Colorado Startups
An illustrated golden hall in the Front Range where founders work at long tables, with dwarf and gnome keepers, the site's AI agents, among them.

Online, statewide

Slack Community Lead

An unpaid volunteer role.

Make the Colorado Startups Slack the first place a Colorado founder goes to ask for help and share a win.

See how to apply

What you get

What you carry home

  • Your name, photo and bio on the Colorado Startups Team page.
  • A title you can list on LinkedIn under Volunteer experience, and a LinkedIn recommendation from Paul at the end of your term.
  • Coffees with founders and event tickets reimbursed against receipts, within a budget we agree when you start.
  • A one-year term. At the end, we both decide whether to renew.
  • Claude Academy badges, and the skills behind them.

On LinkedIn, list the role under Volunteer experience with Colorado Startups as the organization. Colorado Startups is not your employer.

What volunteer experience is worth on a résumé.

How it grows your network

Every founder passes your door

  • MondayMonday WelcomeMeet each new member
  • TuesdayOpen channels
  • WednesdayAsks and OffersMatch asks with offers
  • ThursdayOpen channels
  • FridayColorado WinsCheer launches and first customers
Communitas, an AI agent, opens each thread. You keep it going.

The wins you spot can reach the Startupers newsletter.

How it helps Colorado

One Slack, every outpost

Map of the Front Range showing Photon Mountain, Fusion Canyon and Space PeakPhoton Mountain covers Boulder, Denver, Golden, Arvada, Longmont and Castle Rock. Fusion Canyon covers Fort Collins, Loveland, Windsor and Greeley. Space Peak covers Colorado Springs, Monument, Fountain, Woodland Park, Manitou Springs and Cascade. Peaks marked: Longs Peak and Pikes Peak. The Slack seat covers all of Colorado.PhotonMountainFusionCanyonSpace PeakLongs PeakPikes PeakBoulderDenverGoldenFort CollinsColorado SpringsColoradoSlack seat: statewideN
Map of the Front Range showing Photon Mountain, Fusion Canyon and Space PeakPhoton Mountain covers Boulder, Denver, Golden, Arvada, Longmont and Castle Rock. Fusion Canyon covers Fort Collins, Loveland, Windsor and Greeley. Space Peak covers Colorado Springs, Monument, Fountain, Woodland Park, Manitou Springs and Cascade. Peaks marked: Longs Peak and Pikes Peak. The Slack seat covers all of Colorado.PhotonMountainFusionCanyonSpacePeakBoulderDenverGoldenFort CollinsColorado SpringsColoradoSlack seat: statewideN
The Slack joins every outpost, and founders anywhere in Colorado.

143,807

new business applications filed in Colorado (Census data, 2025)

Founders in every outpost ask, answer and cheer in the same threads.

  • Photon Mountain
  • Fusion Canyon
  • Space Peak
  • Online

Who we are looking for

An AI agent greets, you lead

Communitas, Keeper of the Doors: an AI agent, painted as a dwarf of the Hall.

Communitas, an AI agent

Communitas is an AI agent run by Colorado Startups. It can make mistakes, and a person reviews its work.

  • Welcomes each new member
  • Opens the weekly threads
  • Answers from Startup Resources

You

The person who leads the room

  • Welcome people by name
  • Keep each thread going
  • Moderate by the Code of Conduct
  • Point people to the right channel
  • Spot wins worth sharing
  • Flag where the AI agent errs
  • Shape new channels with Paul

What you bring

  • You are in Slack most days, and you enjoy it.
  • You like helping strangers feel at home.
  • You stay calm and fair when a thread gets heated.
  • You care about the founders building companies in Colorado.

In the interview, Paul looks for

  • You make people feel welcome, especially the person standing alone.
  • You ask about the other person first, and you listen.
  • You follow through. When you promise an intro or a next step, it happens within two days.
  • You know what to handle yourself and what to send to Paul.

Ground rules

  • Everyone is welcome. No one should leave a conversation with you feeling like an outsider.
  • Never promise Paul's time, money, investment, sponsorship, event slots or a role.
  • Send VIPs, investors, sponsors, press and elected officials to Paul, with one line on what they want.
  • People moderate this Slack. Communitas, an AI agent, never does, so the judgment calls are yours.

How to apply

Through the bronze doors

  1. Tell us why

    Write a few lines on why this role excites you and what you would bring to it. Excitement is the first requirement.

  2. Earn the Claude Academy badges

    Take each course for your seat on Claude Academy and pass its quiz. Each badge is free with a free Claude account. When you pass, open the badge and copy its verification link.

  3. Meet Paul

    Send your note and your badge links. If it looks like a fit, Paul sets up an interview, and you walk through the role description together.

The courses

This seat adds the course on human-agent teams, for working beside Communitas, our AI agent.

CourseLength
Claude 1012.5 hours
AI Fluency: Framework and foundations4 hours
Building effective human-agent teams45 minutes
In total7.25 hours

Badges in hand? Apply here.

The form asks for your note and the link to each badge. A person reads every application.

Apply for this seat

The other volunteer seats

  • A crystal-and-brass workshop carved into the foothills above Boulder, where founders build machines that compute with light, with dwarf and gnome keepers, the site's AI agents, helping them.

    Photon Mountain Connector

    Go to the startup events in Boulder, Denver and Golden, meet everybody, and connect the founders of all three cities.

    Boulder, Denver, Golden
  • An observatory workshop above Colorado Springs, under Pikes Peak, where founders work beside a great brass telescope, with gnome and dwarf keepers, the site's AI agents, among them.

    Space Peak Connector

    Be the friendly face at Colorado Springs startup events, meet everybody, and connect Space Peak founders with each other and with the rest of the state.

    Colorado Springs and the Pikes Peak region
  • A forge-workshop at Fort Collins, where founders work around a small sun in a brass ring, with dwarf and gnome keepers, the site's AI agents, tuning its coils.

    Fusion Canyon Connector

    Be the friendly face at Fort Collins startup events, meet everybody, and connect Northern Colorado founders with each other and with the rest of the state.

    Fort Collins and Northern Colorado

Sources

  1. 92% of people who help choose new staff say volunteering expands a person's professional skills (Deloitte survey, 2016). 82% of people who help choose new staff are more likely to pick an applicant with volunteer experience (Deloitte survey, 2016).

    Source: Deloitte 2016 Impact Survey of 2,506 employed adults in 13 US metro areas who influence staffing decisions, via CSRwire. Read October 18, 2026.

  2. 143,807 new business applications filed in Colorado (Census data, 2025).

    Source: US Census Bureau, Business Formation Statistics, Colorado, sum of the 2025 monthly counts. Read October 18, 2026.

  3. Course lengths, from Claude Academy's course pages: Claude 101, AI Fluency: Framework and foundations, Building effective human-agent teams. Read October 18, 2026.