Tech companies in Denver, Colorado: a data-first market report

This report is for people who want to find, evaluate or sell to Denver's technology companies: businesses choosing an IT or software partner, job seekers and recruiters, investors, and B2B sellers with tech customers on the Front Range. It starts with what the federal data says, sorts out the conflicting counts you'll see elsewhere, and ends with a plan for building a list.

The short version

These figures come from the US Census Bureau's County Business Patterns (CBP) for the Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO Metro Area (CBSA 19740). "Tech" means four NAICS industry groups: software publishers (5112), computer systems design and related services (5415), data processing, hosting and related services (518) and other information services (5191). The average pay is within $12 of Austin's tech market, which has a few hundred more establishments.

Why other counts are so different

The Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation's figure covers a much wider area, including Boulder, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins and Greeley, with a different data source and its own cluster definition. Neither number is wrong. Use the Census count for a consistent, documented Denver metro figure, and the EDC's to describe the whole Front Range.

Where Denver's tech firms are

Denver County has about a third of the establishments and half the employees. The averages tell you where to look for what. Broomfield has only 150 establishments but about 37 employees each, so expect larger offices there. Douglas County has 528 establishments averaging about 7 employees: lots of small consultancies and founder-led firms in the southern suburbs. Clear Creek and Gilpin counties have only a handful of establishments between them, so the rows above add up to seven short of the metro total.

What kinds of tech companies

Within IT services, 1,222 establishments do custom programming and 991 do systems design. Software publishers are only 10% of the establishments but 28% of the employees, and their payroll works out to about $224,500 per employee, the highest of the four groups (payroll and employee figures carry a small amount of Census noise, so treat it as approximate).

How big they are

Starred figures: the Census Bureau doesn't publish the 1,000-or-more cell for these industries. The figure of 4 is each industry's total less its published size classes, where only that cell was missing. Three more establishments, in other information services, have 250 or more employees, but the Census Bureau withholds which class they fall in.

In bands: 2,874 with 1 to 19 employees, 306 with 20 to 99 and 150 with 100 or more. So Denver does have a few tech sites with 1,000 or more people, but most of its largest employers run offices of hundreds, not campuses of thousands.

Limits worth knowing

• CBP counts establishments, single physical locations with paid staff, not companies. A firm with offices in Denver and Broomfield counts twice.
• It leaves out self-employed people and businesses with no employees, which excludes most freelance developers.
• Industry codes decide what's "tech": hardware makers and aerospace firms are classified elsewhere, and in-house IT teams count under their employer's industry.
• Employment is for the week of March 12, 2023; cells with fewer than three establishments aren't published.

Building a list of Denver tech companies

Colorado is unusually open with business data. The Secretary of State's whole register of business entities is published as a free dataset, Business Entities in Colorado, on the state's open data portal. It includes each entity's name, principal address, status, type, formation date and registered agent, and it was updated on 25 October 2026. It has no industry code, so filter it by principal city and "Good Standing" status, then match names against the sources below. Single lookups work through the Secretary of State's business database search.

Expansion and incentive announcements are especially useful: a company that has just committed to adding jobs is about to hire, lease space and buy.

Choosing a Denver tech partner

If you're hiring a firm rather than selling to one, use the county and size tables to set expectations. A Douglas County consultancy with five people and a Denver County software company with 300 will both call themselves tech companies. Check the entity is in good standing in the state register, ask who will do the work and from where, and ask for references from clients of your size in the last year.

Prospecting Denver tech companies

1. Pick the counties that match the size you sell to: Denver and Broomfield for larger offices, Douglas and Jefferson for small firms.
2. Start from the state register, filtered to your cities, and cross-check against the association and incentive lists.
3. Find the owner of your problem at each account and a recent event to mention.
4. Contact in small batches so you can follow up properly. The cold email templates have openers by trigger.

Worked example: a benefits broker targeting growing tech firms

Illustrative example. The firm, people and rates are fictional, to show the method.

Summit Ledger Benefits (summitledger.example) sets up health plans for companies outgrowing their first insurance setup, usually somewhere between 20 and 99 employees.

• Denver metro tech establishments with 20 to 99 employees: 204 + 102 = 306.
• Summit assumes a fifth are branch offices whose benefits are run from out of state: 306 × 0.8 = about 245 accounts.
• Most plans renew once a year, so roughly one in twelve accounts is near renewal in any month: about 20 timely conversations a month if Summit can find who's renewing.
• At a 1 in 5 win rate on those conversations, that's about 4 new clients a month.

The hard part is the third step: knowing who is hiring fast or approaching renewal. Bebop can search for "Denver tech companies with 20 to 99 employees that are hiring a head of people" and research each one, which narrows 245 accounts to the ones worth calling this month.

Subject: Benefits at [Company] past 50 people

Hi [first name],

Congratulations on [the hiring push / the new office in Broomfield]. Teams crossing 50 people often find the plan they picked at 15 no longer fits, especially for engineers comparing offers.

We help Denver tech companies benchmark their plan against local peers before renewal. Would a one-page comparison for your size be useful?

[Your name], Summit Ledger Benefits

Next step: see how to qualify these accounts quickly with the BANT questions.