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From Scholarship Funds to 2nd Stage Growth...

Penny Lewandowski Second Stage Development and Growth
1373_ 4/10/13 - We're here with keynote speaker, at the ACG Denver's April Luncheon, Penny Lewandowski director of entrepreneurship development for the Edward Lowe Foundation. Lewandowski works with entrepreneur support organizations (ESOs) as they develop creative ways to grow their communities by serving second-stage businesses. She is a frequent speaker on the topics of building an entrepreneurial culture, as well as the importance of working with growth companies. She also directs the foundation’s Entrepreneurship Team and manages the technology services for the organization. It's been six months since Lewandowski was in Denver, Larry asked for an update on what's happening with Colorado Companies to Watch. Penny said, "Tomorrow evening we will be at the Governor's Residence with all of the finalists - and I think we have 184 finalists. We had a record number of nominations this year. Colorado is always out front when it comes to nominations. Then on Thursday we're going to be judging those companies, and they go through a pretty intensive process with that. We'll probably make an announcement in the next several weeks after we do the judging."

ACG Denver’s David Sloan Scholarship Program. Set your goal to become an ACG Scholar! Each year the Denver Chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) awards one scholarship to a promising 1st or 2ndyear student at each of five area graduate business programs, in the amount of $2,500 annually. The scholarship is renewable for a second year based on both the academic performance and the career ambition of the student. To be eligible for the award, the recipient must be currently enrolled in one of five programs with a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or better...Listen for much more...
RELATED LINKS: ACG Denver || M&A Channel || ACG Denver's David Sloan Scholarship Program || Colorado Companies to Watch || ACG Photo || KEYWORDS: Penny Lewandowski, Entrepreneurship, Second Stage Companies, Edward Lowe Foundation, Colorado Companies to Watch, ACG Denver, David Sloan Scholarship, University of Denver, bytes=2751741
LISTEN TO: Penny Lewandowski, Director of Entrepreneurship, Edward Lowe Foundation

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ColoradoFIRST Regional Competition at DU

Developing Colorado's Science and Technology Leaders of Tomorrow 1372_ 4/9/13

Watch this short but important video. FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) was founded in 1989 by Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway Human Transporter. FIRST was founded on partnerships with businesses, educational institutions and government. Many Fortune 500 companies provide funding, in-kind donations and volunteers to support the program. The key to FIRST's success is the work of thousands of volunteer mentors, professional engineers, teachers, and other adults working with youth across the country. In addition to the volunteer team mentors, FIRST competitions and other events were organized and staffed by over 5000 event and committee volunteers. FIRST programs are growing rapidly in the United States and Canada, and demand is accelerating in other countries...VIDEO to watch...
RELATED LINKS: Colorado FIRST Home || FIRST Impact || ColoradoFIRST Robotics Competition Photos 2013 || Channel: University of Denver on w3w3.com || PodCast Directory || KEYWORDS: Colorado FIRST, Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, Student Competition, Volunteers, Mentors

Strategic Equity firm, focused on education & healthcare...

Kevin Custer, 15-20 million people who need product and services

1371_ 4/5/13 - Kevin Custer serves as the president of the board for the Autism Society of Colorado, he also works on the national board of directors. and Kevin is the founding partner of Arc Capital Development, a strategic equity firm that focuses on education and healthcare. Strategic equity is different than private equity or venture capital in that we invest from $150,000 up to $1 million at a strategic time in a company, when it's time for them to get to the next inflection point. Different from venture capital - it's later stage than that, earlier than private equity. Larry asked, "Why education and why healthcare?" Kevin replied, "We see a convergence of those two. We look at the healthcare space and we specialize a lot in the development of the schools. We see that as an emerging market. When you look at a healthcare market, you look at the different service providers, be it hospitals, clinics, professionals prescribing or non-prescribing, even the consumers now are starting to look at that. One of the largest providers of healthcare services in the U.S., specifically for children is the U.S. School System, because every child starting at the age of three is eligible for services through the school system. What we've seen happen is that market really starting to emerge. Larry asked Kevin what he meant when he said 'emerging market'. Kevin said, "There has always been a need for products and services in the development of the school area. What we have seen happen, specifically with Autism, is fifteen years ago there were a couple hundred thousand people with Autism in the United States - now there's close to two million. Just our school system alone has had a 10X increase and they need services, they need products, they need adapting equipment, things like that. On top of that the CDC believes one in six people need some type of adaptive or assistive help in their daily life. That is people with developmental disabilities, they've had a stroke, traumatic brain injury, whatever it is, we see that as the emerging market. That's 15-20 million people, just in the U.S. who need product and services. Products and services have been around for a long time, but they've been very expensive and complicated to use." ...there's more...
RELATED LINKS: Arc Capital Development || Autism Society of Colorado || Autism Society National || Walk Page || ASC Programs || Donate || KEYWORDS: Kevin Custer, Arc Capital Development, Autism Society of Colorado, ASC Programs, Strategic Equity, Emerging Market, Social Express, Capital, bytes=5287082
LISTEN TO: Kevin Custer, Founding Partner, Arc Capital Development

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School Raising Building Fund... Ayurveda a full medical practice

Kourtney Nelson - Alandi Ayurveda, solutions to healthcare crisis
1366_ 3/21/13 - We've been discussing some of the issues with our healthcare system, one of which is the shortage of doctors, and ballooning healthcare costs. We are talking with Kourtney Nelson, Dean of Alandi Ayurveda, a school in Boulder. In a brief overview Kourtney tells us, Ayurveda, "is a holistic medicine developed in India 5000 years ago. It's a full medical practice. Ayurveda looks at the root cause of disease and imbalance in the body instead of just treating conditions. That's a different mind-set. Western medicine doesn't look at a disease until it's in a pathological state. Holistic medicine looks at it as you're coming out of balance, several stages before it comes into a pathological range. So we're looking for optimal wellness - vs. being below a pathological marker. We'll interpret blood tests differently and catch things at an earlier stage and help to work on them - or help to reverse or minimize the damage of a chronic condition. Alandi Ayurveda is the first school in the U.S. that offers a four year advanced level training. Once the national standards have been established for practice level and the national exams for practitioners ar established, the graduates of our program will qualify to be Ayurvedic Doctors - so they'll be the first Ayurvedic Doctors in the U.S. that have been trained here. It is really exciting, to be able to build our school and to increase the number of well trained Ayurvedic physicians out there. That way we can also expand our offering such as clinic in the community and some of the modalities. Currently we do have a clinic at our school and we offer a sliding scale. So we're able to see lots of different people from all ends of the economic spectrum - which is one way we can give back to the community. We'd like to expand that and give more and also be able to provide other classes to the community like cooking classes, simple kitchen herbs and other things people can use to take care of their health. Kourtney believes that western / allopathic medicine and alternative medicine, such as Ayurveda work well together and believes this will be the future of medicine for our country. It's a matter of having a bigger tool box and knowing when you need the hammer or the chisel - they both operate very differently. Having more access and more well trained Ayurvedic physicians, and other modalities, providing more preventative care options, will help decrease the shortage of doctors we're seeing now and also decrease the national cost of healthcare. The Alandi Ayurveda Gurukula is raising money to expand the school, looking for a new location and to establish a larger presence in the community.
RELATED LINKS: Alandi Ayurveda || Donate || Course Descriptions || PodCast Directory || KEYWORDS: Kourtney Nelson, Ayurveda, Ayurvedic Medicine, Doctors, Physicians, Practitioners, Holistic Medicine, India, Allopathic Medicine, Boulder, Doctors, Physicians, Practitioners, Healthcare, Alandi Ayurveda Gurukula, bytes=11796984
LISTEN TO: Kourtney Nelson, Dean, Alandi Ayurveda

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Bootstrapping and Startups

Sarah Schupp, aggregating resources so that they're easy to find
1367_ 3/19/13 - We are speaking with Sarah Schupp, founder and CEO of UniversityParent. As fate would have it, we first heard of Sarah when we were on the Parents Board at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and Sarah was a bright young student who came to the University with a very good idea and that was the beginning of a successful bootstrapping startup. We've asked Sarah to give our listeners an overview. Basically UniversityParent is the number one destination for college parents to find everything they need to help their students. So it's everything from safe, off-campus student housing to nearby moving and storage facilities, to information on how they can help their student if they're dealing with a challenge on campus. The idea came up because Sarah was an out-of-state student here in Boulder and her parents had all kinds of questions about the local area as well as the university. Not surprisingly their questions were different than those of Sarah's as a student. Almost all of the information the university provided really was directed at the student population and not the parent population. This was crazy - parents are such big stakeholders in the student's education that they really need to be constructively involved and have the right resources available. So Sarah approached the university with "the idea" for a parent guide. They were supportive of the idea the problem was a lack of funding. Sarah's response? "I said, that's great, I'm glad you don't have any money, I'm going to make this into a business." Sarah walked downtown Boulder knocking on doors and asking people to advertise. Parents want to know about the local businesses almost as much as they want to know about the local content. Larry asked, "What resources do you offer to both parents and students?" Sarah replied, "Basically we are aggregating resources so that they're easy to find for families. That's everything from where is the academic advising center on campus; when is tuition due; when is spring break. Some of these questions don't seem to be serious, like when is spring break, but they're important because parents have to book flights and arrange travel." Listen for more...
RELATED LINKS: UniversityParent.com || Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship || Economy Builders || Mastering Change || KEYWORDS: Sarah Schupp, UniversityParent, Crash Course Series for Entrepreneurs, Entrepreneurs Unplugged, New Tech Meetup, Entrepreneurship, Silicon Flatiron Center, bytes=6915451
LISTEN TO: Sarah Schupp, CEO, UniversityParent

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Tech Transfer proof-of-concept investments work

Tom Smerdon, success in marketing new ideas
1364_ 3/13/13 - From a business person's point of view, the Technology Transfer Office is one of the most important things that the university provides, for business, individual professors and students, with everything from awards and recognition but most importantly really helping them along when they come up with an idea. Larry is with Tom Smerdon, Interim Associate Vice President of the University of Colorado Technology Transfer Office in Boulder. Tom said, "There are a couple of the things I'd like to bring to the listeners attention. One, which we're really excited about, is the recent acquisition of a CU startup. F5 Networks has acquired LineRate Systems, a Colorado startup that’s developing technologies around what’s called software define networking. F5 noted that the networking technologies will help bring superior service agility, application intelligence, and programmability to software defined data centers. The thing that is exciting about this is, not only was this a startup basically out of Computer Sciences and Electrical Engineering here on the CU Boulder campus, but the company was also an early recipient of the Proof-of-Concept investment from the Tech Transfer Office. This was the first money into the company which really helped it acquire some critical equipment early on and facilitated the development of the technology that was later further developed in its Louisville office and ultimately the subject of the sale to F5. This is one of the success stories for Tech Transfer and we're really excited for the company and the founders. A couple of events that are coming up; we are doing our Tech Transfer Awards a little differently this year. Previously there had been a single awards event covering the system campuses held in Denver. This year we're going to have campus focused events, so we have the Boulder Awards event which is scheduled for April 1st. This is in conjunction with the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship. The program, Entrepreneurship Under the Microscope, is an evening event with a keynote speaker and we will be awarding the Inventor of the Year, New Inventor of the Year, and Company of the Year during a fun networking event with CU-Boulder faculty and students, and members of the Boulder entrepreneurial community. We have the second awards event planned... there's more...
RELATED LINKS: CU Technology Transfer Office || CU TTO Channel || TTO Blog || LineRate Systems || KEYWORDS: Tom Smerdon, Interim Associate Vice President, Tech Transfer Office, University of Colorado, Technology Transfer, LineRate Systems, F5, Awards, bytes=4401426
LISTEN TO: Tom Smerdon, Interim Associate Vice President. Tech Transfer, University of Colorado

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Bootstrapping Part 2

"Commissioned sales people may be a thing of the past..."
1362_ 3/7/13 - ...Bill Flagg was convinced he needed the service and would probably buy within the next month. But, the commissioned sales person was so motivated to get the sale in by the end of the quarter, that he gave Bill a 30% discount - on the entire contract, a big dollar amount. Not only did Bill not get value from this sales person, he had to go to the tech guy to get his real questions answered - You need a technology partner willing to work for sweat equity - cast a wide net in the beginning... Bootstrapping, more insights,
Watch Now Part 2 of 2
Crash Course, Bootstrapping || The Felix Fun || Bill Flagg Blog || Economy Builders || PodCast Directory || KEYWORDS: Bill Flagg, Crash Course Bootstrapping, Silicon Flatiron Center, Brad Bernthal, The Felix Fun, RegOnline, PosterBrain, SnapEngage, StickerGiant, SurveyGizmo, SFC Crash Course
Video - Bill Flagg, The Felix Fun - SFC Crash Course Series, Bootstrapping

TTO Eyes-On Advanced Industries Acceleration Act

Tom Smerdon First to Invent Rule under the America Invents Act
1360_ 3/6/13 - Larry is in Boulder with Tom Smerdon, Interim Associate Vice President of University of Colorado Technology Transfer Office. "There are several interesting events that we're keeping an eye on. One is the upcoming implementation of 'The First to Invent Rule under the America Invents Act. This goes into effect on March the 16th. So this has required us to look at some of the provisional applications that are pending and accelerate the filing of the U.S. Utility Applications. We've been doing that as well as setting up some informational and outreach efforts to inform the faculty of this change. One of the exciting legislative initiatives that Tom and his team are keeping an eye on is the Advanced Industries Acceleration Act. This was recently introduced in the House as HB1001 and basically it would expand the current Bioscience Discovery and Evaluation Grant Program [the BDEG] which currently provides for state grant funding / proof-of-concept funding for bioscience technologies as well as grants for early stage bioscience companies. It would expand that to six other advanced industries in Colorado. These are advanced manufacturing, aerospace, electronics, cleantech energy and natural resources, infrastructure engineering and information technology. While we make some changes to the basic BDEG funding, the basic structure is preserved. So there would continue to be proof-of-concept grants that would go to research institutions - that definition has been expanded somewhat, but it would include the state research institutions, University of Colorado. It would also provide some company matching grant funding, although the match would now be one dollar from the state to two dollars from the company and it will also provide infrastructure funding as is currently provided under the BDEG program. There are some caps on those funding amounts but in the case of proposals that would involve more than one advanced industry, those caps are removed. But again, it's pending and we'll have to see what the final legislation looks like. we've been working closely with the Office of Economic Development and International Trade on some related advanced... there's more...
RELATED LINKS: CU Technology Transfer Office || CU TTO Channel || TTO Blog || CID4 || CBSA || KEYWORDS: Tom Smerdon, Interim Associate Vice President, Tech Transfer Office, University of Colorado, Technology Transfer, The First to Invent Rule America Invents Act., Biotech Technologies, Bio Science Discovery, Office of Economic Development and International Trade, Bioscience Discovery and Evaluation Grant Program - bytes=5151245
LISTEN TO: Tom Smerdon, Interim Assoc. Vice President, Tech Transfer Office, University of Colorado

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Proactive in that we're going upstream

Ed von Bleichert Zero Waste & Ralphie's Green Stampede
1359_ 3/5/13 - "Here at CU we have one of the oldest college and university recycling programs in the country, going back to 1976." We're talking with Edward von Bleichert, Manager Environmental Operations, Department of Facilities Management, University of Colorado Boulder. Ed tells us, "Our program has some rich history as a recycling program. The term Zero Waste [ZW] is a relatively new term and tries to redefine the approach we're taking." To explain, recycling is somewhat reactive. You take the waste you're given and you try to find an outlet for it. Zero waste is really more proactive where you're looking at the inputs, throughputs, outputs, and trying to minimize waste at all of those stages. As it relates to us here on campus, it's still mostly a waste focus in terms of municipal solid waste, what would be going to the landfill as trash. But we're still being proactive in that we're going upstream, into that waste stream, and we're redesigning the waste from the beginning to make sure it's recyclable, compostable or reusable. Our biggest foray into Zero Waste started with Ralphie's Green Stampede which was the Athletic Department's initiative. It includes other initiatives in sustainability like energy and water conservation. But probably the area that's gotten the most attention is the waste elimination and the Zero Waste effort. As part of that, we literally sort through all the waste of every single home football game [the waste of 53,000 people]. Mostly to identify what is in that waste stream, and be able to design it out or find a market for it, whichever the case may be, to ultimately keep it out of a landfill. The simple definition of Zero Waste, and there are many, but for our purposes we're talking about achieving a minimum of a 90% landfill diversion rate. The campus is currently about 41% conversion rate for municipal solid waste. That doesn't include... Listen for more...
RELATED LINKS: CU wins EPA Challenge || Ralphie’s Green Stampede || Single Stream in Housing || PodCasting Directory || KEYWORDS: Ed von Bleichert, CU, Environmental Operations, Department of Facilities Management, University of Colorado Boulder, Zero Waste, Ralphie's Green Stampede, bytes=4874556
LISTEN TO: Ed Von Bleichert, Manager, Environmental Operations, CU

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Crash Course: Bootstrapping

Bill Flagg, Bootstrapping, SFC Crash Course
1357_ 2/28/13 Bill Flagg is an angel partner in four boot-strapped, built-for-life, internet-based companies (PosterBrain, SnapEngage, StickerGiant, and SurveyGizmo). This community of businesses, The Felix Fun, delivers value to over 20,000 customers, with the help of 100 co-workers, generating $15 million in revenue per year, and growing. Prior to this Bill Flagg helped build RegOnline which he sold in 2007. As part of the Silicon Flatirons Center, Crash Course Series for Entrepreneurs, Bill spoke about his experience in bootstrapping his company. Bill tells us he started bootstrapping in high school and then college - he didn't know he could get someone to actually give him money to go out and start a business. So it was really out of his own naiveté that he became a bootstrapper. Bill was co-owner of RegOnline, which was sold to The Active Network in 2007 (he hopes to never sell another great company). In 2008, Bill started The Felix Fun to be an angel partner in helping other entrepreneurs grow great companies and thrive through organic growth. He's always had this thought in mind, 'is this extra dollar going to provide more than a dollar of value to my customers?' Because, if it wasn't going to return the value, then he knew he couldn't sustain the business. That really is the premise he uses in building and helping to build companies he works with over the last 20+ years. There are different strategies that he employs, one is, , using your capital in the most efficient way. When bootstrapping there isn't that much capital - that forces the question very acutely. The second is to really know who your core customers are. Bill says, "A lot of businesses..." Listen for more...
RELATED LINKS: Crash Course, Bootstrapping || The Felix Fun || Bill Flagg Blog || Software Channel || 2012 Software Chnl || KEYWORDS: Bill Flagg, Bootstrapping, The Felix Fun, RegOnline, PosterBrain, SnapEngage, StickerGiant, SurveyGizmo, World Champion, Olympian, SFC Crash Course, Brad Bernthal, > bytes=6946798
LISTEN TO: Bill Flagg, Bootstrapping, SFC Crash Course

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