18 companies featured in Silicon Valley’s Colorado Demo Day

Centennial’s Innovation Pavilion helped create the event for venture capitalists

BY JAN WONDRA
STAFF WRITER

In another sign of the technological strength of the Denver metro area, the Innovation Pavilion, located in Centennial, working with the Colorado Technology Association, qualified 18 companies for participation in Colorado Demo Day in Silicon Valley, Calif. on Nov. 14.

The two-year-old event was created last year to showcase Colorado tech companies for resource investment.

“The mission of Colorado Demo Day is to showcase Colorado high-quality, high-growth companies to the Silicon Valley ecosystem,” explained Vic Ahmed, the founder and CEO of Innovation Pavilion who spent years working with Andrea Young, president and CEO of CTA to create the event. “It has taken us more than a decade worth of collaboration here and with the Silicon Valley ecosystem. From an economic-development perspective, the top goals for Colorado are to attract capital and to attract tech talent.”

This is the second annual journey to Silicon Valley by Colorado tech companies, and organizers say this is just the beginning. Innovation Pavilion and CTA have worked with 34 Colorado entities to host Colorado Demo Day, including such power hitters as the Governor’s Office of Economic Development and Trade, the Office of Information Technology, Metro Denver Economic Development Group and the Denver South Economic Development Partnership.

“There are three parts to our Silicon Valley engagement strategy,” said Kerianne Leffew, whose title at Innovation Pavilion is chief millennial. “First, of course, we’re showcasing Colorado tech companies to (the more than 500 venture capitalists in Silicon Valley), showing them we have great companies in Colorado. We also host our quarterly showcasing of these companies in Colorado. Second, we’re introducing what we call CIOs to the venture community in Silicon Valley. CIOs are the customers of the venture capitalist’s portfolio companies.”

The third piece of the strategy, explains Ahmed, is to introduce venture capitalists to the layers of fund investment that spread the risk to technology investors. 

“This is also a huge draw and attraction for these [venture capitalists] to engage with Colorado,” Ahmed said.

At last year’s inaugural event, 11 Colorado companies were presented in Silicon Valley. This year, 18 are being showcased, and hopes are that the number will continue to grow.

Demo Day came about, says Leffew, because the governors, including Gov. John Hickenlooper, and Denver Mayor Michael Hancock reached out to Ahmed to have him introduce them to the venture capitalists. After multiple trips, it seemed logical to simply set up a day where Colorado’s leading-edge companies could be featured.

“It’s exciting,” Leffew said. “We’re getting better and stronger and more collaborative here in Colorado and we have these partners on board to achieve the mission.”