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Today, Governor Jared Polis is convening many of the leaders who put their names behind Ensuring Colorado's Innovation Future — the open letter signed by 425 Colorado founders, operators, investors, and civic leaders calling for renewed focus on the state's competitiveness as an innovation hub.
The Governor asked me to offer brief remarks following his opening. As part of those remarks, I'm providing an update on who has signed the letter — what sectors are represented, who's leading what, and the depth of the coalition that's now lined up behind this work. I thought I would share that same update here, with the Engage Colorado community.
For the full letter and the complete signatory list, visit ensuringcolorado.com.
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425 signatories — the broadest coalition of Colorado business leaders assembled on a single economic competitiveness initiative in recent memory
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178 current or former CEOs, including 20 sitting or former CEOs of publicly traded companies plus 5 additional senior officers at public companies
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20 publicly traded companies represented
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10 Colorado IPOs represented: Liberty Global, Infleqtion, Voyager Technologies, Ibotta, Zayo Group, EverCommerce, Lumen (formerly Level 3), First Western Trust, Liberty Energy, and Liberty Latin America
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129 founders and 74 co-founders
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96 investors across 41 venture capital, private equity, and investment firms
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26 billion-dollar company builders
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1. Ten of Colorado's most consequential IPOs
Mike Fries (Liberty Global / NASDAQ: LBTYA), Matthew Kinsella (Infleqtion / NYSE: INFQ), Dylan Taylor (Voyager Technologies / NYSE: VOYG), Bryan Leach (Ibotta / NYSE: IBTA), Dan Caruso (Zayo Group), Eric Remer (EverCommerce / NASDAQ: EVCM), Kevin O'Hara (Level 3 / NYSE: LVLT, now Lumen), Scott Wylie (First Western Trust / NASDAQ: MYFW), Ron Gusek (Liberty Energy / NYSE: LBRT), and Balan Nair (Liberty Latin America / NASDAQ: LILA).
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2. Other public company CEOs and senior officers
Beyond the Colorado IPO leaders above, the signatory cohort includes additional current or former CEOs of publicly traded companies: Javier Rodriguez (DaVita / NYSE: DVA), Kent Thiry (former Chairman and CEO, DaVita), David Barry (Pursuit Collection / NYSE: VVI), Steve Smith (former CEO, Equinix / NASDAQ: EQIX; later CEO, Zayo Group), Jim Rechtin (Humana / NYSE: HUM), Jay Monroe (Globalstar / NYSE: GSAT), Christopher Moore (Gogo / NASDAQ: GOGO), and Steve Lucas (Chairman and CEO, Boomi; former CEO, Marketo).
Plus senior officers at additional publicly traded companies: Sunit Patel (CFO, Crown Castle / NYSE: CCI), Joe Remington (Chief Business and Transformation Officer, Couchbase / NASDAQ: BASE), Kim Moller (Chief Commercial Officer, MiMedx Group / NASDAQ: MDXG), Matt Steinfort (CFO, DigitalOcean / NYSE: DOCN), and Ed Hallen (Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer, Klaviyo / NYSE: KVYO).
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3. Many others who also built billion-dollar companies
Anatoly Yakovenko and Greg Fitzgerald (co-founders of Solana), Sureel Choksi (Vantage Data Centers), Cully Cavness (Crusoe), Kevin Ness (Inscripta), Dan Jablonsky (Sierra Space), John Street (Pax8), Blake Scholl (Boom Supersonic), Greg Keller (JumpCloud), Mark Frank (SonderMind), Chris Riopelle (Strive Health), Godard Abel (G2), Seth Sternberg (Honor), and Eric Roza (Datalogix; acquired by Oracle in 2014 for $1.2 billion).
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4. Other major founders
David Cohen (Co-Founder, Techstars), Robin Thurston (CEO, Outside Inc.), Walter Knapp (CEO, Sovrn Holdings), Jared Polis (Governor of Colorado; Founder, Blue Mountain Arts and ProFlowers), Andrew Antonio (Co-Founder and CEO, Urban Sky), Jack Morrison (CEO, Scythe Robotics), and Justin Gold (Founder, Justin's Nut Butter).
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5. A few dozen investors
Brad Feld, Seth Levine, and Jaclyn Freeman Hester (Foundry Group); Steven Cohen (The Anschutz Corporation); Ryan Heckman (Rallyday Partners); Katie Jacobs Stanton and Alex Roetter (Moxxie Ventures); Marc Nager, Cory Finney, and Jamie Finney (Howdy Partners); Steve Carpenter (Rubicon Technology Partners); Adam Burrows, Hayfa Aboukier, and Chris Erickson (Range Ventures); Jackson Vaughan, Jason Chapman, and Josh Chapman (Konvoy Ventures); Frank Mendicino, Brian Wallace, and Kirk Holland (Access Venture Partners); Natty Zola and Nicole Glaros (Matchstick Ventures); Kirsten Suddath (Next Frontier Capital); Jim Kelley (Colorado Impact Fund); Matt Smith (Kickstart Fund); Bill Miller and Aaron Stachel (FirstMile Ventures); Michael Zeisser (FMZ Ventures); Mike Freeman (Innosphere Ventures); Doug Fahoury (Iron Gate Investments); Trevor Zimmerman (Unless); Clay Gordon (Stout Street Capital); Josie Kamrath (NextGen Venture Partners); Pete Hudson (Alta Partners); Srikant Vasan (Avesta Capital); Jay Hirsh (Break Trail Ventures); Dave Blivin (Cottonwood Technology Fund); Rand Lewis, Colin Barclay, and Kyle Rogers (Delta-v Capital); Amy Brandenburg, David Gold, and David Prichard (Denver Ventures); Matt McCall (Forge Capital Partners); Jim Thorson (Free Radical Ventures); Kyle Duffy (Gradient Ventures); Ari Newman, David Mandell, and Maggie Rodney (Massive VC); Steven Lindseth (CU Healthcare Innovation Fund); Jeff Gallant (Welsh, Carlson, Anderson & Stowe); Ron Suber (Rewire LLC); Heather La Freniere (LAGO Innovation Fund); Bart Lorang (Meritage); Andy Funk (Stormbreaker VC); Brian Draves (Ten Eleven Ventures); Brett Jackson (V1.VC); Scott Rupp (BITKRAFT Ventures); Phil Broenniman (Varana Capital); and Sarah Anderson (Vault Fund).
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6. Deep Tech leaders across Colorado's flagship sectors
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Quantum
Matthew Kinsella (Infleqtion / NYSE: INFQ), Corban Tillemann-Dick (Maybell Quantum Industries), Zenith Tillemann-Dick (Bifrost Electronics), Scott Davis and Russ Fein (Vescent), Ian Dickinson (LongPath Technologies), Jean-Denis Bertron (BqETH), David Mitlyng (Xairos Telecommunications), and Jack Jewell (Picolight, acquired by JDSU 2007; VCSEL pioneer).
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Space & Aerospace
Dylan Taylor (Voyager Technologies / NYSE: VOYG), Blake Scholl (Boom Supersonic), Dan Jablonsky (Sierra Space), Andrew Antonio (Urban Sky), Bradley Cheetham (Advanced Space), Mark Lundstrom (Radia), Chris Pearson (AGILE Space Industries), Jason Sylvestre (H3X Technologies), Matt Shieh (Canopy Aerospace), and Bob Cone (Aerospace Colorado).
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AI & Software
Adeel Khan (MagicSchool AI), John Street (Pax8), Ed Hallen (Klaviyo), Bryan Leach (Ibotta), Taylor Brown (Fivetran), Godard Abel (G2), Matt Oesterle (Ramble), Mike Chambers (Ridley), Matt Stava (Spinnaker Support), Walter Knapp (Sovrn Holdings), Steve Lucas (Boomi), Jon Nordmark (Iterate.ai), Jeremy Becker (Cloverleaf AI), Jennifer Henderson (TiLT), Phil Bullinger (Infinidat), Adam Hasemeyer (Valtech), Gordon Boyes (Concept3D), Fynn Glover (Schematic), Stefan Ramsbott (levelheaded), Adrian Tuck (Uptempo), Jack Walters (HapWare), Justin Davis (BacklotCars), Mike Osborne (Earth911), Thad Eby (Ombud), and Jim Smittkamp (Atlan).
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Energy & Climate
Landon Mossburg (Peak Energy), Sandeep Nijhawan (Electra), Ron Gusek (CEO, Liberty Energy / NYSE: LBRT), Emily McAteer (Odyssey Energy Solutions), Hugo Schumann (EverMetal Capital), Chris Miller (Guzman Energy), Brent Lewis (Carbon America), Ian Dickinson (LongPath Technologies), Yoav Lurie (WattBuy), Kevin Fisher (PropX), and Lloyd Goff (Bingham Labs).
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Robotics & Autonomy
Michael Coors (CoorsTek), Matanya Horowitz (AMP Robotics), Jeff Williams (Exum Instruments), and Jack Morrison (Scythe Robotics).
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7. Digital Infrastructure
Sureel Choksi (Vantage Data Centers), Cully Cavness (Crusoe — energy-led data centers), Dan Caruso (former CEO, Zayo Group), Steve Smith (CEO, Zayo Group), Jay Monroe (Thermo / Globalstar), Chris Morley (Lightpath), Matt Erickson (Vero Fiber Networks), Sunit Patel (CFO, Crown Castle / NYSE: CCI), Brian Cox (STACK Infrastructure), Jack Waters (Intrepid Fiber Networks), Kevin O'Hara (Congruex; former President, Level 3), Christopher Moore (Gogo / NASDAQ: GOGO), Nate Foster (Atlas Towers), Balan Nair (Liberty Latin America), Erik Isernhagen (LINX), Matt Steinfort (CFO, DigitalOcean / NYSE: DOCN), Nolan Smith (Cin7), and Glenn Russo (former executive, Zayo Group and Level 3 Communications).
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8. Health & Biotech
Viswa Colluru (Enveda), Mark Frank (SonderMind), Trey Foskett (Watchmaker Genomics), Kent Thiry (former CEO of DaVita / NYSE: DVA), Steven Lindseth (CU Healthcare Innovation Fund), Scott Drake (CEO, Cordis), Kevin Ness (Inscripta), Javier Rodriguez (CEO, DaVita), Jim Rechtin (CEO, Humana / NYSE: HUM), Brad Ainslie (Olerra Living Innovations), Chris Riopelle (Strive Health), Seth Sternberg (Honor), Marian Pulford (Kestrel Labs), Osa Aihie (Earlii), John Klein (SVP, Medtronic), Kim Moller (CCO, MiMedx Group / NASDAQ: MDXG), Suraya Yahaya (President & CEO, HealthAxis Group), and Blaine Warkentine (autonomous_ID).
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9. Financial Services & FinTech
Eric Kramer (Pathstone), Rob Cohen (IMA Financial Group), Ben Atkins (Waterfall Bank), Vinay Nair (Founder, Chairman & CEO, TIFIN), Wade Arnold (Founder & CEO, Moov.io), Mike Conover (Founder & CEO, Brightwave), Dan Holt (Co-Founder & CEO, BillGO), Alex Paul (Founder & CEO, Wealthgate), Marc Lewis (MD, Roth Capital Partners), Jeremy Shevlin (Toro West Capital Advisors), Nicholas Rotello (CIO, Seven Two Partners), Frank Caccavallo (MD, Ascent Wealth Partners at Wells Fargo), Adams Price (Aptum Capital Advisors), Mike Wussow (Poppins Payroll), Luke Duster (CIO, CRG LP), Audrey Vinall (SVP, Silicon Valley Bank), and Matt Wiles (Pathstone).
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10. Real Estate & Built Environment
Mark Falcone (Continuum Partners), Pat Broe (The Broe Group), Stephen Tebo (Tebo Properties), Navin Dimond (Stonebridge Companies), Darren Fisk (Forum Investment Group), Matt Joblon (BMC Investments & Nichols Partnership), Stephanie Copeland (Four Points Funding), Ken Gart, Alex Gart, and Evan Gart (The Gart Companies), Rick Sapkin (Edgemark Development), Chad McWhinney (Realberry), Spencer Williams (Madfarm Advisors), Gordon Bronson (Continuum Partners), Joseph Slavik (Howell Construction), Justin Cooper (Saunders Construction), Dale Hubbard (Surround Architecture), Jessica Ostermick (CBRE Colorado Market Leader), Matt Ritter (Pinnacle Real Estate Advisors), Jessica Graham (Pinnacle Real Estate Advisors), Brian Dietz (Evergreen Devco), David Sinkey (Boulder Creek Neighborhoods), Jimmy Wall (Wall Development Group), Travis McNeil (NexGen Properties), Mark Casey (TW Commercial), Paul Schmergel (Infinity Home Collection), Richard Stone (Stratus Companies), Stephen Sparn (Sopher Sparn Architects), Scott Simkus (Simkus Development), Jay Buster (Magpie Properties), Jewels Marshon (J Mars International), and Shannon Rogers (PG Arnold Construction).
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11. Consumer & Lifestyle
Walter Isenberg (Co-Founder & Executive Chairman, Sage Hospitality Group), Dan Vecchiarelli (Chairman & CEO, Leprino Foods), David Barry (CEO, Pursuit Collection / NYSE: VVI), Brian Egan (CEO, Evolve), Ron Snyder (Codigo), Chris White (CEO, Shinesty), Dave Query (BIG RED F Restaurant Group), Bryan Dayton (CEO, Half Eaten Cookie), Hosea Rosenberg (Blackbelly / Santo), Justin Gold (Justin's Nut Butter), Monty Moran (former CEO of Chipotle), Andrew Larson (Applied Product Solutions), Alex Ryden (Guest House), and Richard Polk (Pedestrian Shops).
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12. Creative & Media
Steven Cohen (Co-President, The Anschutz Corporation), Robin Thurston (CEO, Outside Inc.), Brandon Spano (Co-Founder & CEO, ALLCITY Network), Gregg Spiridellis (Co-Founder & CEO, Spiridellis Bros. Studios / JibJab / StoryBots), Jason Berman (President, Mandalay Pictures), Julian Farrior (Founder & CEO, Sunblink Entertainment), Kelly Bianucci (COO & Board Director, Atari), Michael Shehan (CRO, Telly; ex-SpotX founder & CEO), Walter Knapp (CEO, Sovrn Holdings), Steve Wolf (Founder & President, Team Wildfire), David Weingarden (VP Concerts + Events, Z2 Entertainment — Fox & Boulder Theaters), and Dave Kennedy (Executive Director, Roots Music Project).
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13. Civic & Public
Jared Polis (Governor of Colorado), Brittany Morris Saunders (CEO, Colorado Technology Association), Loren Furman (President & CEO, Colorado Chamber of Commerce), Debbie Brown (President, Colorado Business Roundtable), Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer (President, Colorado Springs Chamber & EDC), J.J. Ament (CEO, Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce), Dave Davia (President & CEO, Colorado Concern), John Tayer (President & CEO, Boulder Chamber of Commerce), Jeremiah Baronberg (Co-Founder & Colorado Director, Colorado-Israel Chamber of Commerce), Wendy Lea (Co-Founder, Energize Colorado), Zeb King (Managing Director, Endeavor Colorado), Phil DiStefano (Chancellor Emeritus, CU Boulder), Tami Door (Interim CEO, Downtown Boulder Partnership), Andrew Aitken (Executive Director, The Center for Rural AI), Jenifer Waller (President & CEO, Colorado Bankers Association), Charlene Hoffman (CEO, Visit Boulder), and Paul Foley (Founder, Colorado Startups).
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To read the full letter, see the complete signatory list, and follow the work of the coalition, visit ensuringcolorado.com.
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Engage Colorado Stands For
Engage Colorado makes the case for pragmatic, balanced, and competent leadership — leadership that puts the long-term prosperity and well-being of every Coloradan ahead of the divisive extremes of either national party. That is the editorial standard of this publication, and it is the standard by which every endorsement is made.
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