Major impact on the Colorado economy
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Larry interviewed Holli Baumunk the newly appointed President and CEO of Colorado BioScience Association or CBSA. We've followed Holli's career over the years and, "I've seen you in everything from aerospace to all different types of areas, but you're always helping organizations and businesses flourish and grow." Holli's been in economic growth for over 22 years, and "Really believes in working with these industries. It helps the economy, grows jobs, wealth in the community - can't get any better than that.", she said. Larry asked Holli, "What are some of the challenges the bioscience industry is facing today?" Holli replied, "CBSA works with pharma, biotechnology, medical device companies and bio companies primarily. A majority of these companies are small and growing. What's different between bioscience and other industry sectors is the time it takes to get to market and commercialize. On average to bring a drug to market takes approximately 10 to 12 years and almost one billion dollars, and they make no money during that time period. Then a patent on that drug only lasts about 12 years. So they really have a very small window of time to be able to get their money back and then it goes generic. Now it's interesting medical devices is a shorter period of time, it takes about eight years on average to bring that medical device to market, those are things like pace makers, and that takes anywhere from five to $50 million. Again it's high capital investments. In Colorado there is approximately 17,000 people that are employed in the bioscience industry, with average salaries around $80,000. But for every job created in bioscience, it creates another five jobs and what a lot of people don't realize is that a lot of money that comes into the economy is from research institutions. When you look at CU, CSU, National Jewish, etc., all of these research institutions, for every dollar that's invested into research - another $32 comes back into the economy. That's a huge multiplier, so we're talking very big money, and Colorado happens to be one of the top areas for receiving public monies for our institutions." ...There's more......
Related Links:
Colorado BioScience Association ||
BioWEST 2010 Conference ||
BioSciences Channel ||
PodCast Directory ||
Keywords: Holli Baumunk, Colorado Bioscience Association, BioWEST 2010, Pharma,
Biotechnology, Medical Device, CBSA, Personalized Medicine, FDA 8/30/10 bytes: 5011960 Listen to: Holli Baumunk, President and CEO,
CBSA
My biggest motivation is when someone tells me it is impossible
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"I don't believe in the impossible, I just want to make the impossible become possible." Yvonne Lynott brings us yet another fabulous and memorable event. This last week she introduced us to Normand Latourelle, the visionary and creator behind Cavalia. Normand is a co-founder of Cirque du Soleil and now Cavalia is yet another 'grand scale' show which features 60 artists and 50 horses from around the world in a multi-media extravaganza. Larry asked, "What is your passion?" Normand was very clear and replied, "Well my passion is not to accept what is impossible. And my biggest motivation is when someone tells me it is impossible, this is where I start to work. I don't believe in the impossible, I just want to make the impossible become possible. From there, then you have to work and it's only the time you spend by yourself, the time you spend of doing things, creating things, of taking the thing that looks very obvious, to transform them and to make them become better." When asked for an overview of Cavalia, he replied, "You know it's not a show about horses, it's got horses. But, when I started to work, I didn't know anything, I had to study about the horses for five years before I was convinced I could do something very different with horses. I think I came to the horse with much innocence and I started to challenge what was existing. I am a lucky fellow, I have the luxury of time. If you are soft, gentle and patient, the horse will give you everything. But you have to make it happen on his time frame, not your time frame. The horses that come on stage, it's their playground, they come to have fun, and that makes the big difference between any other shows in the world, especially equestrian shows." Listen for more...
Related Links:
Cavalia Home ||
Pepsi Center Map ||
Lynott & Associates ||
Blog ||
Keywords: Normand Latourelle, Cavalia, Horses, Impossible, Artist, Performers,
Cirque du Soleil, Yvonne Lynott, Pepsi Center 8/30/10 bytes: 5422292
Listen to: Normand Latourelle, Visionary & Creator, Cavalia
Successful entrepreneurs: Realistic optimists
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Entrepreneurs have personal lives and sometimes have to struggle to bring balance to their life. Lucy Sanders, the CEO for the National Center for Women and Information Technology or NCWIT along with Larry Nelson, Director of w3w3® Media Network interviewed Marcie Black, CTO & Co-founder, Bandgap Engineering. Bandgap has pioneered the development of a highly tunable and inexpensive method for nanostructuring silicon and is applying this technology to high efficiency solar cells. Lucy asked, "If you were talking to a young person who wanted to be an entrepreneur, what other advice would you give them?" Marcie replied with a great deal of passion, "I wouldn't advise people to be an entrepreneur, even though I love it. What I would advise them to do is really figure out what drives them. If it's making money, or having prestige, it's probably not the best route for them. But if it's something like bring technology to the market and trying to make the world a better place through their technology, then I would advise them to be an entrepreneur. Once they become an entrepreneur, my biggest advice would be to follow your passion and do what you enjoy, what you really believe in. Because if you believe in something and you work hard at it, you're much more likely to be successful. She went onto share, "I've noticed that of the successful entrepreneurs that I know, are very optimistic and I am very optimistic as well. But you can't be blindly optimistic. You have to be what I call 'realistic optimist'; you can't have your blinders on. But you do have to see a way that the company can be successful and arrange it so all the parts fall into place for that to happen. So, I'd say optimism and also persistence and work ethic are very important." ...There's more...
Related Links:
Bandgap Engineering Home ||
NCWIT Share ||
NCWIT Home ||
NCWIT Practice ||
Heroes Channel ||
Keywords: Marcie Black, Bandgap Engineering, Entrepreneurs, Nanostructuring Silicon, Solar Cells, Lucinda Sanders, National Center for
Women and Information Technology, NCWIT >> 8/23/10 bytes: 13017968 Listen to: Marcie Black, Co-founder & COO, Bandgap Engineering
We did start in our garage
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One of the winners of the Colorado 50 Companies to Watch is Product Architects or maybe better known as Polar Bottle. Stephanie Steffens, Program Director for Colorado Companies to Watch said, "Colorado's Companies to Watch focuses on are 'Second Stage' companies." Larry interviewed Judy Amabile, President and Co-founder of Product Architects. Judy shared a very inspirational entrepreneurial experience that her and her Co-founding partner Robert Heiberger went through. Judy said, "We started our business in 1994, and we did start in our garage. We went around town with our product, the Polar Bottle, an insulated water bottle for bicycling, and called on a few bike shops here and Aspen. We got a very good response from bike shop owners, people wanted to carry our product, it was very innovative at the time, and no one else was doing an insulated water bottle. We insulate in a very elegant, lightweight way. It's very simple to use a Polar Bottle and it really works - people were impressed with that. We've been growing and selling our product ever since. We've had different versions and this year we introduced a stainless steel bottle and a plastic bottle that are for the outdoor market." When asked, "What advice would you give today, to entrepreneurs starting a new business?" Her interesting answer was, "I think our business has done well in large part, because we have partnered with our suppliers. We don't go out there and try to get the cheapest deal, we go out to get the best relationship we can with the people who we work with. From the beginning we partnered with a blow mold company, Bottles Unlimited in Denver and we have a relationship with them. They help us, we help them. So we've partnered with our suppliers and we've also, to a large part, partnered with our employees, and we also try to partner with our customers. So, we don't go for the highest margins, we go for the best relationships." Listen for more great ideas...
Related Links:
Polar Bottle ||
Colorado Companies to Watch ||
Gala Event ||
ACG Channel ||
CCTW Channel ||
Keywords: Judy Amabile, Polar Bottle, Product Architects, Colorado Companies to
Watch, CCTW, Global, Colorado, 8/23/10 bytes: 5421351
Listen to: Judy Amabile, President, Product Architects, Inc
Growing Leaders and Communities:
Leaders aren't born
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Larry had a discussion with Pete Estler a serial entrepreneur and Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Quintess and Pete Burridge, President and Chief Executive Officer of Greenhouse Partners, about an exciting program coming up. Their goal is to send 20 to 40 'under-resourced' students to college. The Fifth Annual Scholars Royale also known as Dinner Royale is a world-class event coming up on September 23rd to benefit Greenhouse Scholars. Their goal, to send 20 to 40 'under-resourced' students to college. Greenhouse Scholars mission is, "Growing Leaders and Communities: Leaders aren't born. They are created-nurtured to their greatest potential with encouragement, direction, and inspiration. Greenhouse Scholars provides mentorship and scholarship support to high-performing, under-resourced students - cultivating the next generation of community leaders in an environment that allows them to fully thrive." "Dinner Royale is for the benefit of Greenhouse Scholars - it is a money raising event, like no other. It is a two day event. The first evening is a fabulous dinner, Texas Hold'em night and the event is really geared toward fun. This year one of the major themes is racing. Pete Estler said, "We have a race car from Mario Andretti coming and we'll probably have about $20 million worth of sports cars there. The event is really very interesting networking, top executives are coming in. This year our guest of honor is Emmitt Smith, recently inducted into the Hall of Fame in Canton, OH. Emmitt is donating his time and we're actually throwing a "Hall of Fame" party for him at the event. So it's a world class event with people flying in from Dallas, NYC, LA and other places." There's more...
Related Links:
Dinner Royale 2010 ||
The Cause ||
Quintess ||
Greenhouse Partners ||
PGA Tour Club ||
Find It ||
Keywords: Pete Estler, Pete Burridge, Dinner Royale 2010, Scholars Royal, Quintess,
Greenhouse Partners, Greenhouse Scholars, Emmitt Smith 8/30/10 bytes: 5350194 Listen to:
Pete Estler and Pete Burridge, Greenhouse Scholars,
Dinner Royale
Growing from one to fifty employees
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Larry interviewed John Williamson, CEO, QualVu, and a winner of the Colorado 50, Colorado Companies to Watch! Qualvu has used the power of video and the convenience of the internet to redefine qualitative market research. John explained, "One of the fundamental tenants of qualitative research, and for any listeners not familiar with the category, Qualitative Research is the Why behind the numbers. So you can do a survey, you can ask people to fill out a simple form and find out that maybe their behaviors are changing over time. But QualVu seeks to understand why do they do the things they do, why do they think the things they think. And so we've created a way for any company of any size to tell us who they care about, who their most important customer or potential customer is, and we'll actually arm those people with web cams, and we'll allow that company access to those people's homes, in their place of work that are on the go, to watch them in action. So it really goes beyond what they say it's about what they do that provides that level of intelligence. And we just figured out a way to do that very quickly and efficiently and very cost effectively." John's advice to entrepreneurs in today's environment, "For us it's really come down to running the business tight. It's never been more important than now to be operationally excellent. Pay attention to every detail, become an operator. Especially in these times where you cannot hesitate, not even for a moment, to make really rapid adjustments. To react to emerging opportunities, to change things in the face of those opportunities. Truly understanding our business has been a crucial part of our success, I believe. Then you have to have the courage to take that information and make meaningful adjustments or decisions. For a new entrepreneur that means opportunity. For an existing business a fundamental fact is a lot of those adjustments are painful. You need to divorce what needs to be done from the ego. The good news is..." Listen for more...
Related Links:
QualVu ||
Colorado Companies to Watch ||
Gala Event ||
ACG Channel ||
CCTW Channel ||
Keywords: John Williamson, QualVu, Colorado Companies to Watch, Qualitative Research,
Consumers, Entrepreneurs, Video, Internet 8/30/10 bytes: 6540750
Listen to: John Williamson, CEO, QualVu
More awards in Boulder the Hot Spot
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Larry turned the table and interviewed Chris Wood, Publisher of the Boulder County Business Report. This was in the BCBR conference room, in Boulder of course. Larry asked, "Can you give us an idea of some of the shifts that are occurring in business here in Boulder County?" Chris replied, "There are a lot of changes with business and of course the IQ Awards celebrate the Innovation Quotient. With the economy overall in Boulder County, we are seeing a number of companies merge in the green and sustainability sector. Of course Boulder County is the center for the outdoors sector: we have one of the highest concentrations companies in the country, here in the Boulder Valley. And of course, high technology including bio science, data storage and software development, very, very important, as well as aerospace. So all in all, I would say the economy in the Boulder Valley has weathered the 'great recession' better than a lot of parts of the country. So we are we're in a very fortunate position. We've certainly seen some impact of the recession here, especially with the real estate and financial sectors. But overall you've got to look at the employment numbers and the outbreak numbers for local industry and say that we've done pretty well." When asked, "What advice do you have for a person considering being a startup entrepreneur here in Boulder?" "I would say network! One of the fantastic things about Boulder Valley and the City of Boulder is the incredible networking opportunities that exist. Networking is a great way to get a head start, a jump on, in terms of not making some of the mistakes that others have made. People are very sharing in this market." There is much more including details about the 10th anniversary IQ Awards...
Related Links:
IQ Awards ||
IQ Award Finalists ||
BCBR ||
Find It ||
2009 Photos of IQ Awards Photos ||
Keywords: Chris Wood, IQ Awards, Boulder County Business Report, BCBR, Boulder,
8/23/10 bytes: 4870272
Listen to: Chris Wood, Publisher, BCBR - IQ Awards
Entrepreneurs are getting much younger
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"We're talking with David Wolf, the founder and managing director of Wolf Ventures, and David is also on the board of a fabulous organization, Young Americans Center for Financial Education - in this day and age, that sounds like a very good idea." David replied, "Well financial literacy or the consequences of illiteracy have become quite evident lately. But, Young American Center was founded by Bill Daniels; we recently celebrated our 21st anniversary, and originally started as Young Americans Bank. It is the only bank in the country, federally chartered, for customers all under the age of 23. Not a particularly profitable business model I might add, but it really serves our market well. So we are very focused on the needs of young people, from infants through the teenage years and then early into college. From our experience of operating and managing a real live bank with 40,000 customers, in almost all of 50 states, we began to build an adjacent program to educate young people. Over the years we've developed that into the Young Americans Center for Financial Education, a separate 501c3, from our federally chartered for profit, attempted for profit bank." David shared many things about the activities at the Young Americans Center ...listen for some extremely interesting points. They talked about the 9th Annual Celebration for Young Entrepreneurs on 9/23/10 at the Seawell Ballroom. "Well, I'm very excited, it is such a fun evening, and it is a celebration for young entrepreneurs. And it's modeled after one of our former partners, Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Dinner here in Colorado. But this is for young entrepreneurs and all of the competitors are under the age of 21, with four age categories; 6 to 11, 12 to 14, 15 to 17 and 18 to 21 and they actually compete for a cash prize of $1,000."...listen for more...
Related Links:
Young Americans Center ||
9th Annual Celebration for Young Entrepreneurs ||
Daniels Fund ||
Entrepreneurs Channel ||
Blog ||
Keywords: David Wolf, Young Americans Center, Bill Daniels, Financial Education,
Young Americans Bank, Wolf Ventures, Personal Finance, Free Enterprise, Global Economics Entrepreneurship 8/23/10 bytes: 103399789
Listen to: David Wolf, Wolf Ventures for Young Americans Center
Google ranks Colorado’s w3w3.com in the top 10 for the “Business Internet Talk Radio” show
Google has millions of listings in our category. We are ranked in the top 10. Check it at… The same is true for the category “Entrepreneurs Internet Talk Radio” show…see at…
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Google ranks Colorado’s w3w3.com in the top 10 for the “Business Internet Talk Radio” show