Inside West Gate: What the Program Offers (Text Version)
This is the text version for the video Inside West Gate: What the Program Offers.
[The video opens with a presentation slide featuring the National Laboratory of the Rockies and West Gate logos and the following text on screen:
Inside West Gate: What the Program Offers
Module 2 West Gate Informational Series
Throughout the video, footage of the narrator speaking directly into the camera is interspersed with images and presentation slides.]
>>Shelly Curtiss, West Gate Program Manager, National Laboratory of the Rockies: Welcome to the second module in our West Gate informational series.
In the first module, we introduced LEEP, the National Laboratory of the Rockies, and the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center.
[A presentation slide title "About the West Gate Program" features six images of people engaged in West Gate programs, including event attendees, a speaker, people inside a laboratory, and a worker standing outdoors.]
In this module, we'll take a closer look at West Gate and what the 2-year experience looks like for an innovator.
West Gate is designed to give entrepreneurs the time, resources, and support they need to advance a hard-tech startup from an early-stage technology toward commercialization.
[A slide titled "What Makes West Gate Special" features text covered below by the narrator.]
There are several components that make up the West Gate experience.
First is the nondilutive financial support. Innovators receive an annual stipend of $115,000, along with travel funds and insurance. This support is intended to give innovators the financial runway to focus on their technology and startup during the fellowship.
Second is access to the National Laboratory of the Rockies. Innovators receive $150,000 in technical assistance that can be used to access laboratory experts, facilities, and equipment to advance their technology.
And third is the entrepreneurial support that surrounds the technical work.
[A slide lists unique partnerships and unique support for West Gate from the following entities:
- Colorado School of Mines
- University of Colorado Boulder
- University of Denver
- Beck Venture Center
- Golden Startup Coffee
- On Point Communications
- NLR Investor Advisory Board
- NLR Channel Partner Network
- OEDIT, State of Colorado
- Traxion Mentor Network
- Energy I-Corps Startup Mentors
- Rockies Venture Club
West Gate innovators become part of a broader ecosystem that includes the lab's Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center, Investor Advisory Board, I-Corps mentors, Traxion Mentor Network, and other regional partners.
The goal is to provide support beyond the technical project, including connections, mentorship, business resources, and opportunities to engage with investors and industry.
[A slide titled "The Innovator Journey" features elements of the 2-year program runway, including:
- Innovator onboarding
- Entrepreneurial training (needs, mentoring, and growth)
- Technology development (concept, advance, launch)
- Highlighting impact and progress
- Year 1: DC fly-in, demo day, Denver Startup Week, peer review
- Year 2: DC fly-in, demo day, Industry Growth Forum, Innovation Showcase, graduation presentation
The West Gate experience is structured around a 2-year runway. Innovators enter with an early-stage technology and work to advance both the technology and the business. Along the way, they receive mentoring, technical assistance, entrepreneurial training, and opportunities to build relationships and prepare for growth.
A major part of this experience is the relationship between the entrepreneur and National Laboratory of the Rockies' researchers.
[A slide titled "Building Community at NLR" contains the following text:
Participation inherently forms partnerships between entrepreneurs and lab principal investigators (PIs)
Lab PIs do much more than work on projects
- Act as technical mentors
- Connect innovators to the their networks
- Connect innovators to other resources at the lab
- Sharing expertise around industry needs and trends.
Additional engagement opportunities
- Recruiting and reviewing candidates
- Tech transfer, procurement
- Safety, facilities, equipment access
- Joint publications and presentations.
Participation in West Gate naturally creates partnerships between entrepreneurs and laboratory principal investigators. Researchers serve as technical mentors, connect innovators with their professional networks and other resources, and provide insight into industry needs and trends.
The relationship can also create opportunities for joint publications and presentations as well as engagement with technology transfer, procurement, safety, facilities, and equipment.
[A slide, titled "Programming," lists the following:
- Mentor and cohort meetings
- [U.S. Department of Energy] DOE and program office events
- Technical program manager meetings
- Multi-LEEP in-person events
- Mines Startup Forum, CU Boulder
- Startup location tours
- Student team engagement
- Workshops and entrepreneurial trainings
- Investor connections
- IEC opportunities
West Gate also provides a wide range of programming and community opportunities. This can include mentor meetings, cohort meetings, DOE and program-office meetings, technical program manager meetings, multi-LEEP events, workshops and entrepreneurial training, investor meetings, and opportunities through the IEC. Innovators can also connect with universities, economic-development organizations, industry associations, funding organizations, and pitch opportunities throughout the region.
Ultimately, West Gate is about more than providing funding for a technology. It provides a 2-year environment where innovators can work full time on their startup, access national laboratory capabilities, develop their entrepreneurial skills, build relationships, and prepare their technology and company for what comes next.
In the final module, we'll walk through who is eligible to apply, what West Gate is looking for, and how the selection process works.
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Last Updated Oct. 23, 2026