Free Trip to Boulder, Colorado For Developers | Hacker News Reader

Free Trip to Boulder, Colorado For Developers

boulder.me

53 pointsandrewhyde35 comments

The Boulder tech scene is growing like crazy. Twenty of our top tech startups (you can see a few in the sidebar) have banded together to fly in one hundred top software developers, programmers and engineers from across the country, all expenses paid. You can apply to be one of the hundred at the boulder.me site.

Also covered here: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/24/twenty-startups-pool-resources-to-recruit-developers/

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I used to live in Boulder, and I can't emphasize enough how great the location is. It's a town of about 90,000. It's right up against the mountains, the air is great, it's full of bikers and runners. Plenty of river rafting, mountain climbing, skiing and snowshoeing is to be had, too.

The school there, my alma mater, is strong in the sciences (3 nobel prizes in physics this decade). Lots of interest in aerospace, too. Sun, Amgen, and a number of other tech companies are nearby.

Finally, Boulder is just crammed full of geeks in general. Every type from live action role-players to wargaming fanatics is well represented. My roommate said he saw Tom Christiansen at Dragonfire games.

I don't think there's another town of its size that offers the same. Health nuts, geeks and hippies. That's what you'll see in Boulder.

Two crazy questions.

1. What's the hacker/drone ratio there. Do you meet smart people often?

2. What's the women/men ratio. And are girls good looking?

Sorry about question #2, but it is totally relevant to single 20 something guys. Last thing I want to end up is somewhere where everybody is fat and republican (like some, I don't want to name, states in this country).

Boulder is anything but Republican, from everything I've read.

My wife and I are considering moving there. It seems like it's one of the few smaller (and thus maybe more "livable") towns with a lot of startup activity.

BTW, some earlier discussion of nice places to live:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=111398

..totally relevant to single 20 something guys

Though many won't admit it it's relevant for men of all ages, postures, colors and political standings.

I think 20-somthings have a bit more of a hormonal relevance.

hmm, if my memory serves me correctly you may be right on this one. :-)

Your friendly neighborhood Fat Republican here! (waves)

There are nice things about Boulder such as smart people, lots of stuff to do, especially if you are into outdoors activities, good food, micro-breweries, etc. There are lots of Linux users in the area, and lots of engineering types.

The local universities can be depended on to bring attractive women to the area, in addition to the ones already there.

I have no idea how much money you have, it will matter as the nicest areas are expensive - you pay for the view. Heading east towards Gunbarrel, Longmont etc. prices go down as the mountain views are less spectacular.

You should know what a "trustafarian" is: a person of any age who does not have to actually work because they have a trust fund. Boulder is crawling with them.

Politically the area will vary from pretty far left in the center of Boulder to "fat-republican" the further out you go.

I won't mention the loopy leftist politics, as they are the hallmark of such places as Ithaca, Boulder, Berkeley and are implicit in areas where "fat Republicans" are not in evidence.

I'm a fat libertarian. Wonder where we're supposed to go?

Some sort of floating cities in the ocean, last I heard:-)

Two words: awe. some.

Now that I understand we are supposed to self-sort by political party and weight, it'll be a lot easier to find the other rotund realists.

I had no complaints on either issue. The fact that students make up a third of the population of the town probably had something to do with that.

You should check out Ithaca, NY. Most people think of it merely as the starting point of the film "Road Trip", but it's similar to how you describe Boulder (and Santa Cruz, CA btw)

Except it rains during the full academic year. Very nice in the summers though!

No, no. It's scorching hot in summer and freezing cold in winter. Not sure that's a selling point or not..

Can anyone say anything about the cost of living in Boulder? I've heard that it's almost Aspen-like in terms of housing costs (which is to say, very high).

Also, if there is someone currently living in CO, what do you feel the likelihood is of this bill passing?

http://www.coloradoballot.net/ProhibitFiringEmployees.htm

On the surface, it kind of seems like this would be bad for startups.

Cost of living in boulder isn't bad... certainly nothing like Aspen. When I was a student here I was paying $400-500 (my share) a month with room mates in a 3 bedroom. Now I have a two bedroom right downtown (by Pearlstreet) for $1295 (I pay half).

As a startup I was surprised to see that bill... I doubt it will pass, but I had never heard about it.

Not to pry, but are you renting an apartment or a house?

No worries, in college I was renting a house. Now I am renting a two bedroom apartment.

half of $1295? i.e. $650?

or $1295 * 2 = $2600?

Sorry didn't see this, I pay $650

Three years ago I was renting a room downtown from a lady, 130$ per week, which was supposedly on the cheaper side of the spectrum. I loved the place.

Most people I know rent, and pay ~$500/m per room for an apartment (within walking and biking distance to downtown office space, which is generally pretty cheap too).

Wow, this is a brilliant recruiting idea.

I'm currently a cs undergrad in Boulder. Had an internship at a late stage startup this summer, it's a great place to be!!

If you've got family there are many cities within about a 30 minute commute of Boulder that are much more affordable (larger house/more land for same price). This would include towns such as Longmont, Firestone, and Erie. Some towns in the area border on being rural, but have become less so over the last fifteen years.

I grew up in Longmont and worked in Boulder for a couple years after college. Great area to live and work. I've since moved to Seattle, but I enjoy every trip home to see friends and family in the area.

I am interested in Boulder....how is their college graduate program?

In terms of CS, University of Colorado, Boulder (http://www.cs.colorado.edu/) is a great school. It's not Cornell, MIT, CMU, etc (Posterous favourite school..) but definitely top 10-20 depending on sub area.

I also like Colorado School of Mines (www.mines.edu), but not sure they're in Boulder.

Colorado School of Mines is in Golden, CO. It's about a 45 minute drive from Boulder.

I did my undergrad there, and the CS department is very good. For grad school it really matters what area you are specializing in. CU is really highly ranked in some areas, and doesn't have any profs focusing on other areas of CS.

Damn... this is a dupe, but the other one went by unobserved, and I kind of hoped it would stay that way, as I sent my resume in:-)

Does it worry anyone that startups are doing this kind of Chamber of Commerce stuff?

It worries me that startups in other areas _aren't_ doing this kind of stuff!

cool idea hopefully it will get some smart people to boulder.

I am not sure that return path is a startup...

"You’s a punk bitch if you don’t know bout Boulder"

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