The Downtown Denver Partnership hired a new Senior Vice President of Economic Development Bob Pertierra from Houston.

Pertierra has worked in similar positions for the Greater Houston Partnership and the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce. Most recently, he and his wife Ericka ran Pertierra and Company, a startup consulting company. They exchanged consulting services for equity positions in about 10 startup companies, including a COVID-19 vaccine research startup in Aurora. Pertierra is a former Army captain and Airborne Ranger.

The Denver Gazette asked Pertierra about why he chose Denver, some economic drivers for the city, his ideas to help a thriving startup community and what he’s looking forward to most.

Q- What brought you to Denver?

A- You know driving here in a U-Haul from Texas you can imagine the pioneers going thousands of miles in a wagon, to come to places like Denver. It must have taken months with horse and oxen, death and disease, but the pioneer spirit was alive and well. I have that same pioneer spirit and came to Denver, like those pioneers, for a better quality of life and a brighter future. Me and many others have voted with our feet, in starting a business here or moving a business to Denver. … What a great place to live and work.

Q- What about Denver’s economic development opportunities attracted you?

A- The interesting thing is when Amazon did that headquarters search. That changed a lot of things. The sight selection was very public, and they used the media. Usually it’s not that public. Well the ripples of that process went far and wide. The ripple for me was the competition for the HQ, Houston’s innovation and ecosystem was not quite up to par for what the 4th largest city in the U.S. should be. Denver made the short list. Houston did not. It’s because of the innovation here: the startups, the digital tech, the Facebooks, Googles, Apples and Amazons here. Denver has those in spades. Just looking at Denver, it’s doing a lot of things right. It’s really punching above its weight. It landed in the top 25 for startup ecosystems in the world (Startup Genome Rankings 2020, Denver/Boulder ranked No. 24) and it’s not even in the top 20 for population. … It’s got amazing transit oriented development. It’s amazing if you’re looking to hire tech talent. Its young workforce is what tech companies are looking for … It’s really positioned well for the future when opportunities come up. I want to be a part of writing that future.

Q- You’ve got some experience with clean tech companies. What do you see for that industry in Denver?

A- I’ve had experience in economic development for 15 years, helping grow companies and industries and eco-systems to help attract or grow companies. How do we make Denver more attractive and reduce barriers and market our positives here? We want to grow companies that may become big in the future, and that’s the whole idea with clean tech. … Denver is authentic in how it presents itself in that space and that’s powerful. With the transit, nature and history of sustainability here and in it’s culture, that’s attractive. Brands that want sustainability want to be in Denver and Colorado. With the energy, oil industry, greenhouse gas emissions work – clean tech is even more on the forefront. It’s a real opportunity for growth here in Denver.

Q- Tell me about your startup consulting work.

A- We were strategic advisors for startups in Houston. My wife is in the startup space as well and did some consulting work and helped raise capital. She was working with different founders. So I was helping her, as husbands do, with these six or seven companies. They kept asking us “can you do more?” So we helped with operations and development, robotics, the whole thing. You know that equity side, hoping for a home run by trying to get in early and help a startup grow. It’s a big opportunity, a chance for the family to have a big upside. So we jumped in and formed a partnership in Houston. … I’m real service oriented, so growing companies and the economy seems to fit that. I love building things.

Q- Any ideas for Startup Week?

A- Well I just got going (Pertierra starts June 1), but I looked at some past event panels and we’ve got a great opportunity to show we’re trying to grow companies organically, from startup to scale. It’s about generating random collisions between university students, researchers, business people, former founders, foreign executives, problem solvers and problem holders … If all of the above things are present, the deal flow starts happening in Denver. It’s pretty amazing … A startup ecosystem is about density and creating more density, the centers of people must be known. People know to come to Colorado, which is doing stuff around all of that.

Q- What are you looking forward to most?

A- The 16th Street Mall renovation is a project that’s really an important part of the future. That’s exciting for me. As an outsider looking in, when I was coming apartment hunting there was a softball tournament in town, the convention center was happening, the visitors were surging. The Nuggets are in the playoffs, and the Avalanche. The MLB All-Star game is coming in July. There’s just a lot of positive energy and momentum as people get back downtown.