Six sections now (method + focus merged). Hero subhead de-numbered — "31 years, still climbing" carries the hero, "since 1995" moves to the stat band so nothing repeats. Merc List format locked for portfolio cards.
House rules:
1. One verbatim per page. Homepage: "We're never Tourists." — as the section-closing beat, own line, full width.
2. No quote as decoration, never next to stat bands.
3. No analogy vocabulary in the hero. Two winks max per viewport ("guided" + "still climbing" = the ceiling).
4. No number appears twice on the page. "31 years" lives in the hero; "since 1995" lives in the stat band. Never both places.
5. We are not marketing just words. Clever-but-hollow gets cut. Okay to look outdated.
VERBATIM KYLE published, cite the essay ·
PUBLISHABLE principle, no data ·
NEEDS SIGN-OFF Kyle's yes ·
VERIFY contains a number
1
Hero
De-numbered subhead; "31 years, still climbing" as the kicker
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Venture capital, guided.
Boulder Ventures backs IT and biotech founders in Colorado and the Mid-Atlantic. 31 years, still climbing.
[See what we've done]
Why: "31 years, still climbing" fuses the longevity proof and the wink into one beat — better than either alone. Fund count and "since 1995" move to the stat band (house rule 4). "Still climbing" = the closing line of Steve House's published profile. CTA stays bone-dry.
Subhead kicker variants
…in Colorado and the Mid-Atlantic. Thirty-one years, still climbing.VERIFY
…in Colorado and the Mid-Atlantic. Since 1995, still climbing. (if Kyle prefers the year in the hero — then "31 years" moves to the band instead)VERIFY
…in Colorado and the Mid-Atlantic. Still climbing. (fully de-numbered fallback)PUBLISHABLE
…in Colorado and the Mid-Atlantic. 31 years, still going. (zero-analogy fallback if two winks feels like one too many)VERIFY
Mood line fallbacks
We back founders building things that last.PUBLISHABLE
Guided venture capital.PUBLISHABLE
Early money. Long partnerships.PUBLISHABLE
The firm founders come back to.PUBLISHABLE
CTA fallbacks
What we've done →
Meet the partners
2
We Invest The Way We Climb
MERGED method+focus: H1 + three expandable columns + Tourists close
Know the terrain.IT and biotech. Colorado's Front Range and the Mid-Atlantic. Thirty years on the same ground, where the relationships run deep and the dealflow finds us.
Wait for conditions.Patient across cycles, cautious in manias, decisive when the window opens. We've passed on more famous rounds than we've joined.
Get everyone home.We're judged on the round trip: money actually returned, founders who come back, relationships that outlast the fund.
At Boulder Ventures, we're Guides and Venture Capitalists. Our Serial Entrepreneurs are our Clients. We're never Tourists.
Why: merge resolves the old method/focus fork — focus (sectors, geographies) lives INSIDE "Know the terrain," so the theses (if cleared) slot into that column's expansion without restructuring. Tourists close = the one homepage verbatim, own beat, full width, after the buildup. Hover/expand reveals column depth (Kanayo's call on mechanism).
Column expansion content — Know the terrain
Expanded: Two sectors, two geographies, on purpose. Enterprise software and infrastructure. Drug discovery, diagnostics, and tools — a lineage from NeXstar through Array to what's being built in Boulder today. We don't chase terrain we don't know.PUBLISHABLE
If theses cleared, add: Right now that means three climbs: AI enablement of the enterprise, the next wave of metabolic medicine, and the infrastructure of energy abundance.NEEDS SIGN-OFF
Column expansion content — Wait for conditions
Expanded: Cheap money makes everyone look like an expert. We've invested through four bubbles by controlling what a fund can control — effort, preparation, discipline — and never mistaking a bull market for skill.PUBLISHABLE
Alt: Experienced investors become determined sellers in manias and ready buyers when the dust settles. Nine funds of doing exactly that.VERIFY
Column expansion content — Get everyone home
Expanded: Paper marks don't count. A fund succeeds when investors have their money back at a multiple — and ours have, fund after fund. That's the standard we hold ourselves to, in every market.PUBLISHABLE
Alt: We stay on the rope — through markdowns, pivots, and the years between first cheque and outcome. The founders we've backed longest are the ones who came back.PUBLISHABLE
Column header alternatives (if the trio needs tuning)
Know the terrain / Read the conditions / Bring everyone homePUBLISHABLE
The terrain / The conditions / The round tripPUBLISHABLE
Terrain / Conditions / DescentPUBLISHABLE
Reserved (not homepage): the founding equation ("The Client is the entrepreneur; the Weather is the market; the Route is the portfolio company. The VC is the mountain guide.") → /who-we-are, where it has room to breathe. Source: Nov 2020 founding essay.
3
Track Record
"Since 1995" lives HERE now. No verbatim quotes (rule 2)
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We're not selling a theory.
Still alive thirty years later is generally a winner. Nine funds, multiple cycles, the same discipline — and money actually returned, every time.
Since 1995 · 9 funds · 28 exits · 10 IPOs
Why: "Since 1995" now anchors the stat band (swapped from hero per rule 4 — if Kyle prefers 1995 in the hero, this band shows "31 years" instead; never both in both). Every figure pending Kyle's verification. Slater's Law stays banned from this section.
Kicker alternatives
Still alive thirty years later is generally a winner.PUBLISHABLE
The record is the pitch.PUBLISHABLE
Measured in money returned, not markups reported.PUBLISHABLE
Supporting sentence alternatives
Every Boulder fund has been built on realized returns, not paper marks. For a founder, that means a partner who has navigated multiple cycles — and actually brought money home, again and again.PUBLISHABLE
Anyone can report a markup. We report distributions.PUBLISHABLE
Some of our LPs have been with us for decades. They come back for the same reason founders do: the money comes home.PUBLISHABLE
Every figure needs Kyle's yes. BV8 $58M is public (in the essays). Fund-level DPI/TVPI/IRR: internal, full stop.
Stat band variants
Since 1995 · 9 funds · 28 exits · 10 IPOsVERIFY
31 years · 9 funds · 61+ companies · 10 IPOs (use if "1995" stays in hero)VERIFY
4
Featured Portfolio
MERC LIST FORMAT: logo · two words · outcome line
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★ LEADING ASSEMBLY — belief line + Merc-format cards
The best founders don't show up once.
We've backed the same people across companies, cycles, and decades.
ARRAY BIOPHARMA — Cancer Drugs — Sold to Pfizer RALLY SOFTWARE — Agile Software — NYSE IPO MINERALYS — Hypertension Drugs — NASDAQ IPO STARDOG — Knowledge Graphs — Active
Why: every card = logo + TWO WORDS + outcome. The Merc List as a design system — the discipline made visible, the internal callback Kyle will grin at, and a uniform card format for Kanayo. Homepage cards carry no explainer; /portfolio opens with the Merc dialogue from the essay (Brevity, Sep 2024) so the format reads as philosophy. Which companies feature = Kyle's call; two-word descriptions = the fun agenda item for the July call (he Merc-tested his own top ten in the essay — ask him to finish the list).
Two-word candidates (Kyle to confirm/correct)
Array BioPharma — Cancer DrugsVERBATIM KYLE— his own Merc-test, Brevity (Sep 2024)
Black Bear — Commercial SolarVERBATIM KYLE— Brevity (Sep 2024)
We choose the people on our rope carefully. Then we stay on the rope.PUBLISHABLE
We'd rather do the next company with a founder we know than the hot deal with one we don't.PUBLISHABLE
Reserved for /portfolio: "Our projects are risky. We could die climbing in the Selkirks or lose all our money investing in startups, so we work hard to manage those risks to achieve the best outcome we can." — page thesis, justifies showing the failures. Plus the Merc dialogue as the page opener.
5
Featured Perspectives
Unchanged from v2
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Perspectives
Fifty-five essays and counting — on markets, mountains, and the lessons that carry between them.
Why: count signals a body of work, not a blog. "No instruction manual" reserved for /perspectives itself.
Framing alternatives
Essays from thirty years on the same terrain.PUBLISHABLE
Named laws, market calls, profiles, and the occasional powder-day guide. The partners write what they actually think.PUBLISHABLE
Thoughts on entrepreneurship, technology, life sciences, and the decisions that shape enduring companies.PUBLISHABLE
Reserved for /perspectives: "Despite what you read on the internet, there's no instruction manual in our business." — flipped to lead, hut-guide elaboration follows.
6
Footer
Unchanged from v2
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★ LEADING ASSEMBLY
To those who reach for the heights
Get the next essay when it's written. · No forms. No gatekeepers. Just email us.
Alternatives
We write when there's something to say.PUBLISHABLE
The letters, in your inbox.PUBLISHABLE
kyle@boulderventures.com. We could not be easier to reach.NEEDS SIGN-OFF
If you're in Boulder, come by Pearl Street. If you're not — email works.NEEDS SIGN-OFF