Boulder Startup Week May 4-8 (free airplane tickets to HN)

Hey smart idea for promoting Startup Week.

As a developer already living in Boulder, just want to back up what Andrew said - Boulder is great for startups and has a great community. It should be both really interesting and a lot of fun.

I think I might be able to make it (from Phoenix, AZ), but I don't want to eat up one of the giveaway tickets.

I already know Boulder rocks. I already know the people there rock. I already know Boulder startups rock. The tickets should go to people who A.) would be looking for work in Boulder or B.) would like to go but otherwise wouldn't have the means to get there.

I was out in Boulder for Techstars events a few months back. Community and tech feel seemed better than when I visited Palo Alto (spent 4 days at both Palo Alto and Boulder with friends' startups). Would highly recommend it both as a place to live and as a place to start your company.

Hello, Jade here, just finished watching the "Never mind the Valley..." video. Pretty motivating - I've always respected the Threadless story.

I am Jade, 24, from L.A. California. I've never been out of the country and have only been to Vegas, Tempe, Arizona, and most recently San Fransisco for startup school I opted out of going to college because I didn't agree with the "go to school to get a good job and be forever happy" path to success. Though now I realize that's not what school has to be about but I was young and dumb.

Instead I started a custom screen-printing company. I printed custom apparel for high school clubs and sports teams. I learned everything online and in my 3rd year I moved from my parents garage into an actual production warehouse.

During this time I dabbled in HTML because I wanted to create a website for my company. As time passed this hobby of mine turned into what I loved to do - I would work and work and work just so I could finish to go learn coding.

Finally about a year ago now, after my girlfriend and I parted ways, due to the fact that I was a dickhead that put work before her, I closed my company, ended the lease, and sold everything.

I used the year to learn programming full-time, and now I'm here, no money, no job, no credentials, and an annoying smallish debt to attend to.

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I would like to go to Boulder because my life is my work and my work is being an entrepreneurial programmer. I have to make things, even if that means I'll be living in a cardboard box while building, I have to create.

This is not a sob story, I don't want sympathy because my life is fantastic. Rather I want to convey that I learn the hard way. I willingly take these drastic and unfriendly roads. I'm too stubborn and hardheaded maybe but that's just the way it is. I have a lot to prove to myself and to others who grow increasingly worried about me.

Boulder sounds like a great place to do that! Oh yeah, p.s. I love "Man vs. Wild" and I even got to meet Bear Grylls at a book signing Thank you for you time. My plane ticket will cost $169.00. If I don't get voted up, perhaps someone here has some freelance work I could do to earn ~ $200.00 for the trip. I work with kohana php framework, jquery, and can do moderate design work. http://plusjade.com

I'd love to Andrew!