Win 100K: Colorado launches developer challenge

Colorado is offering developers a $100,000 in a new challenge to create applications using the state’s trove of business data.

Called Go Code Colorado, the challenge is a bipartisan initiative of Colorado’s Secretary of State’s Business Intelligence Center, the Governor’s Office and the Statewide Internet Portal Authority.

Go Code Colorado is the first competition of its kind in the United States that uses public data to build business tools and grow commerce.

“We have worked through the Colorado Innovation Network and advancing a statewide brand to ensure Colorado is known as a place where entrepreneurship and innovation are valued and cultivated,” Gov. John Hickenlooper said. “Go Code Colorado is yet another example of the state being at the forefront of innovation.”

Members of Colorado’s business community recently submitted five challenges they would like to see addressed through better access to public data, including issues such as business site location and access to capital.

The challenges are:

• Provide information key to business site location, including infrastructure data on transportation or broadband connections, demographic data on the surrounding population and statistics on available workforce in the area.

• Aggregate industry- and company-level data to show the competitive landscape in the state, including mergers and acquisitions, competitive density and market analysis tools.

• Help businesses understand their access to capital by listing active investors and their recent investments, investment options based on business type or revenue and historical trends and key exits.

• Explain to business leaders the higher-education resources available to them, including college research and consulting services in areas like purchasing habits of Coloradans and compensation levels across the state. Also, list pools of talent in terms of graduates and professors and detail on-campus resources such as facilities and classrooms.

• Help companies to source business partners by providing them company locations sorted by industry, industry statistics and individual company performance data.

Teams of Colorado app developers, marketers, mentors, partners and entrepreneurs will compete to address these challenges during the Challenge Weekend, which will be held locally in five regions across the state March 21-23.

Two teams of finalists from each region will advance, giving them the opportunity to work with renowned tech and business mentors from Colorado over the next two months to improve and solidify their apps, before competing at a final competition in Denver.

Three winners will receive cash awards, in-kind incentives and investor connections.