You don’t have to be in Silicon Valley to start a successful company. Marc Nager, Co-founder of Startup Weekend, and Dave Mayer, Founder of Aspen Entrepreneurs, are pros at building ‘non-urban’ startup communities. Listen for insights into how Give First helped them grow startup ecosystems in Telluride, in Aspen, and beyond.

Too many people believe that you have to be in Silicon Valley — or some similarly hyped tech-obsessed locale — to be an entrepreneur. Techstars knows this isn’t true: successful entrepreneurship can happen anywhere.  Marc Nager and Dave Mayer are living proof.  

Marc is the Co-founder of Startup Weekend, the former CEO of UP Global before it was acquired by Techstars, and Techstars Chief Community Officer after the acquisition. He is on a mission to bring entrepreneurship to rural America. Dave is the Founder and CEO at Technical Integrity and Massive Impact and the Founder of Aspen Entrepreneurs, and an active and passionate member of the Colorado startup community. 

Both are hugely active in their local startup communities, Marc in Telluride, CO and Dave in Carbondale, CO outside of Aspen, and both see how entrepreneurship can thrive in these relatively small places—and what entrepreneurship can bring to them to make them economically sustainable for the long term. 

Listen to hear Marc and Dave talk with Brad Feld — who wrote the book on Startup Communities — for a deeply thoughtful exploration of the how and why of entrepreneurship in a ‘non-urban’ environment.