State startups receive $4 million boost

Blackstone network will connect businesses with the resources to thrivewhile staying in Colorado.

While Colorado is recognized as a top hub for entrepreneurship and innovation, the state’s startup ecosystemstill struggles to keep potential large-scale successes from uprooting in search of capital, engineering talent or other resources.

The Blackstone Group, one of the nation’s premier private-equity firms, will announce thisweek the launch of a $4million program in Colorado to help address that shortcoming.

The Blackstone Entrepreneurs Network will also aim to strengthenColorado’s startup community by encouraging greater collaboration among local businesses, which are generally siloed by geography and industry.

“This is really a different and newand additive effort to everything else that is going on in the state,” said serial entrepreneur J.B. Holston, who will serve as the network’s executive director.

The network will identify so-called gazelles — high-growth companies that may be on the cusp of Google-like success — and connect them with resources to reach the next levelwithout defecting to another state.

“We’ve got a lot of great conditions for fostering entrepreneurship and innovation … butwe have toomany companies that get to a certain stage, then either stall out or sell out rather than scaling up,” said Holston, chairman and founder of Denverbased enterprise software maker NewsGa-

RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post J.B. Holston, director of a new$4million entrepreneurs network that will be based in Denver, says: “You create and keep much morewealth within the state” by keeping company headquarters in Colorado.