In search of economic fairy dust, the Obama administration's Startup America tour will descend upon Boulder on Monday to get a handle on how small businesses in the entrepreneur-filled city are faring and what they'll need to be sustainable in the long term (Daily Camera).

White House officials will land just one week ahead of the five people selected to receive free flights to attend Boulder's second-annual Startup Week. Organizers are paying to fly in the talented folks, with hopes of wooing them to the People's Republic as the next batch of prospective founders and employees in the city's still-surging tech scene. And that should be a lock if presenters for Ignite Boulder 15—which is on the May 18 to 22 schedule—are anything like their predecessors (videos here). At the heart of the White House's efforts, as well as Boulder's tech-tastic reputation, is a partnership with TechStars, which claims three of the nation's leading startup accelerators.

While upstarts may be all the rage, Colorado has no shortage of well-established, successful companies, as Fortune's list of the 500 largest U.S. corporations proves (Denver Business Journal). At the head of the nine-company pack is news-maker Dish Network, while Newmont Mining Corp. claims the title of Colorado's largest public company.