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Deciding they want to try their entrepreneurial feet
1156_ 2/3/12 - We're at the 10th Annual University of Colorado Technology Transfer Office Awards program at the historic Tivoli Turnhalle. This is truly a gathering of the greatest scientific minds who are creating and influencing the future. The venue is packed but early on we ran into an old friend, Jerry Donahue. When we first met Jerry back in the early days, he was running the Boulder Incubator - right through the days of Esprit Entrepreneur. Jerry tells us he's continued to do things, "It's addictive... Of late, strictly through faculty at CU, could be any campus. "Some of them over time, decide they want to try their entrepreneurial feet. Working with partners that often include guys like Dave Allen, Merc Mercure, Jerry tells us, the most fun he's having today is working with some of these little companies that they help start up. These folks have come to be really good business people as well as award winning faculty. Jerry and people like him often go on their boards, help them with the management aspect, sometime finding money, often just being a sounding board. "A delightful trip", said Jerry.
Related Links: CU Technology Transfer Office || CU TTO Channel || CU TTO Awards || Award Photos || CTEK Board Member of Distinction || Keywords: Jerry Donahue, CU TTO, Colorado Technology Transfer Office, Awards, Entrepreneurs, David Allen, Merc Mercure - bytes=4054102
Listen To: Jerry Donahue, Valued Business Advisor

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Does it have commercial viability and commercial applications?
1155_ 2/2/12 - It's interesting to see how the different departments at CU work together. Larry interviewed Paul Jerde who has been with the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship for 15+ years, and he says he was pretty naive. "I had come to have some strong ideas about the positioning of the value of entrepreneurship education in the university setting. What I found was people lit up at the mention, something exciting about an entrepreneur, I guess. But the tendency is to very narrowly define it. To some people it means just small business. To some it means bleeding edge technology and to some it means insane risk taking. To others, it's only about startups. So, at the core of our philosophy is the belief and the positioning of the way that our faculty work, and we work with faculty and students. The value of entrepreneurship education, at the core, has fundamental value for the students in almost any particular discipline." Paul is often challenged... can you teach someone to be an entrepreneur? Can you teach someone entrepreneurship? Paul says no to the first. I don't believe, nor should you try to teach someone to be an entrepreneur. Other things cause that to come about. But you can absolutely teach the skills. And at the core of entrepreneurship education is teaching our students to answer the question when someone says, 'I have an idea, what do I do with it?' Here's what you do - 'That's an interesting idea. Does it have commercial viability? Does it have commercial applications?' Well, most people in the world don't really know. And that's what we want our students to have. They know what feasibility, analysis and market assessment is all about. They know about doing due diligence, how to go through a really rigorous and in-depth process in determining whether an idea can translatable into a commercial opportunity. The business planning part of this has to do with the integrating of different disciplines...finance, marketing, operations, strategy management, and so forth - bringing those all together. More broadly in our cross campus entrepreneurship program it's getting teams of students to work together to appreciate the ideas may come from the creative departments or from the engineers who can actually build something, or from the scientists who can actually discover something - but often times they don't know what to do with their new invention or new discovery. We try to make these 'productive collisions' of teams of students and in general find people of different expertise's come together around the idea of how do you allow an idea to flourish. There's much more...
Related Links: Deming Center for Entrepreneurship || CU Technology Transfer Office || CU TTO Channel || TTO Blog || CU TTO Awards || CU TTO Award Photos || Keywords: Paul Jerde, Deming Center for Entrepreneurship, Leeds School of Business, Robert H. & Beverly A. Deming, Entrepreneurs, Teams, Productive Collisions - bytes=6117567
Listen To: Paul Jerde, Exec. Dir., Deming Center

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It is time to change the 100 year old power grid
1154_ 2/1/12 - Larry had a chance to interview Peter Gregory, Founder and CTO, Green Energy Corp which is a winner of the 50 Colorado Companies to Watch 2011 series. Larry said, "I understand Green Energy Corp addresses the many challenges that face the electric utilities and power grid today. What are some of those challenges?" Peter replied, "Basically – It’s OLD and it needs to be NEW. The power grid was designed over 100 years ago by Thomas Edison and it hasn’t changed much since. Its built around big central power plants and big transmission systems. That has served us very well over the years, but is not adequate for today’s needs and certainly not for the needs of the future. We have to support renewable technologies - like wind and solar, we have to deal with electric vehicles and an abundance of distributed small scale power generation systems as opposed to large central power plants - and in addition to all that we have to support greater customer control of their own energy usage that’s made possible by smart meters. The biggest challenge here is not the installation of all this new hardware – solar panels are going up, wind mills are going up, meters are being deployed by the millions, electric vehicles are being built - and so forth. The real challenge is the software infrastructure that’s needed to support that hardware – it doesn’t exist today and it’s a limiting factor in building the grid of the future. Its being worked on – its called the Smart Grid – and Green Energy Corp is a leading player in the implementation of the Smart Grid." What does his company do to address those challenges? "We address the challenges of the Smart Grid with our product … It’s called the GreenBus. It’s a software system that provides a foundation for the Smart Grid. In common vernacular – we’re creating a plug-n-play environment for the grid where the Green Bus is the grid operating system … and new and old systems that need to connect to the grid can plug in and ride on the Green Bus. This is very different than how it works today. Today it’s a quagmire... Peter's mantra, "Do Well and Do Good." There's much more...
Related Links: Green Energy Corp || Colorado Companies to Watch || Colorado Companies to Watch Channel || PodCast Directory || Gala Event || Keywords: Peter Gregory, Green Energy Corp, GreenBus, Lowe Foundation, Colorado Companies to Watch, Gala Event, COCTW, Second Stage Companies, Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade - bytes=7460470
Listen To: Peter J. Gregory, Founder and CTO, Green Energy Corp

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Tech transfer and the Black Box
1153_ 1/31/12 - To some, tech transfer seems like a “black box” – investigators conduct research and report inventions, a percentage of the inventions are protected through the patent process, some of the protected assets are licensed, some products are developed, some are sold commercially and sometimes the University receives royalties and other economic consideration. During this session we looked into the black box to see how policies, procedures and practices at CU and the Technology Transfer office (TTO) addresses the throughput of inventions to royalties, and how various internal and external groups play a role in making this happen. Participants were better informed about technology transfer and made able to devise ways to engage in and/or advise on the process. Dr. David Allen has led the University of Colorado's technology transfer enterprise to a position of global leadership and pioneered many of the best practices academic technology transfer and technology-based economic development organizations used in proof-of-concept investing and incubation of university spinouts. In this short video excerpt David talks about the distinctiveness of the CU facility…
Related Links: CU Technology Transfer Office || CU TTO Channel || TTO Blog || CU TTO Awards || Award Photos || Tech Transfer at CU|| Keywords: David Allen, University of Colorado, Technology Transfer, Rick Silva, Kate Tallman, Tom Smerdon, CU TTO, Black Box, Royalties, Proof-of-Concept
Watch Video Excerpt from the CU TTO Black Box

Leonard Nimoy and Star Trek come to Colorado
1150/RR_ 4/26/10 - At the 26th National Space Symposium, Larry and Pat had an opportunity to have a discussion with Leonard Nimoy of Star Trek fame. But Nimoy is so much more than that. They decided to talk about other topics that help us learn more about him and what has shaped his character over the past 79 years as well as understanding his hot buttons. We started out by reflecting on some poetry Leonard read as 'whale song' was heard in the background...that was decades ago but it opened up insights to his current interests and concerns. When asked, Is there something businesses can do to motivate children?" His reply was an ouch. "I'm not a sociologist, I'm not a businessman, I can't speak intelligently about that. I'll tell you what I am concerned about; I'm concerned about how much television kids watch that is not uplifting, or educational or inspiring in any way. It's all about celebrity, and if you're celebrity, come and tell us about your celebrity. What have you accomplished? I'm a celebrity - I'm famous for having a lot of children, so I want a TV show - It's crazy. What we have descended to in our education, it's crazy! It's really sad, I could go on about that, I'm not going to." He had a great deal to say about advice he would give to someone following his career path. "The biggest fantasy, myth about my work, about being an actor is people who think a look will get you somewhere, be at the right place and time, that kind of thing - luck plays a big role, but I never believed that, not even as a teenager...Education, it's all about education. Learn, learn, learn and devote yourself to a profession. Be professional about it." Larry asked, "Do you feel the U.S. is losing its position in terms of space?" Leonard replied, "Yes, I don't know to what degree this is true. I don't want to be an alarmist about this, but I do think we've got some work to do." We did end with a Vulcan salute. Listen for much, much more...
Related Links: Space Technology Hall of Fame® || National Space Symposium || Space Foundation || More About Nimoy || ///Space Symposium PHOTOS/// || Keywords: Leonard Nimoy, Star Trek, Spock, Vulcan, National Space Symposium, Space Foundation, Education, Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award 4/26/10 Chnl: News bytes: 5458968
LISTEN to Leonard Nimoy, aka Mr. Spock

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Amazing story: Boulder to Disney
1148/RR_ 1/26/12 - Lucy Sanders, Founder and CEO of the National Center for Women in Technology describes Krista Marks as, "A rare blend of technical accomplishment and social passion and entrepreneurial spirit. You cannot spend more than five seconds with Krista without getting all kinds of great information and energy and passion." Krista is the co-founder of Kerpoof Studios which was acquired by Disney in 2008 and Krista is now the general manager of Disney Online Kerpoof Studios (and still based in Boulder). Lucy asked, "How did you get interested in technology?" Her interesting reply, "My entry into technology was not so smooth. When I went to college, I didn't even know about technology or pursuing a career in technology which for me, was electrical engineering. But obviously there are a number of careers in technology. For me, in high school, I gravitated to mathematics, science and problem solving, these were the areas I liked. Fortunately when I got to orientation for college, I sat next to a student who said they were going to major in electrical engineering. I didn't know what that is. "What is that?" And she said, 'I know that if you really like math and physics, it's the best major to have. I said, "Oh my god, those are my two favorite things. "So I fell into it. This is why NCWIT and the things you're doing, Lucy, is so critical, so important. I would like every student to be aware of the available opportunities when they're choosing a career. I did end up there and loved technology. In fact, from that point on I really wanted to be involved in designing technology. I spent the first eleven years designing custom electronics, and got to work around the world." In the first of many future integrations of Kerpoof technology, Disney.com has launched new features on its popular Characters portal (www.Disney.com/Characters). Now, when guests visit pages for characters such as Mickey and Friends, they will be able to create their very own customized pictures using an intuitive graphical interface. There's more...
Related Links: Disney Online Kerpoof Studio || Disney || Characters Portal || NCWIT Share || NCWIT Home || NCWIT Practice || Heroes Channel || Keywords: Krista Marks, Kerpoof, Studios, Disney, Digital Mosaic, Lucy Sanders, National Center for Women in Technology, NCWIT, Disney Online - 8/2/10 Chnl: NCWIT bytes: 3693508
LISTEN to Krista Marks, General Manager, Disney Online Kerpoof Studios

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Raising $21.6 million in a Series B financing round
1149_ 1/25/12 - Larry talked with Jim Franklin, CEO of SendGrid, a Foundry-backed infrastructure applications company about a very exciting announcement. SendGrid a Boulder-based startup and TechStars Class of 2009 graduate, announced it has raised $21.6 million in a Series B financing round. SendGrid previously had raised $5.76 million in capital through seed money and a Series A round. Jim said, "While we're very happy to have 37,000 customers now, we think there are millions of people around the globe that can benefit from this service. We also announced a partnership with Microsoft and their Azure project, and in building the Azure environment, we'll be the email solution for that entire platform. We see that as a future direction of wherever you are on the globe and whatever language or platform you're developing in, we want SendGrid to be right there as the easy, simple choice to take care of the mail so you can focus on building your web application. We've had a lot of success in having major partners to really help us grow so far." SendGrid has about 70 employees in Boulder and Anaheim, California, and is hiring in its sales, marketing, operations and engineering departments. SendGrid has developed a cloud-based platform that helps users improve email deliverability. Invoices, shipping confirmation and product updates are among the types of messages. Below are links to the organizations that were part of the $21.6 million investment...
Related Links: SendGrid || Podcasting Directory || Bessemer Venture Partners || Foundry Group || Highway 12 Ventures || TechStars || SoftTech VC || 500 Startups || Keywords: Jim Franklin, SendGrid, Venture Capital, Seed Money, Isaac Saldana, Microsoft, Azure, Cloud-based Platform, Email, Bessemer Venture Partners, Foundry Group, Highway 12 Ventures, TechStars, SoftTech VC, 500 Startups - bytes=4357959
LISTEN TO: Jim Franklin, CEO, Sendgrid

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Feld and Mendelson - How venture capital deals work
Jan 24, 2012_ 1149/RR_ 8/29/11 - When Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson sat down to write their book the goal was to aim it at every entrepreneur, to really help them understand how venture capital deals work. Brad Feld in Tuscany, Italy talks with Larry Nelson via Skype to tell us about his newest book, "Venture Deals...Be smarter than your lawyer and venture capitalist". The inspiration for the book came from the Term Sheet Series that Jason and Brad wrote about five-six years ago. This is a particularly valuable book for entrepreneurs looking for money... You'll get an insider's view of the venture deal process, the different players involved on the deal side including how venture firms are setup. And, they talk about how an entrepreneur should think about the fund raising process. The term sheet is a very complicated document and there are a lot of things that people negotiate. But there are essentially only two things that matter which are economics and control. Here they've spent a lot of time helping the reader understand which terms related to economics and which terms were related to control and how and what that meant. It's meant to be a guide not a text book with material that can be very dry and boring. They've made fun of lawyers, venture capitalists and themselves along the way, but there goal was to write something significant and enduring. Comments from readers include..."For a first time entrepreneur, it's a completely enlightening book." Dick Costolo, Twitter CEO wrote a very nice forward to the book where he talks about how useful it would have been to have this book at the beginning of his career, and throughout his career, to look back and reflect on all the deals he's been involved in. Brad tells us how his blog, Ask the VC works with this book. Number one piece of advice for a new entrepreneur from Brad is, "Pick something that you're incredibly passionate about. The thing you want to create, the business you want to start should be something that you're in love with. It's going to be hard. You're going to have lots of ups and downs, there will be lots of things that don't work. If the thing you're working on 18-20 hours a day isn't something you're incredibly passionate about, what's the point?" Second is surround yourself with mentors." ...don't miss the rest of Brad's advice, listen now!
Related Links: Venture Deals - Amazon || Ask the VC || Feld Thoughts || Mendel's Musings || Foundry Group || Feld-Weiser One-on-One || VC Channel || Keywords: Brad Feld, Jason Mendelson, Venture Deals, Venture Capitalist, Foundry Group, Entrepreneur, Mentors, Dick Costolo, Twitter, Tuscany, Italy, Foundry Group’s Series A Documents - Bytes: 13588587
LISTEN to Brad Feld, Author, Venture Deals

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Connecting with the Right People the Right Way
1145_ 1/20/12 - Pat & Larry Nelson of w3w3.com are seen everywhere. Many call them the Networker’s networkers. Larry says that the biggest and most common mistake in networking involves the omnipresent “Elevator Pitch”. That’s just what a busy executive wants to hear as they enjoy their liquid refreshments…”Get me out of here!” Pat and Larry offer some "Networking Solutions" (Identifying, Preparing & Personalizing) that are extremely effective in most every networking situation. In 4 minutes you'll know the answers.
Related Links: Beyond the Trends || 3-Filters Compliant || Entrepreneurs || Training Trends || 3-Filters || Blog || Keywords: Networking, 3-Filters, Elevator Pitch, Beyond the Trends, Training Trends, Associations, Entrepreneurs, bytes=267745
LISTEN to Larry Nelson, International Speaker, Trainer, Consultant and Super Coach. Larry & Pat are cofounders of w3w3® Media Network/w3w3.com

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Beyond the Trends, Vol 1, Issue 1 1146/RR
Five Fundamental Characteristics of Achievers
This is the first issue of "Beyond the Trends". This powerful five minute audio presentation by Larry Nelson, producer of w3w3 Talk Radio, is loaded with golden nuggets you can apply immediately. Larry Nelson has taught this material in seminars in over a dozen countries, from China to Canada, from Norway to Australia, from Germany to Japan as well as throughout the US. He shares the results of his international research about the Characteristics of an Achiever and then goes on to help you lay out your "personalized blueprint" to personal and professional success. Larry is an internationally published author, has been a consultant to many Fortune 1000 companies and is best known for his train-the-trainer programs.
Related Links: Training Trends Channel || Your Ultimate Win || Beyond the Trends History || Your Goal || Mastering Change Blog || Keywords: Achievers, Fundamental Characteristics, Beyond the Trends, Winners, Goals, Trainer, International, Seminar, Personal, Professional Success
LISTEN TO: Larry Nelson, Director, w3w3® Media Network, President, Institute for Change Research