Engage Colorado — Issue 26 — July 9, 2026

This newsletter has been published by Engage Colorado.

Take a Deep Breath, Colorado

This Engage Colorado Newsletter reflects the personal opinions of Dan Caruso, written with the support of the Caruso Ventures team. The Ensuring Colorado's Innovation Future Coalition did not review and has not endorsed this Engage Colorado Newsletter.

This newsletter is the setup for the series to come. Over the next several issues, I will walk through what is actually driving Colorado's negative trajectory. Before I do, a note on intent.

As with the broader Innovation Vision and The Honest Assessment, I led the preparation of this section. It has not been formally reviewed nor endorsed by the full coalition that signed The Open Letter.

I need everyone in Colorado to take a deep breath

In the next several newsletters, I am going to dive into what has caused Colorado to develop a negative trajectory.

For Democrats — your first reaction might be anger, directed at me. Your heads might even explode. You might think I am a hidden MAGA Trump surrogate. Or worse.

For Republicans — a smile might cross your face as you read forward and the words “I told you so” might seep from your lips. You might think I am one of you who has been masquerading as a centrist independent.

Whether you are a D or an R — don't overreact.

Democrats — don't beat up the messenger. You will learn as we progress toward solutions that I am aligned with Dems on much of the D agenda.

Republicans — wipe the smile from your face. Republicans have lost much of their support in what was until recently a purple state. Belief in capitalism is only a prerequisite for a solution. The R agenda is incomplete. Listening and learning is required to discover a vision and craft initiatives that will work for Colorado. We need to find a Colorado solution — one that is unique from what is working in Florida or Texas.

We all love Colorado, and we will need to take a journey together if we are to get on a trajectory that benefits all Coloradans.

The intent of this work

The Honest Assessment does not advocate for any specific policy changes. It does not represent the platform of any party or the agenda of any interest group.

Its purpose is to document, as objectively and precisely as the evidence permits, the structural, regulatory, legislative, and rhetorical factors that founders, investors, and business leaders weigh when deciding where to live, build, and deploy capital — and how Colorado is currently perceived along those dimensions.

Many of the policies examined were adopted in pursuit of objectives that reasonable people consider important: worker protections, environmental stewardship, affordable housing, technology accountability, and social equity among them. These are not trivial goals — and this report does not treat them as such.

The trade-offs are real. Policies that make a state more attractive to capital deployment may come at a cost to other priorities that a state's citizens value. Conversely, policies that advance social objectives may carry economic consequences that are not always fully factored in. Honest governance requires acknowledging both sides of that ledger.

What the report does assert — on the strength of the evidence — is that Colorado's current trajectory is producing measurable consequences: companies leaving, capital being deployed elsewhere, and founders choosing other states. Whether those consequences are an acceptable price for the policies producing them is a judgment that belongs to Colorado's political leadership and, ultimately, its voters. But making that judgment requires knowing the facts.

A note on political affiliation

The geographic pattern I will describe in the coming newsletters maps, at first glance, onto a familiar political divide:

The Ten Destination Geographies — historically Republican-leaning

The Nine Departure Geographies — historically Democratic-leaning

But the migration of capital and talent is not a story about partisan preference. It is a story about policy.

Founders, investors, and executives making these decisions are evaluating specific, measurable conditions: tax burden, regulatory predictability, cost of doing business, and whether a state's political leadership encourages and celebrates business formation, or regulates and constrains it. These are policy choices, not partisan identities — and they can be adopted or reversed by leaders of either party.

What comes next

Over the coming newsletters, I will walk through the specific policy choices, regulatory decisions, and political rhetoric that have driven Colorado's negative trajectory. I will name what has happened. I will evaluate what has followed. And I will identify what can be reversed.

I will not soft-pedal it. But I will also not editorialize beyond what the evidence supports.

If we work together, we can reverse this trend. But we cannot reverse what we are not willing to name.

— Dan Caruso, Engage Colorado

Managing Director of Caruso Ventures, Host of The Bear Roars Podcast, and Board Chair of Boulder Roots Music Fest