The Denver Gazette’s Vince Bzdek writes about a warning flare from Colorado tech entrepreneurs who say the state’s business climate is sliding in exactly the wrong direction. The column centers on tech investor Dan Caruso, founder of Boulder-based Zayo, who has gathered support from entrepreneurs and sent state leaders a 77-page assessment arguing Colorado is becoming less attractive for technology companies, capital, and founders.
The headline should make every Coloradan sit up straight: entrepreneurs came here for Colorado, and now red tape is driving some of them away. The report Bzdek describes says Colorado is worsening in 11 of 12 factors tied to attracting and keeping tech businesses. That is not a rounding error. That is a flashing dashboard light, and the folks under the Gold Dome are still asking whether the car feels sufficiently equitable.
The Bullet Point Brief
- Bzdek points to a Wall Street Journal story warning that entrepreneurs who flocked to Colorado are now being driven away by red tape. Translation: Colorado invited the tech crowd in, then handed them a regulatory fruitcake and wondered why they looked nervous.
- Caruso’s report says Colorado is getting worse in 11 of 12 factors studied for attracting and keeping tech businesses. When you fail 11 out of 12, that is not “room for improvement.” That is “please see me after class.”
- Colorado still has real strengths, including quality of life, infrastructure, and institutional depth. The problem is that the state is weak where today’s business decisions are actually being made: political climate, regulatory burden, cost, and policy direction.
- The column notes that Colorado is the sixth most regulated state in the country. Sixth. Apparently the goal was to lure entrepreneurs from California and then make them feel homesick for the paperwork.
- Caruso’s line says it best: politicians say they want tech here, then do things that “scare the living sh** out of people who are deploying capital.” That is the most honest economic development report Colorado has received in years.
My Bottom Line
I do not know Vince Bzdek’s politics, and that is exactly why I keep reading him. He appears to be one of the last members of a dying breed: a newspaper writer who still behaves like an actual journalist instead of a partisan pamphlet with a byline. I find myself agreeing with his editorial judgment a lot, mostly because he has the irritating habit of noticing what is plainly happening.
Governor Polis saw West Coast tech entrepreneurs as Colorado’s brass ring. They came. They brought capital, companies, ambition, energy, and the kind of economic growth politicians love to brag about in glossy reports. Then Polis and his merry band of virtue-signaling Democrats did what they always do. They regulated. They mandated. They taxed. They moralized. They “led the nation” on things business owners did not ask for and investors did not need.
Now some of those same innovators are looking elsewhere. Arizona. Texas. Utah. Tennessee. Florida. States that understand the radical concept that if you want people to build things, maybe stop treating them like they wandered into a compliance trap wearing a Patagonia vest.
This is the insanity of modern Colorado governance. Democrats say they want innovation, but they govern like suspicion is a business plan. They say they want jobs, then make it harder to hire. They say they want growth, then treat capital like a cow to be milked, lectured, inspected, and eventually blamed for climate change. You cannot be the next tech hub while writing laws like a sociology department with subpoena power.
In his final year, maybe Normie Colorado finally sees it. Democrats are less concerned with governing Colorado than making sure Colorado looks “correct” on some imaginary socialist scorecard. The problem is that businesses do not invest based on your virtue signals. They invest where the math works, the rules are stable, the government is sane, and the future does not look like one long hearing about why success needs more supervision.
Colorado still has the bones to be great. That is what makes this so maddening. We are not losing because we lack mountains, talent, colleges, entrepreneurs, or culture. We are losing because the people in charge keep confusing government control with progress. And now the tech folks who were supposed to be Polis’ big shiny proof point are starting to say the quiet part out loud: Colorado is becoming the place they left.
Source: The Denver Gazette
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