The New York Times ran two articles about the Boulder tech scene recently:
Boulder has reached this beautiful sweet spot, where it has many advantages of a university town — tech and talent and openness — but without many of the costs and traffic and congestion that may disadvantage incumbent centers of innovation.
from Boulder, Colo., a Magnet for High-Tech Start-Ups – NYTimes.com.
And,
Like students who choose to go to college in a small town to avoid the distractions of big-city life, the venture capitalists at Foundry Group have shunned Silicon Valley or New York for Boulder.
from To Nurture Start-Ups, Back-to-Basics Venture Capital – NYTimes.com