New Tech Meetup

Welcome! This is my first post about interning in the Startup Summer program.  I'll be covering events, interviewing participants, and giving some thoughts on working in the Boulder tech startup scene.

Google Glass has arrived in Boulder!  We got to see a great demonstration by Mark Scheel, who has been wearing and using them for a few weeks  These 'nerd goggles' definitely captured the crowd's attention - and, of course, took a photo of the audience.   

Mark Scheel, left, takes the lead on describing Google Glass to  a curious audience.

The notable startups for the night included Brian Shucker from Talos Robots, who is creating a more powerful robot controller, a hybrid between Arduino and a laptop in a smaller device.  The technology targets universities and serious hobbyists.

Jeff Mako from Seedpaths was a standout speaker, with a new idea to help turn high-school and college students into coders and connect them with recruiters and companies.  This model attracted interest and discussion from an audience which is passionate about education and technology.

The third speaker was Whitney Smith from Signature Select, an insurance reseller.  She urged every startup to get insurance to cover claims ranging from a broken key feature to an accidental security breach during an update.  These claims can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to settle - painful for cash-strapped businesses.

New Tech Organizer Robert Reich on the
mission and value proposition of Startup Summer.

Boulder New Tech Meetup is always a great event.  The group discussed what its goals should be and how it adds value to the community.  Interestingly, there are now around 10,000 members of New Tech Meetup, which is a sizable portion of the community.