I’ve been in a year long battle trying to weigh the pros and cons of Denver vs Boulder for personal living and for my startup. My apartment lease is up in 45 days (and I don’t want to renew it) so I’ve been thinking real hard about where I want to live next & where I want to work should we ever move our office from its current Denver location.

I hope my thought process sheds some light on my experiences running a startup for the last five years in Denver and the importance (or lack therof?) of physical location for both personal happiness and business success. I’ve seen a lot of “Boulder is Great for Your Startup” type posts, but nothing comparing Boulder to Denver from someone who has run a startup out of Denver.

Background

I first moved to Colorado in 2002 to attend the University of Denver. I lived near DU in South Denver from 2002-2006. I started Printfection in 2004 in my on-campus apartment. Printfection’s first real office came a few months later in beautiful (ha!) Aurora, and a year after that (2005) we moved to our current location.

After graduation I moved to the ghetto side of Downtown Denver (on the same block as a large homeless shelter amidst a sea of parking lots) and lived there from 2006-2008. In 2008 I moved up to Louisville as I became more involved in the Boulder tech scene and was, at the time, planning to move our office from Denver to Boulder. The timing just wasn’t quite right for the office move, so I still commute from Louisville to Denver and haven’t really got to experience as much of Boulder as I’d hoped.

My Love-Hate relationship with Boulder

As I’ve become a bit more involved with the local Colorado tech scene, it’s painfully obvious the entire local tech scene revolves around Boulder. Andrew Hyde, Boulder NewTech Meetup, David Cohen, TechStars, Ignite Boulder, Startup Weekend, Bar Camp Boulder, Brad Feld, Boulder.me, Startup Drinks, the list goes on and on and on. For better or worse, “The Republic of Boulder” is the center of the Colorado technology universe. With only 150,000 people compared to Denver’s 1+ million, there are 10x more tech events and happenings in Boulder than Denver. I know, it doesn’t make much sense. I still can’t figure out why all the rich liberals run the worldwide tech scene (Boulder, San Francisco, etc) but it is what it is and there’s no denying Boulder = Startups (in Colorado).

Boulder - Why I Love You

• Absolutely beautiful environment
• Everyone is really smart. Most people are at or above my own intellectual level
• Amazing technology scene, very startup-friendly
• Unmatched community feel. People really care about the community (both tech-wise and in general) and the level of support from your peers (and even your competitors) is unmatched
• A more wealthy version of Madison, WI… my hometown… which is a great city
• I know a lot more business/tech people in Boulder than I know in Denver
• Awesome downtown. Big enough for a real downtown feel, but not so huge as to feel like a cement prision
• I can walk more than one block without getting asked for change by a homeless person
• Feels safer and more family-oriented than Denver (long-term family potential)
• College town (Intellectual, University Resources, etc)

Boulder- Why I Hate You

• Extremely expensive. Could I ever afford to buy a house here?
• Could my employees afford to live here?
• Nasty traffic into Boulder every morning on 36 as nobody can afford to live here so they commute from the ‘burbs
• College town (Overpriced, low quality housing rentals)
• The “Boulder Bubble”/ “Republic of Boulder” - It feels like you’re in your own little world. Boulderites are a  self-contained little bunch who drink their own kool-aide
• Extremely liberal
• Extra 30 minutes to the I70 mountain resorts/skiing/Crested Butte
• Limited radius for recruiting employees. Folks who live in the Tech Center will not drive to Boulder for work.

Denver Thumbs-Up

• Most of my normal, non-tech friends live in and around Denver. They all think Boulder is a weird place  where the hippies live and where you go on 4/20
• Much closer to work - More central location, easier access to the mountains, airport, and much wider radius for recruiting employees.
• More reasonably priced housing options close to downtown
• Light rail transit around the city
• The “real world”, doesn’t feel like you’re in a bubble, I like not being involved in tech 24/7/365
• I’ve met a few cool Denver startup/ tech folks like Luke Swanson, Devin Reams, Danny Newman, etc. I’m sure there are a lot more of you out there, but the community isn’t as strong as Boulder.

Denver Thumbs-Down

• Can’t walk one block without getting asked for spare change or “do you want to buy some of this white stuff in this little plastic bag (drugs!)”
• Cement everywhere.
• Feels like a big city (because it is!)
• Don’t know nearly as many tech/startup folks compared to Boulder
• Everyone is not as smart. Big city = diversity (in all aspects, including intellectual sophistication)
• Very limited startup scene compared to Boulder, but it does seem to be getting better. Ignite Denver, Refresh Denver, WordCamp Denver, Big Conferences, the list is getting longer!
• Doesn’t feel as safe or “nice” as Boulder

With my list of pros and cons complete, I still can’t decide. On paper Denver is cheaper, closer to everything, and should be the obvious choice. Denver’s tech scene seems to be improving. Plus, is physcial location even important for an internet company? We’ve done just fine over the past five years, in a warehouse park by the airport! There’s not another tech startup within 10 miles.

However, as I’ve become more involved with the Colorado tech scene I’ve started to spend more time in Boulder and have kind of fallen in love with the place. The community aspect of Boulder is amazing. I’ve met some truly great people up there, and it’s beautiful… but on the flipside it’s so darn expensive, tucked in a corner out of the way, doesn’t have a lot of diversity, and to be perfectly honest I don’t know if I could really live in a bubble filled with liberals who drive Subarus/ Priuses and are more concerned with spending $96 million installing government-subsidized solar panels on their roofs than worrying about the current economic crisis!

How much should I weigh business networking vs. cost of living vs. proximity to my current office vs. existing friends vs. the list goes on and on…. such a tough decision! That’s why they pay me the big bucks… haha yeah right!

Please, let me know your thoughts!

…and P.S. - I voted for Obama, I used to own a Subaru, and I successfully co-existed with tons of crazy liberals in Madison, WI for 18 years. It’s just too easy to poke fun at ‘yall!