Colorado Springs Entrepreneurs Meetup (Round Table)

Got a chance to attend the Entrepreneurs Meetup for the first time tonight and glad I did. It was the kind of fresh perspective and discussion that I was looking for from fellow entrepreneurs. Tonight’s meeting consisted of a massage therapist, real estate investor, electrical contractor, serial entrepreneur, and a web developer. Here were a few topics of interest:

• History - Apparently the meetup has been around for a while but only recently has it started back up again (November of last year to be exact). It is now being led by Mike Schmidt. There are 96 members of the group but only five of us were in attendance for the night. I suspect, and hope, that this will grow as the year rolls on.
• Networking - We talked about how people making use of networking in their business. For the electrical contractor, real estate investor, and massage therapist this consisted of word-of-mouth representation and with no money spent on marketing what-so-ever. The serial entrepreneur found that LinkedIn was a great asset, and for me I recommended blogging and use of Twitter. Open source development would help too but, of course, not really relevant to the rest of the group.
• Investors - As most people who live here know, this city is about as backwards as it comes to thinking out-of-the-box or nurturing any kind of investment funding for start-ups. I was glad to hear that both Mike and I share similar interests in working to change this. Easier said than done, of course. Especially considering the ultra-conservative views, heavy religious influence, and military presence. It’s almost a herculean task but one that would be of great benefit to the city and fellow entrepreneurs.
• Existing Entrepreneur Groups - There are a few other groups trying to foster movement in this city besides Colorado Springs Entrepreneurs Meetup. There is the Peak Venture Group as well as the Colorado Springs Technology Incubator. The first one I was aware of but the second one was new to me. It would be nice to see all of these groups communicating as one voice rather than fragmented entities but we shall see how this plays out.

Besides passing out business cards and giving a brief overview of what each persons business was about, there was a decent discussion on green energy and technology related to green energy. Got a chance to learn more about how this city’s Chamber of Commerce works as well as issues with the Colorado Springs Utilities company. There are decent hurdles to overcome in building a business that could provide solar and wind energy. Investment money for hardware being a primary concern but connections were made tonight that might actually help one person’s idea get off the ground and running.

No comments yet.

Leave a comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.