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27th Space Symposium - CO Springs

Leonard Nimoy and Star Trek come to Colorado
  832_ 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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Mobile communications exploding

Boulder startup sells for $40M 
970_ 2/24/11 - Mobile communications is exploding. We're here with an expert the president and founder of Radish Systems, Theresa Szczurek. While it's talked about a great deal, Larry wanted to know what does mobile communications have to do with business? Theresa replied, "Mobile communications is exploding, millions and millions of smart phones are jumping off the shelves. There were like 166 million smart phones sold in 2009. The projections from a Nielsen study show there will be more smart phones used by the end of 2011 than any other kind of cell phone. So businesses who are thinking ahead should be asking, who are my stakeholders, my customers, my distribution channel, my employees out in the field and are they using a mobile device? And they should be asking, what should we be doing to better serve the needs of those mobile callers? Radish Communications Systems, a fun roller coaster ride. We grew it and sold it in 1996 for over $40 million. It was also in the space of integrated voice data and it became the de facto standard for allowing voice and data to be shared over a plain old telephone line. We were working with small companies like Microsoft, Intel, Rockwell, AT&T." Larry asked, "What are some of the practical points businesses should be considering, having to do with mobile devices?" She replied, First of all know your market. Make sure you're serving the mobile stake holders. What we're finding is that more and more corporations are developing and implementing a mobile strategy. For example do you have a mobile website? Since more and more people are doing business via their mobile device, a mobile website and perhaps a mobile application in order to better serve the needs of your marketplace." Listen, there's much more...BTW, they are looking to hire...
Related Links: TMS World || Radish Sprouts || Software Channel || Blog || Keywords: Theresa Szczurek, TMS World, Radish Sprouts, Mobile Communications, Apps, Cell Phone, Mobile Devices, Radish Communications Systems 2/24/11 bytes=7029554
Listen to:Theresa Szczurek, Co Founder, CEO, Radish Systems

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I never planned to be an entrepreneur

Target market leads to a big sale and much more
 972_ 2/23/11 - She is an example of bootstrapping that few others can match. Lucy Sanders, CEO for the National Center for Women and Information Technology or NCWIT along with Larry Nelson, Director of w3w3® Media Network and Lee Kennedy, Founder, BolderSearch.com and NCWIT board member interviewed Alicia Morga, founder and past CEO of Consorte Media, sold in 2010 to Audience Science. Currently Alicia is the creator of GottaFeeling (iPhone App) and the founder of a new (in stealth) startup. Alicia is a remarkable young woman with great down-to-earth advice for other young women wanting to build a life in the information and technology space. She is an example of bootstrapping that few others can match. Her beginnings are humble and we encourage you to watch the 'Professional Bio' video on her blog - it's short (link below... About Alicia). Lucy Sanders wanted to know when Alicia got interested in technology. Alicia points out, "It was a circuitous route for sure." She didn't grow up wanting to be an entrepreneur, nor did anyone think she would be an entrepreneur. Looking back she realizes she had all the entrepreneurial traits that are usually necessary to become an entrepreneur, she was very curious and adventurous. Her first exposure was in high school with a basic programming language class. She built a baseball game and thought that was fun - 'you can build anything you want in this thing called a computer'. She did end up going to Stanford University which plunked her down right in the middle of Silicon Valley. She tells us she heard dribs and drabs about technology and entrepreneurship, but didn't connect the dots until she became a corporate lawyer after law school, also at Stanford University. Take the GottaFeeling App. Alicia had never created an app before, she didn't even own an iPhone or an iTouch. She decided this was something she didn't know anything about and said, "Why don't I just jump in and see what I can create." That's when she created GottaFeeling...listen now there's much more...
Related Links: About Alicia Morga || Consorte Media || Gotta Feeling iPhone App || NCWIT Home || NCWIT Practice || NCWIT Blog || Heroes Channel || Keywords: Alicia Morga, Consorte Media, Gotta Feeling iPhone App, Stanford, National Center for Women and Information Technology, NCWIT, Lucy Sanders, NCWIT Heroes, Lee Kennedy, Bolder Search, Entrepreneurs, Technology > 2/21/11 bytes=18453214
Listen to: Alicia Morga, founder, ConsorteMedia

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CU Boulder - We've created a nerve center...

What we do is oriented around information technology
971_ 2/22/11 - "We've created a nerve center, where the technologists, entrepreneurs, capitalists, the service providers around them - they've got a home at CU. That's not just the Silicon Flatirons, there are others across campus. There's the Tech Transfer Office, the Deming Center, ATLAS Center, others who are engaged across campus. I think we've done a much better job on that. For instance at SFC we're going to have about 36 programs with 6,000 or more people coming through over the course of the year and on a relatively shoe-string budget. The second thing I think we're doing increasingly well is engaging student interest." We're speaking with Brad Bernthal, Associate Clinical Professor of Law, Technology Policy and Entrepreneurial Law. We're asking Brad about Silicon Flatirons, CU and what they're really doing here as it relates to entrepreneurs. "What we do is oriented around information technology", said Brad, "and broadly, when we're at our best, something that matters around IT for the next one to three years. Not where is the ball now, but where is the ball going to be in the near future. That's where we're situated and we are at the intersection of academics, government policy and business. We've got three areas of emphasis, 1.) Telecommunications policy, 2.) IP privacy and security and 3.) Entrepreneurship Initiative". Larry asked Brad about the very popular Entrepreneurs Unplugged series. "It fits into the general goal of the Entrepreneurship Initiative (EI) at Silicon Flatirons Center (SFC), to be the API for the campus. So, the point in which the startup community in the Front Range intersects with CU Boulder, especially the geek startup community, software companies, hardware and telecom. Co hosted by Brad with Brad Feld and Jill Van Maetre who's with the ATLAS Center across campus. It's been an amazing series with national figures like Ted Turner, Sam Zell, David Bonderman and Liberty CEO, Greg Maffei."...Listen for the meat and potatoes...
Related Links: Entrepreneurs Unplugged || Silicon Flatirons Center || New Venture Challenge Photo Album || Entrepreneurs Channel || Keywords: Brad Bernthal, Silicon Flatirons Center, Entrepreneurs Unplugged, Brad Feld, Jill Van Maetre, Ted Turner, Sam Zell, David Bonderman, Liberty Media CEO, Greg Maffei > 2/22/11 bytes=7699542
Listen to: Brad Bernthal, Silicon Flatirons Center, CU at Boulder

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The Leader determines...

Leadership in the new economy 
967_ 2/18/11 - "The very strategies that enabled you to stay alive over the last recession, are not the strategies that are going to enable you to grow in the future." said Dr. Jana Matthews. Larry sat down with Jana, founder and CEO of The Jana Matthews Group, who is an international expert on entrepreneurial leadership and business growth. Based in Boulder, Colorado. Jana Matthews believes the economy is turning around. Jana shares some thoughts she thinks CEO's should be thinking about. There's more to be heard in her interview but here are some highlights. No. 1 "It is the leader who determines the culture. Is your's a culture of optimism? To be positive, upbeat, expecting success, or pessimistic and down trodden, that's up to the leader to determine. Optimism suggests a confidence, an ability to think outside the box. Jana said, "We used to say at the Kauffman Center, it's keeping your knees bent so you could go in a lot of different directions, and the willingness to be flexible with a fallback position, and figure out how to make it work." Jana goes on to say, "Optimism is important but, in your heart, in your office, when you look at your financials and your customers, you're realistic. But you project the optimism that it's going to get better as opposed to the pessimism of 'oh my god, we're in free fall'." No. 2 Look at your people. You need to signal to your good people, the ones you want to keep, the ones that you think will help build your company, you need to signal to them that they're really important to your future. Because when this job market opens up, people are going to jump... No. 3 "Look at your executive team. The team that helps you baton down the hatches and get you through, may not be the team that you need to lead you into the next stage of growth, and to the next level. A very successful past client said, "The bean counters were really important during the recession, but we need to have more of those dreamers again." That's one of the most difficult decisions for a leader to make. But it is part of leadership. It is looking at what the company needs for the future."... No. 4 "I would take a look at my customers because we have held onto customers just so we could have revenue. But you and I know Larry: we get about 80% of our revenue from 20% of our customers." In some cases the others actually cost you as they require over servicing, they don't pay on time, they complain, they send products back, custom revisions, etc. So you need to look hard and say..."
Related Links: The Jana Matthews Group || Economy Builders Channel || In the News || Keywords: Jana Matthews Group, Leadership, Economy, Culture of Optimism, Executive Team, Revenue, Profitability, Next Stage of Growth 2/14/11 bytes=8823434 LISTEN to Jana Matthews, CEO, Jana Matthews Group

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Speak any language a phrase at a time

Here it is; say it in any language right now 
966_ 2/17/11 - Lucy Sanders, CEO for the National Center for Women and Information Technology or NCWIT along with Larry Nelson, Director of w3w3® Media Network and Lee Kennedy, Founder, BolderSearch.com and NCWIT board member interviewed Sarah Allen, founder and CEO, Mightyverse and President and Founder of RailsBridge, an inclusive and friendly Ruby on Rails community. RailsBridge guidelines are: First, do no harm. Then, help where you can; Bridge the gap from aspiring developer to contributing community member through mentoring, teaching & writing; Reach out to individuals and groups who are underrepresented in the community; Collaborate with other groups with similar goals. All of this makes Sarah a standout example of women in information technology and an NCWIT Hero. As usual, Lucy checked out the Mightyverse website, played with it and explains, " Basically Sarah created, at Mightyverse, what she is calling a language market place. And you don't just see or hear a pronunciation, but you see people's faces, actually saying the word or phrase. It looks good on your mobile device and you can go anywhere and figure out how to say something." Leave your English/Japanese Dictionary at home, but don't forget your Smart Phone / Mobile Phone with the Mightyverse App. Sarah is primarily self-funding this company through some independent consulting work. Sarah has also started and is president of RailsBridge - free workshops teaching Ruby on Rails aimed at women with the mission of increasing the number of women Ruby developers. The project which has trained almost 600 people, nearly 500 of them women, in five cities in the past year and a half, is gaining speed in 2011. Sarah is quite a technologist, obviously being chief technology officer. She said, "When I was in college, I didn't see the power of computing and how it could be applied to real world problems." Before Mightyverse she worked on a team of four engineers developing Shockwave and Flash software. In 1998 she was named as one of the Top 25 Women on the Web, an amazing technology career. Sarah said, "We're finally approaching what Tim Berners-Lee meant by the semantic web. The notion of having services on the web that you can connect to and machines can connect to and make sense of. So we're starting to be able to assemble fairly complex systems without building every piece ourselves. That's really exciting."
Related Links: RailsBridge || Mighty Verse || NCWIT Home || NCWIT Practice || NCWIT Blog || Heroes Channel || Keywords: Sarah Allen, Mightyverse, RailsBridge, National Center for Women and Information Technology, NCWIT, Lee Kennedy, Bolder Search, Entrepreneurs, Technology - Ruby on Rails, Lucy Sanders, Larry Nelson, NCWIT Heroes, Shockwave, Flash, mentoring - 2/17/11 bytes=22974696
LISTEN to Sarah Allen, CTO, Mightyverse, RailsBridge, President & Founder - NCWIT Hero

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CEY... update from Dave Leonard

Winners in the communications industry 
968_ 2/16/11 - The Communications Technology Professionals (CTP) are gearing up for their annual Communications Executive of the Year Award ceremonies April 7, 2011. Board member Tim Sisneros (United Communications Specialist - POLYCOM), joins us to 'circle around' for an update with last year's winner David Leonard. This is such a high honor, Larry asked for a little background from Dave, leading up to his selection last year. Of course, you'll want to hear Dave in his own words, but here, a little summary.
"I spent the bulk of his career in the communications industry. Initially with United Cable Television Corp. based here in Denver. As you know Denver was the capital of the cable industry back in the 80's and 90's. Companies like United Cable, TCI, Daniels, Jones Inter Cable, ATC and so forth, so it was very much of a hub for that industry." In 1989 United Cable was acquired by TCI and at that time Dave went abroad and joined United International Holdings and managed their operations in Sweden where they were building cable systems all over the country. From there Dave started and then managed their operations in Latin America, with operations in six countries throughout the region. From there to Brazil in 1998 which was great timing... and then the telecom meltdown occurred. "We exited that investment in 2001 and I joined Liberty Media and oversaw their interests in Latin America for the next several years. I joined Wild Blue Communications which provides broadband communications through satellite to rural areas of North America. I was with Wild Blue until 2009 when we sold the company on 12/15/2009 to ViaSat in Carlsbad California." Dave went on to talking about this year's award winner. "First let me congratulate CTP for a fine selection. Mike is a brilliant executive, I know him well. Actually our paths crossed in United International Holdings, where we both managed separate regions of the company, I was in Latin America, he was in Asia Pacific. He went on to become CEO of Liberty Global. So I think that's a wonderful choice. I think Liberty Global is extremely dynamic and they do the right things all over world. I think their strategy and infrastructure and content based services is brilliant."...Listen for more...
Related Links: Communications Technology Professionals || CTP Channel || Liberty Global || Polycom || Podcasting Directory || Keywords: David Leonard, Communications Technology Professionals, CTP, Communications Executive of the Year Award, United Cable, TCI, Daniels, Jones Inter Cable, Mike Fries, Liberty Global > 2/16/11 bytes=6662585
LISTEN to Tim Sisneros and Dave Leonard, Past Communications Executive of the Year

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CU TTO's Business Advisor of the Year

Business community helping with technology maturation 
969_ 2/15/11 - The University Colorado Tech Transfer Office (TTO) works with academics at the university who are interested in bringing their technology out into the world of potential licensing to pharmaceutical companies or other types of companies. TTO has done a spectacular job of helping identify the technologies within the university that are important. They protect it with patents and then help these groups with marketing and licensing the technologies out. Larry interviewed Lauren Costantini, who has been honored as the University of Colorado Tech Transfer Office, Business Advisor of the Year. Dr. Costantini has over 15 years of experience in pharmaceutical development and is a recognized leader in the area of central nervous system (CNS). She has led pre clinical development, early and pivotal international clinical trials, and regulatory affairs, and has played a key role in business development activities including licensing, patents, due diligence, and partnering discussions. She was previously on faculty at Harvard Medical School where she investigated mechanisms and treatments for neurodegeneration. For the last two years Dr. Costantini has been a consultant and advisor to TTO and has counseled faculty and TTO on business planning, etc. She has also been involved in advising several biomedical startups from the University of Colorado. Lauren explained, "TTO works with academics at the university who are interested in bringing their technology out into the world of potential licensing to their pharmaceutical companies or other types of companies. TTO has done a spectacular job of helping identify the technologies within the university that are important. They protect it with patents and then help these groups with marketing and licensing the technologies out. Helping those technologies mature is not just taking something from the bench and telling those investigators what may help move them through, but also connecting those investigators with people in the VC world or even the pharmaceutical world, or key opinion leaders."...listen now...
Related Links: CU Technology Transfer Office || Lauren C. Costantini, LCC Consulting || CU TTO Channel || TTO Blog || CU TTO Awards || Award Photos || Keywords: Lauren C. Costantini, LCC Consulting, CU Technology Transfer Office, Clinical Trials, Regulatory Affairs, business development activities including licensing, patents, Due Diligence, Partnering Discussions > 2/15/11 bytes=6913361 LISTEN to Lauren Costantini, CU TTO "Business Advisor of the Year"

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Due dilligence can be painful

Selling your business, reactive or proactive
962_ 2/11/11 - Do you know the top five things a business owner should do when preparing for an exit? Well, we're happy to be talking with a sponsor of the Colorado Companies to Watch program. Chris Younger and David Tolson, managing directors of Capital Value Advisors have some great advice for all of us, so listen up and be ready to take some notes. Well the top thing is to be prepared to be put under the microscope. "Due Diligence is a very painful process and most business owners don't think about the process until they get to that point" said David Tolson. "Often times there are things that can be done in advance of the sale. In prepping materials, being prepared to talk about any problems with financials that may have arisen in the prior couple of years, and just be prepared for the questions that you may be asked. The other big issue we see is that most business owners typically will look at an exit as a reactive event instead of a proactive event. If you're proactive about it, it's like any other business process. If you plan for it you can eliminate a lot of mistakes that are potentially made and make sure you maximize the eventual exit." Chris said, "Our view is that risk comes in two forms. You have risk in a business which could be in a number of areas. It could be risking your management team, risking your customer base, or your suppliers. There is also risk in the transaction. So, the ability to plan for that transaction, understand and anticipate those risks, and then develop your game plan for how to address those risks, that's what will lead to a successful transaction. The next big mistake that business owners make is not understanding what they need from the transaction. For example what happens to their employees, to their customers, their strategic relationships, the name of the business is as, or more important than the dollars from the transaction." What is the acquisition market like? "We're seeing No. 1, the credit markets loosen up a little bit. We're seeing private equities getting more interested in transactions. The deals we have at market today, we're getting great reception for. So our view is that the acquisition market has really come back. We're feeling pretty optimistic about 2011." They also wrote a book, "HARVEST: The Definitive Guide to Selling Your Company." ...Listen now, there's much more...
Related Links: Capital Value Advisors || HARVEST: The Definitive Guide to Selling Your Company || Colorado Companies to Watch Home || CCTW Channel || CCTW Event || CCTW Gala Celebration || Keywords: Capital Value Advisors, Chris Younger, David Tolson Colorado 50 Companies to Watch, HARVEST: The Definitive Guide to Selling Your Company, Due Diligence - 2/11/11 bytes=9150696 LISTEN to Chris Younger and David Tolson, Capital Value Advisors

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Most successful Incubator in the world...

 Incubator that's coming here to Colorado 
963_ 2/10/11 - We're talking about an incubator that's coming here to Colorado. Vic Ahmed, amongst so many other positions, is CEO of the Colorado Plug & Play Tech Center. We wanted to know what this means, so Larry asked Vic for an overview. Vic is very excited, for himself to be involved personally, but also for what Plug and Play can do for the entrepreneurial system here in Colorado. "So Plug and Play is the most successful, I know for certain, incubator in the U.S. Not just in the U.S., in fact, it's the most successful incubator in the world!," said Vic. A few years ago, as Vic was working on his own virtual incubator, Captain Green, he had incubators researched. He discovered Plug and Play through that research process and discovered this absolutely incredible success. "Now you'll find these numbers amazing, I encourage you to go to the website, plugandplaytechcenter.com. In the last four to five years they've incubated over 600 companies and raised over $700 million for these companies. Right now, we are closing about five new investments a month." Plug and Play has a structured relationship with over 140 VC's, that come regularly to Plug and Play, look at the deal flow, and make various investment decisions. Plug and Play also has its own fund that they co-invest with these VC's. they have relationships with over 15 universities, including Harvard, Cornell, Stanford... They have programs in 15 countries in which they bring the best companies out of those countries to Silicon Valley for a few months and help them get funded. On top of all that they also have strategic relationships with top companies like BestBuy, PayPal. PayPal in fact has a mini incubator within Plug and Play where they're encouraging companies to build products layered on their platform. Very exciting stuff, and Vic says he is most excited to be working on setting up a Plug and Play Tech Center here in Colorado. They're targeting a Q3 timeframe for that. Vic has been working on this now for 6 to 8 months and has made great progress, meeting a lot of the stake holders in Colorado who are very, very supportive of this concept. There's more advice for entrepreneurs...
Related Links: Plug and Play Tech Center || Podcasting Directory || In the News || TiE Rockies || Rockies Venture Club || Keywords: Vic Ahmed, TiE Rockies, Plug and Play Tech Center, Incubator, VC's, Venture Capital, Entrepreneurs, Technology, PayPal - 2/10/11 bytes=7421181 LISTEN to Vic Ahmed, President & CEO, Colorado Plug and Play Tech Center

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