The energy at the 2026 Founded in FoCo conference blew me away, even more so than the gale-force winds during the week that knocked down fences and fanned a wildfire that briefly forced an evacuation in north Fort Collins. Even the extreme weather couldn’t blow away the enthusiasm of the hundreds of entrepreneurs, presenters, and business owners that networked their way through the halls of the Fort Collins Senior Center.

I had the good fortune and honor to be asked to co-present with Dani Grant—owner of Mishawaka Amphitheatre and Riverside Colorado—at the conference and attended several sessions. The conversations I had during the conference inspired me and confirmed the concept behind Fort Collins Business Digest: Community is good for business.

The attendees expressed a keen desire for community and willingness for business owners and entrepreneurs to engage and help each other. When you think about business, you typically think about competition, and that certainly is valid. However, to a person, everyone I spoke with at the conference was eager to talk about and engage in community and cooperation.

The conference organizers surveyed 151 “entrepreneurs, nonprofits, freelancers and ecosystem partners” before the conference to determine community needs. The top two needs of those surveyed were joint marketing and new collaborators.

These desires align naturally with Fort Collins Business Digest, which is intended to be a small-business community resource and a place where area entrepreneurs and owners can come find solutions to problems they may be facing.

So it was an honor to have Dani Grant ask me to co-host the session “The Ecosystem Architect”, a lively conversation around how partnership and community can be good for creating a sense of “felt safety” while at the same time being good for the bottom line. The full session can be found on our Founded in FoCo resource page.

Part of this strategy includes sharing resources you aren’t using to their full potential, or may even be idle. These “ghost resources” might include physical space—like an empty closet that another business might be able to use to store excess inventory—or non-physical things like a robust social media presence.

An example Grant presented detailed the relationship that she forged with Liarflies, a fly-fishing outfitter, which allows them to benefit from shared assets. Liarflies has shelfspace in Grant’s Poudre Park Market at Riverside Colorado, where they sell merch and fly-fishing equipment. In return, Liarflies provides exposure to Mishawaka and Riverside when they bring clientele during fishing trips. Together they illustrate how complementary assets—one physical, one not—can create mutual benefit.

This partnership, she explained, doesn’t rely on a contractual agreement; Grant and her partners depend on a proverbial handshake, something that may seem antiquated, but at the same time harkens back to a time of trust and simplicity.

You may not want to rely on a mere handshake, and in the workshop Grant introduced a blueprint for a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). This document details elements that make up the partnership, including what is being exchanged and the terms, and provides clarity on what a clean break looks like.

Given the spirit of community and the eagerness of the folks I ran into at the conference, I’m confident that you can create a mutual support network of your own. Of course, it may not work out every time, but if you’re an entrepreneur, you’re likely not going to let “no” stand in your way.

If you’re trying to do it all yourself, you’re making it harder than it needs to be. Working in a silo is not only lonely, it’s more expensive and limits your exposure to customers and ideas. Try reaching out to a business that may have a complementary asset. Your gain may end up being good for your mental health and your bottom line.

Looking to share assets? I’ve put together a directory of Fort Collins Businesses and their available resources, as well as what they might need. You can find here: https://fortcollinsbusinessdigest.com/resources/noco-partner-directory/
Email me at tyson@fortcollinsbusinessdigest.com to be added.