But, if you're planning to stay small for a while and grow slowly, Boulder is difficult to beat. Some reasons:
- I know some of the major players in the Boulder investment community and they are great people down to the core.
- Boulder is a lot closer to California than Boston. The flights are a bit cheaper, there's only one time zone change and, assuming they keep schedule, the trip won't take a whole day. This can, in some circumstances, make a measurable difference.
- The weather in Boulder is amazing. No humidity, sunny 300+ days a year, and you'll have days in the winter when it's in the 70s (and other days where the snow piles up fast). But the summers are something else -- the weather, the scenic beauty, etc. is some of the best in the country if you're into sunshine, breathtaking hikes, and world-class skiing. Sure, you can't take advantage of it every day, but if you do have a day off, you can drive an hour or less from Boulder and reach trails that will take you to views like this one, hike back, and be back home (or back at the office) in time for an afternoon snack: http://10101010.net/hikeview2.jpg -- apologies for the slow load. Its a large image (you might have to click to see it full size) and it's hosted on Dreamhost. Need I say more? :-)
(I took that photo myself. It's a view from the Forth of July Trail. I believe we left Boulder at around 7:30am and were back by 2:30 or so).
I've worked for startups in Boston and was an entrepreneur-in-residence in Boulder. I would personally pick Boulder if those were my two options.
I guess there's no wrong answer and it's more about personal preference than anything else. My only gripe about Boulder is that it trails behind Boston and other larger cities from a diversity perspective, but so does our industry to some degree no matter where you go.