Colorado's startup ecosystem has long been known by its Give First mantra since the term was coined more than a decade ago.
It's more than just a clever hashtag. It embodies the local startup spirit here, motivating founders, employees and supporters to put others ahead of themselves.
Give First manifests itself in many ways, from helping other startups succeed to lending a hand to Colorado residents in need. No matter the setting, Colorado has taken ownership of this movement.
That has become evident in the strength of the state's social impact startup ecosystem, as companies increasingly consider the good they can do over the profit they can make.
Earlier this month, Guild Education, a B Corporation that offers debt-free education as a company benefit, entered unicorn status with a $157M Series D. Co-founder and CEO Rachel Carlson stressed the importance of balancing social impact and profit in fast-growing companies.
"We’re in this unique chapter in history where CEOs are incredibly powerful in their ability to create social change,” she told The Colorado Sun.
It's not just startups that are giving back, larger companies are doing their part as well.
Comcast Colorado is helping close the digital divide through its Internet Essentials program, an ambitious low-income broadband adoption initiative. Since 2011, it has connected more than 300,000 Coloradans to the internet at home.
Denver has also been recognized as a top city for social enterprises. Last month, Halcyon, a Washington, D.C.-based incubator, ranked Denver No. 5 on its list of top ecosystems for impact entrepreneurs. Boston came in at No. 1 with San Francisco and Seattle placing in second and third respectively.
The city received high marks for its human capital, coming in at No. 1 among those surveyed.
As this community grows, local accelerator Uncharted is helping to groom the next-generation of social impact startups.
Uncharted, which launched in 2010 in Denver, has a variety of accelerator programs to tackle social impact problems - like food deserts, urban poverty and hate and discrimination. To date, it has helped social entrepreneurs raise $252 million, create impact in 96 countries and benefit 37 million lives around the world.
This summer, Uncharted launched early-childhood development ecosystem Futurebound under its umbrella. Futurebound's acceleration lab will support 18 startups focused on solutions for children under the age of 10 in its initial cohort.
With the holidays coming soon, we took a look at some local startups giving back. Here are five Colorado social impact startups you should know.
Boulder-based Gloo helps organizations understand their audience and community better using a predictive analytics platform built to foster personal growth. The platform helps organizations identify the motivations of its audience, so that it can better serve them. One of Gloo's primary uses is to help religious organizations connect with their congregants.
This startup makes donating to a cause as simple as clicking a button. The company has created an internet extension that adds a PocketChange donate button to Facebook, Twitter and news sites. By clicking the button, it pulls up a list of potential charities you might be interested in donating to, based upon the story or post you were reading. Donations range from $0.25 to $2, and the company uses Paypal and Stripe to ensure safe transactions. The company has partnered with 100 select charities on the platform, vetting them to ensure donations are most impactful.
The Denver-based startup is a digital platform that empowers mental health providers and families by integrating therapy into daily life. Manatee's family app sets, reminds and tracks patient treatment goals - providing continuous support and gamifying therapy for kids. It also provides insights in a clinical dashboard, unlocking effective and value-based care for providers. Manatee is currently partnering with leading pediatric providers, including the Children's Hospital of LA and Colorado and is part of Futurebound's first Denver cohort.
As Boulder-resident Elizabeth Szymanski was looking for childcare, she couldn't locate an affordable and available option that provided high-quality care. So, she teamed up with Erica Mackey in in 2017 to launch MyVillage, a solution that allows caretakers to more easily and effectively launch in-home preschool or childcare programs. With MyVillage, educators receive front- and back-office tools like accounting, marketing and scheduling to make it easy to launch and run an in-home child care program. The startup closed a $5.95 million seed round in April as it grows its offerings in Colorado and Montana.
Food waste accounts for hundreds of billions of dollars of lost revenue across the globe each year, according to a report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. In an effort to close that gap, Colorado Springs-based FoodMaven sells oversupplied and imperfect produce and other food products to restaurants at a significant discount. The company operates an online marketplace system, matching buyers with available supply to limit food waste. The company raised $10 million in January and partnered with Hilton Hotels to provide food to hotels across Colorado in March.
