Engage Colorado - The Honest Assessment, The Diagnostics (2 of 4)

Newsletter — Issue 36 — Wednesday, August 5, 2026

This newsletter has been published by Engage Colorado.

A Four-Part Recap · Part 2 of 4

The Honest Assessment — The Diagnostic

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.

Where We Left Off

In yesterday's Part 1 of 4, we recapped the origin story of Engage Colorado — the Open Letter, Ensuring Colorado's Innovation Future, delivered April 9, 2026 with more than 210 founding signatories and now grown to 545. We also covered Governor Polis's response since the letter was delivered, the signals sent by Colorado's June 30 Democratic primary, and the fact that Colorado's two U.S. Senators and the presumptive next Governor have not meaningfully modified their rhetoric or their agenda.

Today, we turn to what has anchored the diagnostic side of this series.

Part 2 of 4

The Honest Assessment — The Diagnostic Behind This Series

I took the proactive step of drafting The Honest Assessment — Action Item #3 of the Open Letter — a diagnostic report that explains what has driven Colorado's negative innovation trajectory, and how Colorado compares to the states winning the competition for founders, capital, and executive talent. I led its preparation personally, with support from the Caruso Ventures team. It does not represent the views of those who signed the Open Letter or any interest group — its purpose is diagnostic.

The Honest Assessment does not advocate for specific policy changes, nor does it prescribe what Colorado should do. Many of the policies it evaluates were adopted in pursuit of goals that reasonable people consider important — worker protections, environmental stewardship, affordable housing, and social equity among them. The trade-offs are real, and honest governance requires acknowledging both sides of the ledger. What the report does document 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 its voters.

The Honest Assessment, at first glance, reads as an indictment of today's left wing of the Democratic Party. However, the Assessment is not partisan and does not advocate for or against either party's agenda. It is a matter-of-fact readout of why certain geographies — led by Texas, Florida, and Utah — are winning the competition for founders, capital, and executive talent, while others such as California, New York, and Washington state are losing it. Any state can choose to compete on those dimensions, regardless of which party holds power.

Many, and perhaps most, of the tech entrepreneurs and investors leaving California, New York, Washington state, and other Departure Geographies are not choosing Texas, Florida, and the other Destination Geographies because they identify politically with the Republican majorities of those states. They are choosing them because they feel more welcomed and appreciated for the value they create — the companies they build, the jobs they generate, the capital they deploy, and the innovations they bring to market.

It is a policy and cultural choice, not a partisan one. This means Colorado — regardless of which party leads the state — can win these founders and investors back by adopting the specific, measurable conditions that make a state welcoming to those who build.

The report evaluates Colorado against nineteen other geographies across twelve factors organized into four categories — the specific, measurable conditions that founders, investors, and executives actually use to decide where to live, build, and deploy capital.

When you see a Colorado score, a Destination-vs-Departure comparison, or a specific policy critique in these newsletters, its underlying analysis lives in The Honest Assessment. It is the reference source for much of what appears in the Engage Colorado series.

Read the full report: The Honest Assessment

On the Silence — and What I Am Hearing Beyond It

The reaction to The Honest Assessment from Colorado's political leaders has been silence.

One possible reason is that they simply have not noticed it. I doubt that is the reason. More likely, the content makes them uncomfortable, and they are afraid of alienating their voters or others in the Democratic party by acknowledging it publicly.

What is notable, however, is that if they disagreed with the substance of the report — with the diagnosis, with the scoring, with the specific policies it names — they would presumably say so. They have not.

So one could reasonably conclude that Colorado's political leaders do not fundamentally disagree with the content — but that they are unwilling, at least so far, to publicly engage with it.

What is not silent are the many of you — Coloradans across the tech and business ecosystem, and beyond — who have been engaging with this series. I am hearing from you both privately and in public settings, in comments on my LinkedIn and X posts, in conversations on The Bear Roars podcast, and through the steady growth of the Open Letter — from 210 founding signatories in April to 542 today. The messaging is landing.

I am also hearing from many of you that, despite their public silence, Colorado's political leaders are hearing these messages too — and that it is influencing conversations behind closed doors. That is very encouraging. It helps me maintain the energy to keep up this effort, and it fuels my optimism that, together, we will be able to build a partnership with Colorado's political leaders — of both parties — to change the state's trajectory and reestablish Colorado as the most attractive innovation ecosystem in the world.

Please continue to amplify this messaging, share your perspectives, contribute additional data, and offer your ideas for how to get Colorado on a better track.

Tomorrow — Part 3 of 4

Part 3 of 4 turns to The Innovation Vision for Colorado — the affirmative companion to the diagnostic — and to the Colorado voices weighing in through The Bear Roars podcast.

Go Deeper

— Dan Caruso, Engage Colorado

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