Silicon mountain high?

• Position: Brief Article

COLORADO AS A HOME FOR HIGH-TECH

Why do people leave Silicon Valley, the high-tech mothership, to move to Colorado? What do they find when they get here? I checked around and got some surprisingly similar answers.

Scott Love worked in San Francisco before moving to Boulder in December to become director of marketing at VR-1, a developer of multi-user online technologies and entertainment applications. "The Bay Area has become so crowded," he said. "Boulder has given us the chance to raise our son in a great environment, buy a house almost twice as big as our old one and in a much better neighborhood, and live among mountains, trees, and seasons.

"Still, I miss being in the center of the high-tech universe," he added. "You can't beat the advantage of hopping in a car -- or walking -- to meet with partners, competitors, VCs, etc. The job opportunities here won't be as plentiful, nor will I have as much of a chance to know others in the industry. I've been able to offset that because I've been in the industry awhile, If I were just starting out, I'd balk at being here."

Alan Kaplan, chairman and founder of ClickPlay, an Internet media application developer, relocated to Boulder in 1994 from the Bay Area. "The traffic was unbearable. A recent visit there reminded me how glad I am to live in Colorado. It took me over four hours to make the 35-mile trip from Palo Alto to San Francisco."

Kaplan compares Colorado with Silicon Valley in the 1980s, but with one major exception. People aren't as networked here. "You just have to spend a few days in Palo Alto or San Jose or San Francisco to see it. You sit in a restaurant and you realize that 90 percent of the people there are in your industry. In Colorado, 5 percent or 8 percent of the people are in your industry. There isn't the same saturation in Colorado; it's far more disconnected."

Bryan Searing, product marketing manager for TellSoft Technologies, a phone-to-Internet application service provider, moved to Colorado Springs in 1998, after living in several locations including the Valley. "Nothing will ever get me to move...