Section I: The Most Attractive Innovation Ecosystem in the World
The Innovation Vision is straightforward to state:
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Colorado will be the most attractive innovation ecosystem in the world — and every Coloradan will share in the economic and cultural prosperity that leadership creates.
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It is deliberately bold, with the two parts of the ambition inseparable.
The first part positions the innovation ecosystem as the engine of Colorado's lasting economic prosperity — the system through which capital, talent, research, and ambition compound on themselves to generate the companies, industries, and discoveries that define the next century. To achieve this, Colorado must become known as the place that attracts and retains the world's most talented, ambitious, and creative people: the founders, engineers, researchers, operators, investors, and workers who choose to spend their careers and their lives creating and building the world's most impactful companies. That requires Colorado to demonstrate, through its policies, rhetoric, and day-to-day behavior, that it is the best place in the world to build, expand, and invest in technology companies.
To be clear about how bold this ambition is: Colorado will surpass every major innovation geography on the planet in innovation concentration per capita, from the Bay Area, Southern California, New York, Texas, and Florida in the United States to London, Singapore, Israel, and Bengaluru abroad. That is the standard against which the first part of this Innovation Vision will be measured.
The second part of the Vision is to ensure that every Coloradan benefits from Colorado's leadership in innovation. Achieving this outcome requires every bit as much focus, intentionality, and policy attention as the work of building that economy itself. The educational outcomes of Colorado's children, the workforce reskilling that adult Coloradans will increasingly need as AI reshapes the labor market, accessible and high-quality health care for every family, the availability of good jobs across the state, and the transportation and critical infrastructure that keeps Colorado moving each require their own focus and policy commitment. A thriving and vibrant arts and culture ecosystem — the artists, festivals, venues, and creative institutions that give Colorado its character — is equally essential, both as a public good Coloradans share and as part of what attracts the people who power the innovation economy. Affordability is perhaps the most pressing of all: for Colorado to achieve the first part of this Vision, it must be a geography where everyday Coloradans can afford to live.
This Vision's success will be measured by the lives it touches: by the educational outcomes and reskilling of Coloradans, by the accessibility of health care, by the availability of good jobs, by the strength of infrastructure, by the vibrancy of arts and culture, and by the affordability of daily life across the state.
That is the destination
The sections that follow at visionforcolorado.org describe the path: how Colorado earns this leadership position, what the structural foundation must be, and the specific commitments required across our political, business, civic, and creative communities to make this Vision real.
I will continue sharing the substance of the plan, section by section, in upcoming Engage Colorado newsletters. The next will surface Section II.
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