The Colorado Innovation Network (COIN) summit featured a slew of successful, wise, encouraging leaders from all over Colorado and the country, including none other than John Hickenlooper, the Governor of Colorado.

Serving since 2011, this visionary Democrat wants nothing more than to see the people in his state innovate, succeed and excel. We had the chance to sit down with him at the Capitol and talk about the state of Colorado, its authenticity, clean ethics and how he plans on attracting and keeping America’s entrepreneurs.

Innovators Peak: The whole point of this event — and the whole point of your governance — is to bring an entrepreneurial spirit to Colorado. What’s your plan to further this?

Governor Hickenlooper: We’re making Colorado the number one destination for young entrepreneurs. This goes back to when I was mayor of Denver, when it was apparent how much our community, and those young entrepreneurs, really care about music. So we have Red Rocks here — at 9,500 person capacity, it is without question the most beautiful natural amphitheater in the world. We used to use it three times a year and now we use it 110 times a year. We now have more live music venues in Denver than in Austin or Nashville.

We have a thousand miles of bike paths in metropolitan Denver now,  20 miles of which are completely finished, not on the shoulders of roads. And they’re tied into countless mountain bike trails.

So those kinds of things, these authentic experiences. We’ve been trying to push ourselves and at the same time reduce the barriers to entry. Getting rid of the red tape, making one-stop shops where you can start a business and fill out the forms of incorporation, know how much insurance you need to get; everything you need to do, do it in one place and get off and running. Make sure that this state is perceived as pro-business but with high standards, clean air, clean water and clean ethics.

Do you think there’s a correlation between healthy startup businesses and healthy lifestyles?

I think that the people that start businesses generally are optimistic; they are indefatigable. They’re determined, they don’t quit. They also have a kind of sense that they want to live their life the way they want to and I think a lot of that is about quality of life. The Kauffman Foundation, the number one foundation on business out of Kansas City, did a study on technology startups on a per capita basis. Out of the 300 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S., four out of the top 10 are based in Colorado.

What was the original inspiration for the COIN summit?

I was at the Kellogg Innovation Network and they do a two-day innovation summit. When I got there, I saw that it’s a whole vertically integrated sight, like people who graduated from Kellogg’s business school. There was this loose network about how to use innovation to solve problems, but they don’t network.

I spoke with Mitra Bess, the Chief of Innovation for Price Waterhouse Coopers. I said, “We have 29 federal research laboratories in Colorado and we have Colorado School of Mines, University of Colorado, Colorado State University. All of these have big research arms. Instead of doing an innovation network with just one university, why don’t we take all the different research labs and put them into one network that’s state-based, and then try to tie that into capital workforce and then entrepreneurship?”

She looked into it and said that it would be a great idea. I said, “Would you help support it and would you come to talk?” She comes every year. I think one of the reasons that Colorado’s being talked about in such positive ways is that we’ve been able to do things like this. It’s off the normal beaten track and I think they have real application. COIN is cool and people want to be a part of it. I think in 10 to 20 years, that network is going to be big and robust and people that have been part of COIN are going to get involved.

So how can we take that and make it a national initiative? Take what’s worked in Colorado and spread it out?

Once you make something like this work, I guarantee other states will follow. Almost like with urban biking: People see others in the street and want to get out of their cars and join. We’re just taking different kinds of research with some synergy between them by getting them from a bunch of entrepreneurs. My guess is most other states won’t do it because most other governors aren’t that interested in innovation in and of itself.

What lessons or practices have you learned from this startup community in Colorado that you think could be shared?

Well surely, trying to get them connected with government and borrow some of their employees from time to time. We had the flood of the century in September 2013 and needed to create a website that could reach everyone affected. All of the communications were down. So while they were staying with friends, we wanted to make sure that they could figure out what was working, what wasn’t and what they should worry about. We had this company that was galvanized on these little accelerators who created a killer website. It was very powerful and interactive, and people could get pictures of their house and belongings.

I think that’s what you need, an entrepreneur to step up and say, “This is an emergency and I’ll put aside my business right now and I’ll do what’s best for the state.”

Yes. An entrepreneur needs to know who to call. In this case, the entrepreneur called COIN because they were a part of the network. So often, people want to do things that are civic-minded, but they just don’t know who to call.

Check back in later with week with part two of our interview with Gov. Hickenlooper, where we discuss how COIN and an entrepreneurial spirit are shaping the future of Colorado as we know it.