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Tech startup: Next Big Sound Inc.
Photo by Jon Rose INITIAL LIGHT BULB: As an intern with Universal Motown in 2005, Alex White had big dreams. "I wanted to be the mogul with the corner office," he says. "I realized my friends wanted to do the same thing."So White merged the concept behind fantasy sports with the music industry into "a consumer-facing music site whe[...]
Tech startup: TIGON Enertec Inc.
Photo by Mark Manger INITIAL LIGHT BULB Four CU-Boulder aerospace grad students - Alec Velazco, Cody Humbargar, Eric Serani and Derek Hillery - studying under Jean Koster developed a hybrid propulsion system for aircraft and spun it off as startup TIGON Enertec last year. "Koster asked them, ‘Can you make a hybrid unmanned aerial[...]
Trends in tech
Trends in technology change so rapidly it's easy to mistake yesterday's news for tomorrow's. Same goes for trendsetters. But what separates the trends from the fads? Fads come and go, but true trends actually go somewhere. Kristin Russell, the state of Colorado's newly minted secretary of technology and chief information officer, see[...]
Tech startup: KromaTiD Inc.
INITIAL LIGHT BULB: Four professors from Colorado State University - Susan Bailey, Joel Bedford, Edwin Goodwin and Andrew Ray - and Michael Cornforth at University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, spun their decades of research into a startup to make it easier for their peers to identify genetic abnormalities."There's a specifi[...]
CorePower finds the right flow for growth
CorePower Yoga CEO Trevor Tice is on the road again, this time in Berkeley, Calif., celebrating the opening of his company's 50th yoga studio. Back in Colorado, CFO Linda Schmehl outlines the company's plan to double to 100 yoga studios in four to five years, "a very, very conservative plan in our opinion,&quo[...]
Getting the Deal Wheel Rolling
John Kelley used to be chairman, president and CEO of McDATA Corp., which was acquired in January 2007 by Brocade Communications Systems Inc. for about $713 million in stock. Before departing McDATA, Kelley led the company through a series of acquisitions such as the acquisition of Minneapolis-based Computer Network Technology Corp.[...]
Tech startup: Standing Cloud Inc.
INITIAL LIGHT BULB: In late 2008, serial entrepreneur Dave Jilk was discussing cloud computing - where computing does not occur on the desktop but on virtual servers in the Web-based, location-independent "cloud" - with venture capitalist Brad Feld of the Foundry Group in Boulder. They struck upon a future vision of a virtual appli[...]
Five marketing essentials companies need to know
Startups do not need a marketing budget! That is what Brad Feld suggests in his article "Why a New Start-up Shouldn't Have a Marketing Budget." This shocking statement does get your attention, especially since Brad then says, "Of course marketing is a key part of the success of these companies. However, it's wired into the DNA of th[...]
Tech startup: Bio-intervention Specialists
COMPANY: Bio-Intervention Specialists (a dba for Aion Partners LLC) INITIAL LIGHT BULB: In the fall of 2008, longtime health-care executive and consultant Tom Boyer connected with Mike Peters and Dave Faulder of Bailey-based Strategic Resource Optimization."They explained to me this disinfecting technology they had developed for u[...]
Entrepreneurs + mentors = jobs
I was at the White House recently to help announce the Startup America Partnership. As part of this, TechStars announced the TechStars Network, an affiliation of TechStars-like programs across the country along with our commitment to the Startup America Partnership to help 5,000 experienced mentors work with 6,000 entrepreneurs to cr[...]
Help to get businesses going …
Small businesses make up the backbone of the United States economy. A few key facts from the Small Business Administration illustrate just how important small businesses are to our country: Small firms:• Represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms• Employ just over half of all private sector employees• Pay 44 percent of total[...]
Tech startup: Pixorial Inc.
Company: PIXORIAL Inc. INITIAL LIGHT BULB: Andrés Espiñeira retired from a tech career in Silicon Valley and moved to Colorado, then sailed across the Atlantic with his father the next year. "The genesis of the idea (for Pixorial) came over that summer from digitizing Super 8 and 8-millimeter film for my father," Pixorial CEO Espi[...]
Tech startup: Anew Green Inc.
Company: Anew Green Inc. INITIAL LIGHT BULB: After years with IBM's high-end printing division (now Ricoh Infoprint Solutions), Dennis Estabrooks and Eric Jepsen hung their own shingle on a consulting shop, epHub, in 2002.Consulting for the same market - high-end, high-speed laser printers used primarily by insurance companies and [...]
Colorado’s 25 Most Powerful Sales People
Back in January 2009 with the economy sputtering and consumers cutting back on spending, we thought it was an apt time to recognize people still able to close deals and keep their companies profitable, or at least afloat.Now into the third rendition of our annual 25 Most Powerful Salespeople issue, the economy hasn't improved much,�[...]
Executive Edge: Tony Caine
While sitting in a barber shop in Aspen in September 2009, Tony Caine thumbed through Chris Davenport's book, "Ski the 14ers," and knew it was time to do something meaningful. "I climb and hike extensively and set a big goal to climb all 54 of Colorado's 14ers in one year," said Caine, 53, who accomplished his goal last September a[...]
Steal this idea
The Colorado Software and Internet Association threw its annual DEMOgala at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Denver in October, featuring 40 speakers and panelists as well as a dozen lunchtime demos by tech startups from Colorado and elsewhere. "Oftentimes in Denver, we think we're not as good as fill-in-the-blank city," said CSIA Pre[...]
Tech startup: Beacon Food Safety
BEACON FOOD SAFETY INITIAL LIGHT BULB: Growing from a partnership between medical-diagnostics startup Beacon Biotechnology in Aurora and Templar Cos. in Greenwood Village, Beacon Food Safety takes the Beacon BrightSPOT Reader to the meat market. "We realized (Beacon's) technology with minor adjustments was directly transferable to t[...]
How to create a sustainable entrepreneurial community
I've lived in Boulder for 15 years after living in Boston for a dozen. While I've spent a lot of time in Silicon Valley - both as an angel and venture capital investor - I've never lived there. While the firm I'm a partner in - Foundry Group - invests all over the United States, I regularly hear statements like, "The only place to s[...]
“Do More Faster” is done
Writing a book is hard. Really hard. Much harder than I thought. So I'm extra satisfied that "Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup" is finished. I've been helping create software and Internet companies for over 25 years, starting with my first company, Feld Technologies, in 1985 when I was in college. By 1987 [...]
Tech startup: Slopeviews Corp.
SLOPEVIEWS CORP. INITIAL LIGHT BULB: Working together on another business venture, James Hay of Telluride and James Lee of Breckenridge were having lunch in the latter ski town when the topic of Google Street View arose. As they discussed the much-hyped virtual counterpart to the real world, the conversation soon veered to the quest[...]
