How Colorado Startup Resources looks, sounds and shows up alongside the organizations it lists. For our team, our partners and anyone who writes or designs on our behalf.
Regardless of age, company lifecycle, geography, culture or economics.
Colorado has an enormous number of organizations ready to help people build things: funders, programs, communities, events, universities, service providers, and economic and workforce development organizations. But they're scattered across hundreds of websites, and hard to find unless you already know where to look.
Colorado Startup Resources makes that ecosystem findable in one place. It's free, independent, and organized the way people actually look for help: by what they need, where they are and what stage they're at, across all 14 of Colorado's regions.
Mission: make Colorado's support for people who build things findable, for everyone, in one place.
Not just for startups
People don't wake up thinking "I need an economic development organization." They think: I need funding. I need a place to work. I need a mentor. I need customers. So while "startup" is in our name, we serve anyone trying to make something happen: a company, a nonprofit, a cooperative, a creative practice, a community project or a new career.
Founders and entrepreneurs
Nonprofits and social enterprises
Cooperatives
Creatives and independent professionals
Students
Mentors and advisors
Funders and investors
Community builders and ecosystem organizations
What we stand for
Findable
Our job is to shorten the distance between a person and the help that already exists. Every decision starts with whether it makes something easier to find.
Independent
No one can pay to be recommended. Paid features and sponsorships are always labeled, and never change where a resource ranks.
All of Colorado
From the Front Range to the Western Slope, the Eastern Plains and the San Luis Valley. Rural and urban, statewide and local.
In common
We start with what people share, not their industry or title. An ecosystem should make connections more accessible, not extract value from people and their networks.
Tagline
Find what you need. Share what you know. Build what's next.
Use the full line on the About page, in presentations and at events. Our homepage promise, Every Colorado startup resource, in one place, is the short description for listings, bios and social profiles.
02 · Our names
One parent, one first project
Humans In Common is the organization. Colorado Startup Resources is its first project, and the brand people meet. Humans In Common endorses it; it doesn't replace it.
Humans In Common
The parent organization, a Colorado corporation. It owns and operates the site, signs agreements and appears in legal text, the footer and the About page.
Colorado Startup Resources
The directory and everything around it. It leads on the site, in social profiles, newsletters, partner materials and events.
Write
Not
Notes
Colorado Startup Resources
Colorado Startup Resource, CO Startup Resources, ColoradoStartupResources
Spell it out the first time in any piece.
CSR
C.S.R., csr
After the full name, or where space is tight. Not in headlines for new audiences.
Humans In Common
Humans in Common, HIC, Humans-In-Common
Capital I in "In". Avoid the initials in public.
A project of Humans In Common
Powered by, brought to you by, a division of
The only endorsement line.
Programs and labels
Name
What it is
CSR Passport
The free account. Its level is Explorer.
Resource Partner
The paid membership for organizations. Two words, both capitalized.
Community Amplifiers
The free collaboration for organizations that serve entrepreneurs. One member is a Community Amplifier.
Ecosystem Library
Our collection of books, research and maps on how ecosystems grow.
Claimed
The badge on a listing its organization has verified.
CSR Official
The blog category and label for posts from our team.
Startup Sandbox
Where founders, nonprofits and creatives find testers for what they're building, and members try new products, programs and ideas first. Free to post and to join. Always Startup Sandbox in full, never the Sandbox in a headline.
Startup Sandbox words
Write
Meaning
Call
A request for testers. Post a call, open calls. Not listing, job or gig.
Find testers
The button for posting a call.
Become a tester
The button for members. Testers tick open to testing on their profile.
Volunteer to test
How a tester joins a call. Their confirmation reads You're in.
Waiting for review, Live, Closed, Not published
A call's status. We review every call before it goes live.
Describe it by what people get, not as a marketplace: honest feedback for builders, a first look for testers. Testers choose what to share, so never promise posters access to members' profiles or contact lists.
The 10 stages
The directory's stages follow a journey, not a funding ladder, so they fit a nonprofit or creative practice as well as a company. Write a stage as its two-digit number, name and focus. Where space is tight, the name alone is fine (Explore). Don't call them startup stages or rename them.
Stage
Focus
01 Explore
Find Your Purpose
02 Establish
Make It Real
03 Create
Create Your Offering
04 Share
Build Your Presence
05 Engage
Reach Your People
06 Fund
Fund the Work
07 Develop
Build Your Capacity
08 Manage
Do the Work
09 Grow
Grow Your Impact
10 Evolve
Evolve What You've Built
In full: 01 Explore: Find Your Purpose. The focus keeps its title case; everything around it stays in sentence case.
03 · Voice and tone
Like a well-connected neighbor
Someone who knows where everything is, tells you plainly, and is glad you asked. We sound the same to a first-time founder in Alamosa and a fund manager in Denver.
Plain
Short sentences and everyday words. Say "funding", not "capital deployment solutions." If a term needs explaining, explain it.
Specific
Real numbers, real places, real names. "2,100 resources across 14 regions" beats "a wealth of resources."
Warm, not breathless
Friendly and encouraging, without hype, exclamation marks or startup slang.
Even-handed
We describe; we don't rank or endorse. Every organization gets the same tone, paying or not.
In practice
SayFind funding, programs and support near you.
NotUnlock a world of game-changing opportunities!
SayClaim your organization's listing for free.
NotLeverage our platform to maximize your visibility.
SayThat page address is already used by another listing.
NotOops! Something went wrong. Error 23505.
SayResources for founders in the San Luis Valley.
NotThe best accelerator in Colorado.
Tone by moment
Moment
Tone
Example
Homepage, social
Confident, inviting
Every Colorado startup resource, in one place.
Listings
Factual, neutral
Offers no-cost consulting for small businesses in Mesa County.
Membership, pricing
Clear, no pressure
Cancel any time.
Errors, problems
Calm, helpful
Please enter the full website address.
Blog, CSR Official
Personal, curious
First person is fine. Share what we're learning.
House style
Headings
Sentence case: Find a job in Colorado's startup community.
Lists in a sentence
No serial comma: funding, programs and support.
Dates
October 9, 2026. Times in Mountain time.
Prices
$29 a month, $299 a year. No /mo in running text.
Numbers
Numerals for counts and figures (14 regions); round large live counts down (more than 2,100).
Places
For the 14 state regions, use the names the site uses: San Luis Valley Region, Pikes Peak Region. Everyday names like Front Range and Western Slope are fine in prose.
People
Founders, members, people. Avoid users in anything public.
04 · Logo
The CSR mark
Three letters, with a road through the mountains running through the S: the path from an idea to something real. The wordmark below it is set in wide-spaced capitals.
Primary logoOn white and light backgrounds
Reversed logoOn Navy, Night and dark photos
MarkWhen the name appears nearby, or space is tight
Reversed markAvatars, favicons, merchandise
Clear space
Keep a margin of x on every side, where x is the height of the letters in COLORADO. For the mark alone, use half the height of the C.
xx
Minimum size
Version
Screen
Print
Full logo
120 px wide
1 in (25 mm) wide
Mark
32 px wide
0.4 in (10 mm) wide
Below the full logo's minimum, switch to the mark: the wordmark's small capitals stop being readable first.
Color
The logo comes in two colors only: Navy on light backgrounds, white on dark ones. Pick whichever has more contrast with what's behind it. On photos, place it over a calm, even area.
Please don't
Stretch or squash it
Change its colors
Rotate it
Add shadows or effects
Place it on busy backgrounds
COLORADO STARTUP RESOURCES
Retype the wordmark
With Humans In Common
Where the parent organization needs credit (the site footer, the About page, sponsor and partner agreements, event signage), add the endorsement line below the CSR logo. Humans In Common's logo always keeps its own colors on a white field, and is never larger than the CSR logo.
A project of
Logo files
For linking to your listing or collection, or for co-branded materials that follow this guide. Need a larger or vector file? Ask us. Listed organizations can use the ready-made website badge instead.
A palette taken from the logo's Navy, from deep evening blue to bright winter sky. It's calm, trustworthy and easy to read, and leaves room for the colors in partners' own logos.
Core colors
Supporting tints
Balance
Most of any page or piece is light. Navy carries headings and anchors the composition; Blue is reserved for actions people can take.
Snow and white 60%
Navy 25%
Blue 10%
5%
Accessible pairings
Body text needs a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1, and large text (24 px, or 19 px bold) at least 3:1 (WCAG 2.1 AA). Ratios below are calculated from the hex values.
Text on background
Sample
Ratio
Use for
Humans In Common colors
These belong to the parent logo. Don't use them in CSR layouts, text or charts; they appear only inside the Humans In Common logo.
06 · Typography
One family, Inter
Inter is clear on screens at every size, has wide language support, and is free under the SIL Open Font License, so partners can use it too. We use it for everything from headlines to captions.
DisplayExtra Bold 800 · 48/52 · −2%
Every Colorado startup resource, in one place
HeadingBold 700 · 30/36
Make Colorado Startup Resources work for you
SubheadingBold 700 · 20/28
Co-create a collection
EyebrowBold 700 · 14 · caps · +22%
Membership
BodyRegular 400 · 16–18/1.6
Colorado has an enormous number of organizations ready to help people build things. Colorado Startup Resources makes that ecosystem findable in one place.
Caption, labelSemibold 600 · 12–14
Published October 9, 2026 · 4 min read
Weights
Regular 400 for reading, Semibold 600 for labels, Bold 700 for headings, Extra Bold 800 for display lines. Skip light weights; they fade on screens.
Fallbacks
Where Inter isn't available, such as some email clients, use the system sans: -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Arial.
The wordmark
The letters under the mark are part of the logo, not a font setting. Never retype COLORADO STARTUP RESOURCES to imitate it.
07 · Partner co-branding
Side by side, never above
Hundreds of organizations appear in the directory, and some work with us more closely. These rules keep every relationship visible and every listing on equal footing.
No one can pay to be recommended. Paid features are labeled, and never change where a resource ranks or whether it's recommended.
The labels we use
✓ Claimed
The organization has verified its listing and keeps it up to date. It doesn't mean we endorse it.
Resource Partner
A paid member. Used on guest blog posts and in the author box. It never appears as a ranking signal in search or categories.
CSR Official
Posts written by our team. Only Colorado Startup Resources uses it.
Sponsor of Funding
A sponsorship, always labeled with the page it covers (Sponsor of AI on a tag page), and kept separate from the listings.
Curated with Partner name
A Community Amplifiers collection. The partner chose the resources with us; the collection includes other organizations' resources too.
Listing highlights
Facts about a listing, shown as an icon and words in the Highlights panel at the top of its sidebar. Not images or seals. They describe; they don't rank, and no one can buy one.
Claimed by the organization
The organization has claimed and verified its listing. Next to the listing's name, it appears in short as ✓ Claimed.
Colorado-based
The listing serves a Colorado region or county, or the whole state, not only national audiences. Hyphenated, lowercase b.
Woman-owned or operated
The listing carries the woman-operated tag. Use this exact wording.
Every highlight uses the same rosette-and-check icon in Blue. Partners may mention a highlight in their own words (listed as Colorado-based on Colorado Startup Resources) but shouldn't recreate it as a graphic or seal.
Sponsorship levels
Each sponsor is featured at the top of its page, labeled Sponsor of and the page name, with an open spot shown as Sponsor and the page name when it's available. Use these level names as written.
Level
Where it appears
Tag Sponsor
One tag page, such as AI or Nonprofit. Every tag in the directory can be sponsored.
County Sponsor
One county page.
Regional Sponsor
A region page and its county pages, unless a county has its own sponsor.
Category Sponsor
A category page and every subcategory page beneath it.
Pathway Sponsor
One of the 10 stage pages.
Regional and Statewide Ecosystem Partner
By arrangement.
Newsletter Sponsor
The Colorado Startup Resources newsletter.
Individual listing pages are never sponsored. A sponsor can say Tag Sponsor of AI on Colorado Startup Resources, but not that we recommend them.
How partners can describe us
SayFind us on Colorado Startup Resources.
NotEndorsed by Colorado Startup Resources.
SayA Resource Partner of Colorado Startup Resources.
NotColorado's top-ranked accelerator, according to CSR.
SayA Community Amplifier with Colorado Startup Resources.
NotThe official partner of Colorado Startup Resources.
Co-branded lockups
For collections, events and joint materials. Separate the two logos with a thin Mist rule, give them equal visual weight (match the height of the CSR mark to the partner logo's main shape), and keep clear space x around the whole group. Partners may use the full CSR logo or the mark on its own. Whoever leads the piece goes first.
Partner logo
CSR-ledCollections on our site, our newsletter
Partner logo
Partner-ledTheir newsletter, events, social
Using our logo
Listed, Claimed and partner organizations may use the CSR logo or mark to link to their listing or collection.
Use the files we provide, unchanged, following the clear space and minimum sizes above.
Link the logo to coloradostartupresources.com or to your page on it.
Don't combine our logo with yours into a new mark, or use it in your own name, product or domain.
Anything else, such as merchandise or printed signage, ask us first through the contact form.
08 · Decisions
What we've settled
Most of this guide comes straight from the live site. These choices were new in the first draft, and were confirmed on October 21, 2026.
Decision
Outcome
Mission sentence and four values
Confirmed as written in section 01.
Color names
Confirmed: Navy, Blue, Steel, Sky, Mist, Frost, Snow and Night.
Serial comma
Confirmed: no serial comma, matching the site.
Logo clear space and minimum sizes
Confirmed as set in section 04.
"Curated with" label
Confirmed for Community Amplifiers collections.
Logo in co-branded lockups
Partners may use the full logo or the mark.
A Humans In Common guide
Not yet. We'll revisit it as more projects launch.
