Colorado Springs entrepreneurs get leg up with Peak Startup week

Businesses in Colorado Springs are using this week to network with others in hopes of moving their products and services further.

A week-long conference called Techstars Startup Week put on by Peak Startup brings business hopefuls together for more than 50 events.

An event today was simulated like the hit television show, “Shark Tank”. A panel of five people, most of them from investment companies, took questions and lead new companies in the right direction.

Just like the tv show, the panelists gave them some hard criticism like, “if you’re good at building things, you’re probably not good at selling them.”

Aaron Stachel with PV Ventures told people in the crowd they might not all make it. “The reality is just a lot of them will not achieve that big outcome or they won’t make it at all,” he said.

Successful business ventures in Colorado Springs are coming from people who already live here and want to stay.

Terry Zarsky, the business services librarian for the Pikes Peak Library, who advises people as they get started said, “When I talk to a lot of the military groups that are transitioning, a lot of them want to stay here.”

New startups that begin in Colorado Springs only have one problem, getting large investments, but it’s getting better.

Stachel says most of the big venture companies are near the coasts, but Colorado is becoming more widely known as a place for new ideas to take off. “It’s not quite the volume that we’re seeing in Denver or Boulder and other markets, but there’s a lot of energy and activity here,” he says.

The event continues all week. For more information, click here.