Surfing Idaho’s Startup Wave: Boise’s Rise

Of course, if you’re like me, when you think of Idaho the first thing that comes to mind is surfing. Sure, you might be thinking, “um… Hawaii? California?” and you’d be right too but if we’re being frank, we entrepreneurial types are a little odd and my mind thinks Idaho. What drives innovation and supports entrepreneurs is outside of the box thinking that questions the way things are, plants seeds of new perspective, and enables founders to explore new possibilities. Last week, surfing in Idaho, and too, whitewater rafting the Payette River, one of those perspectives planted in my brain I rode the waves with friends and family – an analogy for what entrepreneurs experience.

Boats carry us through the water while that water is unpredictable, and at times even dangerous. We do our best to navigate the rapids while staying afloat. And on this surf or in that paddle raft, we realize the critical importance of the team.

On my way through Boise something stood out that many cities east of California are experiencing: the city is booming. Drawing my odd entrepreneurial brain to turn from whitewater to considering what it all means for entrepreneurs. Boise has quietly morphed into a compelling startup ecosystem, oozing with under-the-radar momentum, institutional horsepower, and a culture that’s less “play it safe,” more “let’s actually build something.”

Idaho’s entrepreneurial roots are carved from mountains, rivers, and mines more than boardrooms. Settled by fur traders, miners, and homesteaders, the state’s history is a tapestry of risk-takers betting everything on the chance of a better life. Agriculture and resource industries demanded persistence, ingenuity, and a tolerance for uncertainty; the same traits startups should be, given the research, recognizing as the personality traits in “founder grit” that correlate with a higher likelihood of success. Idaho’s culture remains marked by independence, self-reliance, and community interdependence: people don’t wait for permission, they build what they need, and they lean on neighbors when the work exceeds one person’s reach. That mindset, forged in frontier hardship and reinforced through industries from potatoes to semiconductors, explains why Idaho’s entrepreneurs are as comfortable tinkering in a garage as they are scaling companies into global players.

Boise’s Culture and Startup DNA

Boise’s founding wasn’t about commerce or tech; it was about survival and wits. Established as a military outpost along the Oregon Trail during the gold rush, the city’s roots are in resilience and resourcefulness. These frontier traits haven’t gone extinct; instead, they’ve morphed into a pragmatic culture of bootstrapping, experimentation, and collective hustle.

“Boise, Idaho is emerging as a key tech hub with startups and established giants like Micron and Meta investing billions,” noted Nucamp founder Ludo Fourrage. “The city’s affordable living and supportive ecosystem, including Boise Startup Week and Boise State University, foster innovation. Notable startups and successful entrepreneurs are gaining momentum, attracting companies and talent seeking balance and opportunity away from larger coastal tech centers. Boise offers an ideal environment for tech ventures with community support, tax incentives, and a high quality of life.”

Today, Boise balances its creative indie heartbeat (Treefort Music Fest, quirky Basque heritage, the greenbelt vibe) with serious economic engines like Micron, HP, and Bodybuilding.com, giants that give credence to the city’s claims of tech pedigree. In other words, Boise ages well and doesn’t need a glitzy Silicon-Alternative label to be relevant.

If Boise State University were a startup, it’d be one of those “stealth mode” plays that no one saw coming until it delivered. As an R2 research university, BSU commands about $48 million in annual R&D funding, nothing shabby, especially from Idaho’s capital. That cash fuels incubators, experiments, and partnerships that bridge the ivory tower and the real world.

Venture College: The Mill of Innovation

Revived in 2025, Boise State’s incubator runs a 10 week, mentor fueled sprint to take ideas off the whiteboard and into real pitches. From 2020 to 2025, alumni have hauled in over $500,000 in prize money, and as of July 2025, four of Boise State’s upstarts advanced to the Startup World Cup regional semifinals as Cara Van Sant, director of Venture College noted, “Together, we’re committed to lowering the barrier to entry for anyone with a business idea who doesn’t know where to begin. Whether you’re a student, a faculty or staff member, or community member with a business idea, our instructors are here to provide the guidance, mentorship, and resources to help you take that crucial next step.”

This is what we need in university programs: tangible outcomes beyond teaching entrepreneurship as a theory or practice. And with such structured curriculum and rigor, university IP, student entrepreneurs, and academic professionals build companies.

Donald Young, a Venture College and Founder Institute graduate founded Rattler Medical to develop a temperature-controlled, battery-powered container used to transport blood. Recently, 10 startup teams took the stage at Trailhead Boise to compete in the Startup World Cup Regional Qualifiers. Four included alumni of Boise State’s Venture College program, and Rattler Medical finds itself on the way to the Startup World cup finals in San Francisco where Young will compete for a $1 million investment, “This is going to help reach that gap to make blood more accessible throughout urban and rural EMS. It will really make a difference to save lives.” (My attention caught by more than surfing? My Idaho family all works in healthcare – y’all, we should get more of Founder Institute in Idaho).

Startup Support: Your Can’t-Skip Ecosystem Map

Boise is surprisingly well-connected, with startup development orgs that look like they’re auditioning for an ecosystem Hall of Fame:

• The City of Boise focuses on Entrepreneurship with the Creative Economy (after my own heart), running Boise Entrepreneurship Week and monthly Pitch Nights.
• Trailhead isn’t a shoemaker; it’s the startup fuel pump. Since 2015, it’s facilitated over $240 million in awards and investments for members.
• Boise Pitch Night, since 2016, has become THE platform for early stage founders to speak up.
• Housing Innovation Hub tackles one of the more important questions of our time: how to build homes faster, better, cheaper, and greener. Rooted in Boise, I’m rooting for them from Austin.
• And as I’ve repeatedly pushed cities to appreciate, they must have local leaders developing the ecosystem and connecting people online beyond the Startup Development Organizations. People like Dan Berger were those catalysts in Boise, and reflecting Austin in my time here, ignited the ecosystem because the social networks and unbiased efforts to connect everyone make an immeasurable difference that too many cities still ignore.

“The people in Boise are extremely community-oriented. There are a lot of places in the US where the word community is thrown around as a synonym for neighborhood or affiliation. Here, it really means giving a shit about where you live and it’s authentic af,” Berger on Idaho’s startup ecosystem.

Angel to (Eventually) Venture

Here’s an assuredly incomplete ladder to climb in reaching investors in Boise:

• Trailhead again doubles as both network-builder and capital connector.
• On the VC side? Boise lacks the deep-pocketed VCs you’d see in the Bay Area but Angel volume, plus growing engagement from corporate HQs like Micron, fill that gap:
  • StageDotO – Founded in 2019, this firm backs startups from seed through Series B, especially in tech, B2B, and finance. Known for being hands-on and riding alongside founders through the chaos.
  • Capital Eleven – Founded by Boise State alumni, they fund early-stage software and real estate startups. Their sweet spot is investments from about $100K to $1M.
  • Alturas Ventures – A sister of a broader business empire, Alturas backs seed and early stage tech founders via a “co-foundry” model – think deep integration, not just capital.
  • Sage Growth Capital – Offers revenue-based financing to businesses at any stage, especially SaaS and consumer products, with a focus on growing sales rather than chasing exits.
  • Apex Leaders – A hybrid more private equity and advisory than pure VC, they specialize in executive placement and helping firms build winning leadership teams as they scale.

We also have MoFi there, not your typical VC, rather a mission-driven lender offering loans and new markets tax credits aimed at community-impacting ventures. So, yes, savvy angels are present. Yes, institutional VCs are developing. Idaho’s culture and economy make up for it with precisely what forges startups: grit, speed, and a community-first mentality.

I’m sure I’m missing a lot so be sure to share it in the comments so we’re connecting everything

Boise Through the Lens of the 6 Considerations of the Economic Development of Startups

1. A culture of competition, potential, and creativity
Boise thrives on creativity. It’s got Treefort Music Fest, a Basque Block, and a strong indie culture that fosters risk-taking and originality. The startup ecosystem feeds off that blend of frontier independence and collaborative spirit, producing founders who bootstrap first and polish later. The weakness? Competition is still relatively shallow. Without the density of rival startups pushing one another forward, too many founders are still comparing themselves to the average Idaho business rather than to national peers. That will change, Boise is booming.

2. Reasonable wealth available
Wealth exists in Boise, and not just through legacy players like Micron and HP. Accredited investors are active and exits from companies are seeding a generation of angel investors. Still, venture capital at scale is thin but that’s true everywhere as ecosystems are maturing from the Silicon Valley dominance of the last few decades. Series A and B funding often requires a look out of state so while local capital is supportive, it should look to be deeper and risk-tolerant enough to consistently drive high growth scaling while VC develops.

3. Innovative employers
Micron is the anchor, HP has a presence, Clearwater Analytics went public, and Albertsons’ headquarters keeps thousands employed. These innovative employers provide both technical talent and a legitimacy signal to the outside world that Boise is more than a college town. The downside is concentration. Too few anchors dominate the narrative, meaning downturns or strategic moves (say, Micron pulling back) could destabilize the region’s innovation story. Boise needs more diversified mid-sized innovators to spread the risk.

4. Little – no government interference
Idaho is proudly libertarian-leaning, and that works in startups’ favor. The state doesn’t drown entrepreneurs in regulatory red tape, taxes are relatively light, and there’s little bureaucratic meddling in how businesses scale. But “hands off” does cut both ways and there is relatively less proactive support that I’d like to see us all helping change because it could have Boise leading how innovation should work. Incentives are modest, infrastructure investments often lag, and the lack of state-backed programs leaves too much of the heavy lifting to private groups like Trailhead and Boise State.

5. Access to startup-experienced people
This is where Boise is maturing. Founders with exits are recycling their experience into the next generation, and networks plug founders into seasoned mentors – to accelerate this and some of these other challenges, let’s get the ecosystem plugged into the global programs because the weakness is scale: there simply aren’t enough repeat entrepreneurs or venture-experienced operators to match the growing demand. Many Boise startups still lack advisors with deep experience in hypergrowth, fundraising beyond seed, or navigating national markets.

6. Credible and distinct promotion of the city/region as such
Boise has a natural brand advantage: quality of life, affordability, and a unique culture that stands apart from Silicon-Alternative copycats. The city leans into that identity with Boise Entrepreneur Week, local storytelling, and grassroots marketing. But credible promotion at a national level is still underdeveloped. Boise isn’t top-of-mind for most investors or founders scouting new hubs (though that’s changing); the messaging remains too parochial. To break through, I want to encourage Boise to develop a sharper, coordinated narrative that positions it as a legitimate alternative to overhyped tech cities.

Where Boise Wins (and Where It Needs Work)

Boise wins on culture, rooted university-driven innovation, high touch support orgs, cost of living that’s sane, and a collaborative spirit that makes up for anything missing in raw VC dollars.

Boise needs to improve on attracting more institutional VC (series A+, growth-stage), tightening talent pipelines (engineering grads, coders, diaspora return), and articulating its story to national founders and capital. It’s quietly humming but still underrated. All of this is easily addressed which is why I’m covering Boise and Idaho, you all need to start paying attention to the potential there.

Boise isn’t trying to be Seattle or Boulder, it’s not overboard in hype, but hell, maybe that’s the point. It thrives on practicality, possibility, and pushing ideas forward together.

And why? In the end, Boise’s rise isn’t an isolated city story, it’s the logical extension of Idaho’s DNA. A state built by settlers who gambled on rivers, mines, and fields is now home to founders building with code, chips, and capital. What sets Idaho apart is that this entrepreneurial spirit isn’t performative; it’s lived. From Pocatello to Coeur d’Alene, from potato farms to photonics labs, Idaho’s economy is shaped by the same frontier calculus: risk it, build it, share it. Boise may be the flagship ecosystem, but it thrives because the state as a whole has never lost its tolerance for uncertainty or its appetite for reinvention. That’s why the next wave of Idaho startups breaking out won’t just carry Boise’s name, they’ll carry the enduring grit of the state itself. Let’s help them surf.