Beck Venture Center opens on Colorado School of Mines campus

Colorado School of Mines will celebrate the grand opening of the latest piece of its new Entrepreneurship and Innovation Ecosystem at 3 p.m. Thursday, April 4.

The Beck Venture Center, located at 17th Street and Washington Avenue in Golden, offers 31,000 square feet of coworking, networking, event and classroom space for Mines-connected entrepreneurs, investors, mentors, companies and students to learn, collaborate and launch. 

Made possible by a lead gift from Mike and Kelly Beck, the parents of two Mines alums, the three-story facility is home to the new Mines Venture Program and Mines Venture Fund, which provide the support that Mines-affiliated startups need to launch. Highlights include organizing and coordinating a world-class network of mentors and advisors, “look books” and demo days to showcase startups to the investor community, support from a highly curated network of service providers, and regular educational and networking programs. 

“As we celebrate Mines’ 150th anniversary, we seek to expand the impact that our innovations, research discoveries and graduates have on the world. The Beck Venture Center is the interface between the university and the commercial world,” said Mines President Paul C. Johnson. “Mike and Kelly Beck anticipated that with all we are doing to develop and support innovation and entrepreneurship at Mines, we would need this facility and the programming in it. I can’t wait to see our  students, faculty, alumni and university partners launching companies and products that shape the future of manufacturing, energy, critical minerals, aerospace, health care, and beyond.”

The grand opening celebration will begin with the official ribbon cutting at 3 p.m. and an open house until 4:30 p.m. The third annual Mines Entrepreneurship Showcase hosted by Mines’ Entrepreneur & Innovation Alumni Interest Group will follow from 5 to 9 p.m., highlighting an array of enterprises from campus start-ups to alumni-driven ventures. 

“Our hope is that this investment will further strengthen Mines’ unique educational offerings and encourage students and faculty to transform their best science and engineering into new commercial ventures. In doing so, all will benefit. We are honored and privileged to play a supporting role in this worthy endeavor,” Mike Beck said.

Designed by OZ Architecture, the Beck Venture Center combines purpose-built spaces with supportive programming for mentoring, networking and securing investment.

The cafe and coworking space can accommodate up to 300 people working on their ideas, while the classroom and meeting spaces are ideally suited for teaching the next generation of entrepreneurs. For big events, the “hangar door” on the main event space can be opened to turn the entire first level into one large event space to host the broader startup community. 

“It has never been easier to start a company from scratch, and not just software companies. With advances in prototyping and manufacturing, ‘deep tech’ or ‘hard tech’ enterprises are just as easy to start. These are the exact areas where Mines excels,” said Zack Bennett, founding director of the Beck Venture Center. “This building and the programming housed within is an investment in preparing our students not only for the workplace but also giving them the skills and tools to define the workplace of the future and build world-class companies of their own.”

The Beck Venture Center is a key part of the Mines Entrepreneurship and Innovation Ecosystem, a hallmark achievement of the MINES@150 Strategic Plan. Together with the Labriola Innovation District, which opened in February, McNeil Hall and the McNeil Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, the ecosystem is propelling innovation into the next era in which students, faculty and partners are supported with the resources, environment and connections needed to transform ideas into practical, impactful innovations.

If you go

Beck Venture Center Grand Opening

WHAT: Open house, ribbon cutting and remarks from Mines President Paul C. Johnson and other campus leaders 
WHEN:  3 to 4:30 p.m. Thursday, April 4 (ribbon cutting at 3, open house until 4:30 p.m.)
WHERE: 1700 Washington Ave., Golden, Colorado

Mines Entrepreneurship Showcase

WHAT: Exhibitors ranging from campus start-ups to alumni-driven ventures, networking and program
WHEN: 5 to 9 p.m. 
WHERE: 1700 Washington Ave., Golden, Colorado
REGISTER: weare.mines.edu