BOULDER — Jim Moscou is bullish on Boulder and the city’s innovation economy. Formerly a journalist for publications such as Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report and now a tech startup founder in the natural and organic industry, he’s been calling Boulder home off and on for the past two decades. Before founding Spiffly last year, he served as CEO of Sir Richard’s Condom Co. and as a managing director and strategist for advertising giant Crispin Porter + Bogusky. “I always tell people the American West is alive and well,” Moscou said Tuesday. “This has been a place for hundreds of years where people come to reinvent themselves.”

That doesn’t mean Boulder’s innovation economy isn’t facing some real challenges at a time when it seems the city’s brand has never been more amplified. In particular, Moscou points out the difficulty for startups to land funding in Boulder compared with larger innovation hubs such as Silicon Valley, as well as the competition for talent as the price of housing soars and nearby Denver gains its own reputation as a tech hub.