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MOS 2010 impacts academic community

 The voice of 18,000 teachers and industry representatives 
867_ 7/13/10 - Pat, Lary and their daughter Kisten attended the ISTE (The International Society for Technology in Education) at the Colorado Convention Center with 18,000 teachers and industry representatives from around the country, and in fact from around the world attended. This is the largest educational conference in the country. Spread over four days with booths, demonstrations and multiple tracks, this conference covered the entire Colorado Convention Center, three floors. We stopped to visit organizations we knew, NCWIT the National Center for Women and Information Technology and then for this interview we went up to the quiet, closed, private interview rooms provided by our guests, Ray Kelly, president and CEO of Certiport and Don Field, Microsoft Certification program. You'll note when listening to this that 18,000 people were not whispering. And indeed, this conference might very well have registered on the Richter Scale, down in Boulder. We interviewed Certiport's CEO Ray Kelly and Senior Director of Microsoft Certification Programs Don Field. Certiport is the leading provider of certification exam development, delivery and program management services which include practice tests via MeasureUp® delivered through an expansive network of over 10,000 testing centers worldwide. Certiport manages a sophisticated portfolio of leading certification programs. MOS 2010 will impact the academic community by: Allowing students to experience greater success in the classroom and enter the workforce with an important advantage over other job candidates; Giving teachers a powerful tool for measuring and developing digital literacy among their students, while earning their own certification for professional development; Strengthening academic institutions with relevant, state-of-the-art learning and cost-effective solutions so students can develop skills they will need in the workplace...listen for more...
Related Links: Microsoft Learning || Certiport || MOS 2010 || NCWIT Home || Keywords: Don Field, Microsoft Certification Program, Ray Kelly, Certiport, NCWI, ISTE, The International Society for Technology in Education, 7/13/10 Chnl: Software bytes: 7831617 Listen to: Ray Kelly, Certiport and Don Field, Microsoft

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Breaks Traditional Distribution/Advertising Molds

 Bootstrapping: Growing from 3 to 60 employees 
868_ 7/12/10 -"We bootstrapped the company, just three people for two years, very product focused, but she is happy to announce they are now nearing 60 employees. So it's quite a different company now than it was even back in 2008. On the product side we're just really focused on making life simpler for event organizers," said Julia Hartz, EventBrite, Co-Founder & President. Lee Kennedy, NCWIT Board Member and founder of Bolder Search, Lucy Sanders, the CEO for the National Center for Women and Information Technology or NCWIT along with Larry Nelson, Director of w3w3® Media Network had a conversation with Julia. She is responsible for the overall vision and strategy of the company. Julia is a reformed Television Network Executive and comes to EventBrite by way of Hollywood. During her tenure in the television industry, Julia was a creative executive at FX Networks and helped supervise The Shield, NASCAR Drivers: 360, Nip/Tuck, Rescue Me and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Prior to FX Networks, Julia worked in creative development at MTV Networks where she was fortunate enough to work on several prolific shows such as Jackass. When asked, "Why are you and entrepreneur and what makes you tick?" Julia replied, "I'm an entrepreneur because I think I can change an industry. I also love helping to build something that people want. Being an entrepreneur, for me, I feel like I'm part owner in a movement and there is just something inherently satisfying about working on something you feel such ownership and passion about." Based on her experiences Julia shares a number of ideas and recommendations for entrepreneurs ...listen now...
Related Links: NCWIT Home || NCWIT Practice || NCWIT Blog || EventBrite || Bolder Search || Heroes Channel || Keywords: Julia Hartz, EventBrite, Lucy Sanders, National Center for Women and Information Technology, NCWIT, Lee Kennedy, Bolder Search, Entrepreneurship 7/12/10 Chnl: NCWIT bytes: 12491967 Listen to: Julia Hartz, President & Co-Founder, EventBrite.com

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Communication Technologies Revolution

729_ We're in the middle of a digital tsunami that is impacting the media business 
Greg Maffei, President and CEO of Liberty Media Corp was a keynote speaker for the Silicon Flatirons, CTP & the Cable Center event, 'Rise of Broadband Video and Future of Digital Media'. Greg said, "We're in the middle of a digital tsunami that is impacting the media business enormously. FaceBook has 300 million users, up three times in a year; YouTube has 400 million users, by almost any measure it's the largest TV station in the world. About 24 hours of video is uploaded every ten minutes. Ninety-six percent of Gen Y have joined a social network. You can't get 96% of people to do anything. This one is stunning to me; One out of eight couples that married last year, met online. What a transformation that is. And it only accelerates, FaceBook would be the 4th largest country in the world, and the fastest growing segment on FaceBook is 55 to 65 year old women. Google is about twice the size of Time Warner which is the largest traditional media company in advertising. Most of the things that are happening are creating unstable competitive environments and business models with very low barriers to entry and pricing power is destroyed for all entrants. Some examples of that destruction of legacy business models; music, a well known story. Are we going to see this in video? Perhaps. Hulu is hugely destructive and I don't think the people behind it NBC and the like, Fox, are going to stay with it long - I think they're going to change the model because it is not sustainable. Newspapers is probably the best example that is current right now." There's much more...
Related Links: Liberty Media || Silicon Flatirons || CTP Channel || CTP Home || Keywords: Greg Maffei, Liberty Media, Silicon Flatirons, Communication Technology Professionals, Video, Time Warner, FaceBook, Google, Hulu, Change Channel: CTP 30379584 bytes - 10/26/09 LISTEN
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SBIR Funded Success Stories

428_ Maturing of the SBIR Program Means Big Changes: $2.2 Billion at Stake

The good news is that successful commercialization from those receiving SBIR funds (non dilutive to the receiver and are grants that don't need to be paid back) are working. The challenge is the rules have changed over the past 25 years and for the better, at least for those who adopt to the way 'the game' is now played. Russ Farmer, Executive Director of SBIR Colorado and President and Founder of PBC, Inc. explains these new innovative strategies and shares some of the local SBIR funded success stories. They include Coherent Technologies, Myogen, and Powercycle. Russ shares the some innovative ideas that are revolutionizing the entire SBIR and commercialization process. It's Powerful, Proven and People Oriented. After all, who doesn't want a piece of the $2.2 Billion available to small companies and inventors for their great ideas? 1/21/08  LISTEN to Russ Farmer, SBIR Expert
Related Links: PBC, Inc. || Looking for Money || Source of Info || Podcast Directory |||   Keywords: Russ Farmer, PBC, SBIR, STTR, Financial Cluster, Small Business Innovative Research, Grants > Bytes: 22348594 LISTEN

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Brad Feld and the Entrepreneur's Toolbox

592_ Brad Feld and the NCWIT Entrepreneurial Tool Box
Brad Feld was being drilled by Lucy Sanders, CEO and Founder of the National Center for Women & Information Technology and NCWIT board member, Lee Kennedy along with Larry Nelson about the learning experiences of a new entrepreneur for the new NCWIT series, The Entrepreneurial Tool Box. And as Brad said, "Dave Jilk was a college friend. In 1987 we launched a company which we then grew, with no financing into a couple million dollar business and sold in 1993. So that was the first real success I had, after a couple of companies that went absolutely no where." When addressing the failures Brad said, "Well you go through this cycle of believing, sort of the optimism of the creation at inception of the company, some progress, whatever progress there is and then ultimately you start to have some problems and you either push through the problems or you don’t. I mean Feld Technologies had all kinds of things that could have caused us to fail. In fact, one of the first things we did was hire a half dozen college friends and part time people, and spent money we didn’t have and all of a sudden we were upside down $20,000 and we had no money, and we realized we couldn’t do that anymore because we didn’t have the money to pay the people and we had to get to a place where we’d make money. In the case of the other failures, I think it was pretty clear at some point we were not making real progress." said Brad Feld, Chairman of the NCWIT – also co-chair of the Governor’s Innovation Council. Listen for more insights...Brad also talks about what it takes to create winners.
Related Links: RVC:Raising Capital in Today’s Environment! || Foundry Group || Brad's Blog || NCWIT Channel || NCWIT Practice || w3w3.com Blog || Keywords: Brad Feld, Foundry Group, NCWIT, Entrepreneurial Tool Box, Dealing with Failing, Lucy Sanders, Lee Kennedy, Governor’s Innovation Council, Blog > Channels: NCWIT, VC, Bytes: 12940750 > 7/6/10 LISTEN
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Raising Capital today

699_ Hard Money: Where to go when the bank says no - News from an expert 
Larry sat down with Steve Replin, attorney and author of a new book, 'Hard Money: Where to go when the bank says no' and started out with this question, "I like that title, but can you define Hard Money?" Steve replied, "Hard money is a technical term for a type of lending that focuses on collateral as opposed to the borrower. You go to a conventional bank you'll notice they're going to ask for a credit report, income tax returns, financial statements and so on and so forth, that's all about you the borrower. Hard money lenders on the other hand, are going to want to know about your collateral, how many bedrooms, bathrooms, what the rental income is, how big the site is, how it's zoned, so on and so forth. It actually allows a loan to be analyzed and approved in a matter of days as opposed to a bank that will typically take 30 to 45 days to make a decision and most of time, these days they say no." Steve went onto addressing the three big typical concerns, traps, or challenges. "I would give this advice to borrowers looking into the hard money arena; The first thing I would look out for is what we affectionately call "loan to own" lenders. These are lenders that make the terms of the loan so difficult that if you miss a payment by 30 seconds, they're starting foreclosure which basically renders your property un-financeable. And they view it as way to own your property at a wholesale value. Lots and lots of those folks out there. Sadly it's a business methodology that has made a lot of lenders rich and lot of borrowers poor." More to listen to...
Related Links: RVC:Raising Capital in Today’s Environment! || Venture Capital Channel || Replin & Rhoads || Economy Builders || Podcast Directory || Mastering Change || Keywords: Steve Replin, Hard Money, Where to go when the bank says no, Banks, Venture Capital, Replin & Rhoads, Entrepreneurs >> Channel: News 6281511 bytes - 7/5/10 LISTEN

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God Bless America

Independence Day is a great time for all of us to reflect on what it means to be an American. Take a moment to remember the men and women in our armed forces, protecting our freedoms around the world and here at home. They and their families sacrifice daily - support them. Let them know you appreciate their service. Cody Farmer was testing our sound equipment. He's a Colorado man, born and bred, a new father, an entrepreneur and he serves our country - we wanted to share his tribute with you. Keywords:Cody Farmer - Star Spangled Banner, Independence Day, Military Service, Celebrate America - 7/4/10 LISTEN

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New Model Angel Funding Network

862_ 7/1/10 - Changes in the angel investing landscape
Larry cornered Steve Murchie before he and his wife head out of the country for six months. Steve moved to Colorado four years ago. He started out by saying, "It's been a very interesting community to plug into. There's such a great entrepreneurial environment here. I think we still have a lot of challenges here in finding an ecosystem that works really well in all sectors. In fact the same ecosystem won't work in every sector. We're not as big as the coasts where there are so many people involved in various industries and have success and history in those industries that the ecosystems have evolved themselves. Here I think we have to build them intentionally. I think Boulder has a great model going. TechStars is a wonderful short term incubator. You add to that a couple of smaller, early stage funds that have started working around this, and there are angels working in conjunction with that, and the same people involved. So you've got organized money, you've got organized mentors, and you've got just a ton of enthusiasm around the entrepreneurial process. Steve also talked about the great news and the challenges. "I think there are a number of efforts to build a large scale angel network here in Colorado. There was one in the 90's it had probably a five year run, then CTEK had their Angel Network affiliated with the CTEK program - it probably ran for about five years as well. Then in 2007 I launched a chapter of the Kieretsu Forum. We had a three year run, probably got hit a little harder because of the 2008-09 crisis. And ultimately, last year I shut down the Kieretsu Forum, our membership had grown too small and it's really hard to find funding for companies. It's still hard to raise money today." ..
Related Links: Steve's Blog || Podcast Directory || Mastering Change Blog || Raising Capital || Keywords: Steve Murchie, Entrepreneurs, Angel Investors, Capital, TechStars, Ecosystem, CTEK, Boulder, Colorado, Funding, Kieretsu Forum 7/1/10 Chnl: Venture Capital bytes: 6415049 Listen to: Steve Murchie

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