It’s a busy time at Boomtown Accelerator in Boulder, as the spring 2017 cohort (Boomtown’s eighth class) is less than two weeks from Demo Day. The teams started in late February and are all focused on presenting their businesses to investors and the community on May 19th, while still managing to continue their momentum and growth required to run a business.

A Glimpse at the Cohort

This cohort has 10 teams ranging in industries including e-commerce, machine learning, healthtech, human resources, fintech and more. 30 percent of the teams in this cohort have female founders. There are also founders from all over the world: from as near as our home state of Colorado, to as far as the United Kingdom, New York, California, Kansas and Costa Rica. Three startups from Cuba also visiting for a few weeks.

This cohort is different because of the teams’ diverse backgrounds.

“Our teams have significant previous startup experience, including some with multiple exits,” Boomtown program director Erin Stadler said. “They also bring in expertise from various industries and this diversity has already brought powerful connections between teams. One team, for example, found out over coffee that the strategic partner they were looking for was married to one of the other founders; a quick text message later and collaboration discussions were underway.”

Boomtown Education and Activities

The teams hit the ground running when three startups from Cuba visited on day one of their cohort to learn from Boomtown for a short stint while in Colorado. This helped open up the teams’ minds on global markets and the importance of understanding bureaucratic and legal policies when entering new markets. From there, it’s been all about learning as much as the founders can.

With every new cohort, Boomtown adjusts its curriculum based on the needs of the teams. Being nimble and willing to adjust makes the experience for the teams more valuable so they learn the latest techniques in the startup world.

“We believe that strong and resilient founders build great companies, so we focus on startup resilience and focused learning,” Stadler said. “Building a startup is hard and sometimes learning how to do it is more important than just giving advice on what to build. That is what they have to figure out as we help set the right mindset to approach the ongoing challenges they will meet in program and beyond.”

Demo Day for this cohort is May 19, the last day of Boulder Startup Week. Click here for more information on attending. If you would like your startup to be considered for our fall cohort, Boomtown staff is now taking applications.