Polis to Mark #StartupDay Across America With Focus on CO Innovation

Statement

Next Wednesday, August 19, dozens of lawmakers across the country will celebrate Startup Day Across America, a day founded by Reps. Jared Polis (D-CO) and Darrell Issa (R-CA) in 2013. The day is designed to recognize the innovation created by startups across the country and connect elected officials with startups in their communities so they can learn about the challenges new companies face.

Startups add enormous value to our local and national economies and they're responsible for a majority of the net job growth in the U.S.

Polis will mark Startup Day Across America next Wednesday by visiting the below startups along the Front Range. He'll be joined in the afternoon in Broomfield and Boulder by 9-year-old entrepreneur Jack Bonneau, of Broomfield, who founded "Jack's Lemonade Stands." The stands operate each weekend at farmers markets in Erie, Lafayette, Louisville, and Westminster and are designed to help teach fellow kids about math, money, sales, and entrepreneurship.

VanDyne Super Turbo, a Loveland company that created an engine that runs on waste heat;

UAS Professionals, an unmanned aircraft operator in Broomfield that provides support and training to individuals and startups wanting to utilize drone technology;

Grasshaven Outdoor, a women-founded, Boulder-based outdoor lifestyle brand and the nation's first and only stylish camping equipment and RV housewares retailer; and

Soul Squared Brewing, a Fort Collins brewery that's creatively structured in the style of a CSA (community-supported agriculture)

On Tuesday, August 18, the day before Startup Day Across America, Polis will focus on ways to support more women in startups and tech by hosting a roundtable of female executives in his Boulder office. He'll also visit Return Path in Broomfield to learn more about their ReturnShip program that focuses on hiring women who have been out of the workforce for more than three years. The program was inspired by Return Path's work with the National Center for Women & Information Technology's (NCWIT) Pacesetters program. Polis will end the day coding at a "Code with your Congressman" session with Boulder's "Girl Develop It."

On the day after Startup Day, Thursday, August 20, Polis will focus on how we're cultivating the next generation of startup leaders. He'll visit STEM programs at Preston Middle School and the Boys and Girls Club in Fort Collins, and he'll visit with the Alpine Robotics Team 159 of Poudre High School, the creators of the infamous robot Clawdius Seizer.

Polis, the cofounder of the House Caucus on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, started his first tech company as a college student and followed that up with an electronic greeting card website and Proflowers.com. He is a leader in Congress on removing barriers to innovation and promoting access to technology through measures to ensure a free and open internet, tackle patent trolls, streamline the tax code, modernize our copyright laws, and incentivize immigrant entrepreneurs to build companies on American soil.

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