\/a> from investors in February.<\/p>\n

Another founder hosting a session<\/a> is Nathan Sobo, whose Boulder company Zed Industries developed an open-source code editor to help humans collaborate with AI, raised $32 million<\/a> from Silicon Valley\u2019s Sequoia Capital last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething like that in Colorado, six or seven years ago, would not have been thought of that you\u2019d have a company raising that amount from a firm like that,\u201d Deda said. \u201cAnd that\u2019ll wrap with AI builders<\/a>, which is (bringing) a bunch of AI startups that will provide demos to folks. That\u2019s just one stage<\/a>. If people want to go deep, they could show up at 10 o\u2019clock (on Wednesday) and just get the fire hose until 7 p.m.\u201d<\/p>\n

While there will be sessions <\/a>on integrating AI with jobs and employment, one thing missing this year is the annual job fair. It\u2019s kind of a thorny topic<\/a> for an industry where some employers get pretty excited<\/a> about AI replacing human workers. But the U.S. and Colorado job market is currently in a labor lull so interest wasn\u2019t there.<\/p>\n

Also not really on the agenda: Dealing with Colorado\u2019s upcoming AI law<\/a> that will require companies to disclose when they\u2019re using AI systems that could impact whether someone gets a job, apartment, loan or other consequential decision. The controversial law goes into effect June 30<\/a>, unless opponents, which include many in the tech industry, persuade state lawmakers to change it in the next legislative session.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no specific event around that specific issue,\u201d Deda said. \u201cI would definitely say you\u2019ll probably find that the vast majority of attendees probably lean one side versus the other on it. But there\u2019s a number of sessions around AI and law, both from an IP standpoint (and) how you access data and what you do with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

AI panels are hard to miss and are found in every Colorado Startup Week track.<\/p>\n

\u2794 More at Colorado Startup Week<\/a> <\/p>\n

Sun economy stories you may have missed<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Ben Cairns, the dean at Colorado Mountain College\u2019s Leadville campus, is planning to develop a tiny lift-served ski area to help train students in the school\u2019s overhauled ski area operations program. (Jason Blevins, The Colorado Sun)<\/p>\n

\u2794 A tiny chairlift in Leadville offers big opportunities for Colorado Mountain College and the ski resort industry. The hand-me-down platter lift from Steamboat will revive Leadville\u2019s Dutch Henry ski area >> Read story<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2794 The Colorado River Basin has operated in the red for most of the 21st century. Experts call for broad water cuts, now. >> Read story<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2794 BLM counts on pent-up demand, offers more than 130,000 acres of public land in Colorado for oil and gas drilling. Planned lease auctions started Tuesday, with one of the largest offerings in more than 20 years that set a revenue record as the Trump administration reverses Biden-area slowdown. >> Read story<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Owners of the Climax Mine constructed this waterfall where the east fork of the Arkansas River flows through its property. (Mike Sweeney, Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/p>\n

\u2794 How to treat a river: Reshaping the Arkansas River into a Colorado success after a century of abuse. From the high headwaters all the way to the state line, people who care are trying to redeem a hard-working stream. >> Read story<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2794 Colorado awards Amazon $25.4 million to provide satellite internet to areas with poor service. Amazon also captured 44% of the state\u2019s underserved locations. >> Read story<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2794 Teachers, farmers and advocates urge Colorado voters to approve new funding for school meals and food stamps. The ballot initiatives LL and MM would shore up funding for the Healthy School Meals for All program and help cover the cost of federal cuts to SNAP. >> Read story<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2794 EchoStar unloads wireless spectrum to Musk\u2019s SpaceX for $17 billion. The Douglas County satellite company, which also operates Dish Network, is also selling off wireless spectrum to AT&T >> Read story<\/a><\/p>\n

Take the reader poll: Feeling better or worse?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

ICYMI: More than 200 folks have chimed in on how they\u2019re feeling about the economy. If you haven\u2019t already, take the current reader poll to help us better understand what Coloradans are feeling about the economy. Thanks in advance!<\/p>\n

\u2794 Take the What\u2019s Working reader poll: bit.ly\/WWsept2025<\/a><\/p>\n

Other working bits<\/p>\n

\u2794 City of Colorado Springs faces $31 budget shortfall, cuts 38 jobs. It\u2019s not just Denver<\/a>. The state\u2019s other large city said Friday that it\u2019s trying to ward off the impact of a $31 million budget shortfall next year. That includes cuts to reduce the city\u2019s workforce by 1%, or 38 jobs; and add at least five unpaid furlough days next year for all city workers, excluding those in public safety, critical operations and grant-funded positions.<\/p>\n

The city also plans to reduce spending by $14.7 million among departments and its capital improvement program, permanently close the Meadows Park Community Center on Oct. 10 and forgo any cost of living or performance-based raises in 2026, according to a news release<\/a> from the city.<\/p>\n

\u2794 Consumer prices up 2.1% in Denver area. Does it seem like the cost of food and energy has declined since May? That\u2019s what the data is showing for the Denver region, according to the change in the Consumer Price Index for July. But while the cost of food fell 0.7% and energy prices dropped 3.4% between May and July, overall prices were up from a year ago by 2.1%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nationwide, inflation was up 2.7% from a year ago for July, and up 2.9% for August<\/a> (Denver data is shared every other month, and most recently for July.)<\/p>\n

The biggest Denver-area price increases for the past 12 months: eating out, up 4.3%; medical care, 6.4%; and items that are typically imported, like household furnishings, up 5% and apparel, up 4.9%. Gasoline saw the biggest drop, at 10%. >> See Denver data<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>PNC Bank branch on 16th Street in Denver photographed Sept. 8. (Tamara Chuang, The Colorado Sun)<\/p>\n

\u2794 FirstBank acquired by PNC Bank for $4.1 billion. Colorado\u2019s largest independent bank is getting gobbled up by Pittsburgh-based PNC in a deal that is expected to close in early 2026. The acquisition will make PNC the state\u2019s largest bank, adding the Lakewood-based FirstBank\u2019s 120 retail branches and $26.7 billion in assets >> Read story<\/a><\/p>\n

Was FirstBank your bank? Tell us your favorite memories or experiences with Colorado\u2019s largest bank, at least currently. >> Email Tamara<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2794 Fremont County gets its first Rural Jump-Start business. It took nine years but Fremont County finally got a business in the state\u2019s initiative to support rural businesses that are growing and adding jobs. Mytikas Manufacturing, based in Florence, plans to add up to 170 new jobs to its business of building zero-waste tiny homes, according to the Office of Economic Development & International Trade, which oversees the Rural Jump-Start Program<\/a>. The program provides state income tax relief and matching grants of up to $15,000. >> Details<\/a><\/p>\n

Got some economic news or business bits Coloradans should know? Tell us: cosun.co\/heyww<\/a><\/p>\n

This week marked The Colorado Sun\u2019s 7th anniversary<\/a>. Thanks to all who\u2019ve joined us since our start. If that\u2019s you, forward this newsletter to a friend<\/a> to keep What\u2019s Working growing. Hang in there everyone! ~ tamara<\/a><\/p>\n

Missed a column? Catch up:<\/p>\n

What\u2019s Working<\/a> is a Colorado Sun column about surviving in today\u2019s economy. Email tamara@coloradosun.com<\/a> with stories, tips or questions. Read the archive<\/a>, ask a question at cosun.co\/heyww<\/a> and don\u2019t miss the next one by signing up at coloradosun.com\/getww<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Support this free newsletter and become a Colorado Sun member: coloradosun.com\/join<\/a><\/p>\n

Corrections & Clarifications<\/p>\n

Notice something wrong? The Colorado Sun has an ethical responsibility to fix all factual errors<\/a>. Request a correction by emailing corrections@coloradosun.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Type of Story: News<\/p>\n

Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Quick links: Startup Week stats so far | AI tied to 75% of sessions | Colorado Springs budget…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[182,181,507,25436,94339,94340,158,2402,1166,74,19845],"class_list":{"0":"post-153738","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-colorado-springs","12":"tag-colorado-startup-week","13":"tag-denver-startup-week","14":"tag-entrepreneurship","15":"tag-inflation","16":"tag-startups","17":"tag-technology","18":"tag-whats-working"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}