601_ Denver takes a big ‘green’ bite!” says Mayor Hickenlooper
"In today’s economy where there is so much fear, people are pulling their money out of stocks, out of their 401Ks, out of money markets and putting it under their mattress," said Mayor John Hickenlooper in his interview with Larry. The Mayor went on discussing other important topics including entrepreneurship, Social Entrepreneurship Day proclamation, his outlook on the economy, and raising capital. He has the experience in all those areas. "Today, everyone is selling, trying to get their cash out to put under their mattress. You measure risk vs. reward, in times like this is where people can do very well. I would argue that in the next 18 months there will be more money made than in the following decade. People shouldn’t be hiding their money under the mattress; they should be looking for good, long term investments. You’re probably never going to find a better time to buy some of these blue chip stocks. It’s a great time for starting a business. You know, I started the Wynkoop in 1986- it took us two years, we didn’t open until 1988, but our rent for the first part of our lease was $1 per square foot per year, and that’s because the economy was in the toilet. There’s a huge opportunity for people to step back and say ‘things aren’t that bad and even as bad as they are, there are great opportunities now." Hickenlooper enjoyed sharing his 'Green Bite' views. Green Print Denver is trying to look at every single place that city government touches energy, consumption of resources, and how can we be more frugal. Kind of a throw back, you know my mom grew up in the Great Depression; she used to wash Saran Wrap and tin foil and tape it to the refrigerator door while it dried, so she could reuse it. That might be a little extreme but to a certain extent we’re moving back in that direction. We are committed to reducing our carbon footprint. We have to do a lot of little things; just riding a bike is not going to do it." How about planting a million trees?
Related Links: Denver OED || Green Print Denver || Solar Mapping || Sustainable Opportunity Summit || Sustainability Channel || Keywords: Mayor John Hickenlooper, Economic Development, City and County of Denver, Economy, Sustainable Opportunities Summit, Green Print Denver, CORE, Channels: CEC Bytes: 9200016 > 1.5.09 LISTEN

600_ "The word for the next two years is prudency," says Roy Dimoff
"Knowing what you don't know is as important as knowing what you do know," said Roy Dimoff, Chairman and CEO of ViaWest during a Profile of a Leader interview with Larry. Before getting into the history and learning lessons, Roy gives an overview of where Viawest is today, and what they plan on doing during these shaky economic times. "Growth rate north of 35% and now stands as the largest privately held data center and managed service company in the US, you know it’s really a tremendous opportunity to look at your systems, look at your processes, look at your efficiencies, look at the number of times you touch the customer and really try to streamline some things. Really take this as an opportunity to look at your business as a whole – now is a good time to look on everything we do and see if we can do it better, how we can be more efficient, how we can bring more to the bottom line. A lot of our competitors back in 99-2000, they had raised hundreds of millions of dollars and of course ViaWest total equity investment back then was like $34 million – and we were one of the few survivors. So, it’s been very interesting. A lot of the lessons we learned back then are very applicable today even though the industry is different and ViaWest is in a much different position. But the key is Larry; we are still the very prudent group that we were back in 2000 and refusing to take things for granted." Roy started his first entrepreneurial effort at age 25. Years before that he worked in the produce department at a Canadian grocery store. Then after a couple of successes as an entrepreneur he was involved in an IPO. It was there he learned that when an expert advisor says that strategy could be 'problematic' he should listen. So you listen, there's more...
Related Links: ViaWest || Green Solutions || Leader Profiles || Blog || Keywords: Roy Dimoff, ViaWest, Data Centers, Leaders, Team, Management, Green Grid, Computers, Telecom, Canada >> Channels:Leader Profiles Bytes: 11100476 > 1.5.09 LISTEN

599_ " My volunteer work helps me be a better consultant", says Lucy Vento
Terry Morreale, senior engineer at Applied Trust and producer and director of the Women in IT Channel interviewed Lucy Vento about her two passions: her career at Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) and her work at Colorado Youth at Risk (CYAR). Lucy has 20 years of experience in the information technology industries. She is a Principal for CSC Consulting in the Supply Chain Management practice where she specializes in global logistics, inventory management and wireless enablement applications at a variety of client sites. Lucy has been involved with CYAR for five years. Lucy went onto explain, " It is a mentoring organization for teens at risk of dropping out of high school. We teach the adults, mentors and teens in the program a variety of listening and personal transformation tools that they can use to make better choices for their lives. I have been a mentor for 2 years, a group leader for 2 years and now I am a certified facilitator. I use the CYAR tools frequently in my consulting practice work. It’s been very cool how both seemingly different environments I have been so involved in have come together so elegantly for me especially in the last year. My work at Colorado Youth at Risk has taught me to become a better consultant." Lucy has always been very involved with the community. Lucy is the founding president of the Colorado RFID Alliance and was the 2001 President of the Denver Telecom Professionals (renamed to Communications Technology Professionals). She was an adjunct faculty member for four years at the University of Denver. Listen for some win/win ideas that will help you in your career as well as benefit the community.
Related Links: Computer Sciences Corporation || Colorado Youth at Risk || Applied Trust || Women in IT || Keywords: Lucy Vento, Computer Sciences Corporation, CSC, Colorado Youth at Risk, CYAR, Terry Morreale, Applied Trust, Women in IT, Consulting
Channels: WiIT Bytes: 10572176 > 1.5.09 LISTEN

598_ David Cohen says, "We invest a small amount of money in about 10 companies."
Lucy Sanders, CEO and Founder of the National Center for Women & Information Technology and NCWIT founding board member, along with Larry Nelson had a great conversation with David Cohen about the learning experiences of a new entrepreneur for the new NCWIT series, The Entrepreneurial Tool Box. David is a serial entrepreneur and investor in other startups with his company aptly named, Colorado Startups. David started 3 software companies here, two worked out pretty well, one didn’t. The first was a public safety software company started in ’93, still going in Broomfield, CO with a couple hundred employees now. The 2nd was a startup around mobile social networking – "We were a little early on that one." The 3rd was around music and RSS, we sold to a Silicon Valley company two years back. The subject of the 'Tool Box' interview is 'Business Planning Competitions. David gave an overview of TechStars and at the same time shared some insights every entrepreneur should listen to. "It is mentorship driven. We invest a small amount of money in about 10 companies that come to Boulder every summer for three months. We surround them with some of the best and brightest mentors and at the end of the summer they pitch their ideas to investors and hopefully keep going. We started with my own experiences and what I wished I had known back when starting my first company. The value of TechStars is the mentorship. The reason for that is because they are surrounded by expertise, people who’ve been there and done that, made those mistakes and had those successes and can really give them some critical feedback in a very compacted time frame. Then he detailed the quaities they are looking for. BTW, applications open January 19, 2009.
Related Links: TechStars || TechStars Scedule || Colorado Startups || NCWIT Channel || NCWIT Practice || Keywords: David Cohen, TechStars, Colorado Startups, Lucy Sanders, NCWIT, Mentors, Entrepreneurial Tool Box, Blog, Investors >> Channels: NCWIT, VC, Bytes: 16188293 > 1.5.09 LISTEN

Some of the Top Stories in 2008
Your Choice Click to “Read More” or “Listen Now”

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… 1/21/08 Read More - OR - Listen

Green IT Infrastructure Costs Less: Bigger is not Better Green IT infrastructure costs less and improves the health of our planet. Trent Hein co-founder of Applied Trust and CEO and Ned McClain, co-founder and CTO talk about the proactive steps Applied Trust has taken to implement a Green IT infrastructure and… 5/12/08 Read More - or - Listen

Geospatial Challenges and Choices for California and Colorado
CH2M HILL is now on the track of a $6 Billion, privately held engineering services company, construction management, and program management company. It is one of the largest privately held companies in the state of Colorado. They have… 6/23/08
Read More - or - Listen

CTP Celebrates Executive of the Year
Communications Technology Professionals (CTP) celebrated Executive of the Year, Greg Maffei, CEO, Liberty Media. Greg he pointed out that with all the blessings and perks there were also stresses and strains that fell on the shoulders of his wife and children… 3/24/08 Read More - or - Listen

$100K in Angel Money and an Additional $650K with More to Come
Here’s a piece of advice; don’t waste your time talking to a lot of west coast investors if you don’t have a pre-existing relationship. Focus your attention on people that know you and have known you in the past, and you’ll find yourself with a lot more traction in a less time… 8/18/08 Read More -or- Listen

Economic Development Stimulated by Tech Transfer and BioScience
There are amazing stories coming out of CU Tech Trasfer Office and the BioScience sector in Colorado. HB1001 gives a five year pipeline of new Colorado bioscience companies with hundreds of new jobs in the industry as well as increased private capital… 9/22/08
Read More -or- Listen

Parents Have a Great Influence on Their Children's Success Terry Morreale, producer and director of the Women in IT Channel, is passionate in her drive to bring the stories of “Women in IT” out, for many reasons. Terry says she loves interviewing these amazing women and learning about their experiences… 4/28/08 Read More -or- Listen

“What is Social Entrepreneurship?” Dr. Paul Bauer, Clinical Professor, Daniels College of Business, DU and Chris Pelley, Managing Director, Capital Investment Management Group discuss this social entrepreneurship with Larry Nelson. My interpretation of their definition of social entrepreneurs is… 10/13/08 > Read More -or- Listen

Lead in Computer Monitors and TV Monitors Going into Landfills
CRT monitors are the magic pieces that make everything on our television sets and our computors come to life. When they die or are being replaced by an upgrade they are often shipped overseas and in too many cases end up in our landfills. The lead is … 4/14/08 > Read More -or- Listen

Leveraging Technology to Increase Deal Flow, Efficiency and Visibility
The reality of finding quality investments is a quantity game. And the reality of investing is a quality game. So the investor has to combine quality and quantity, in turn the entrepreneur has to be visible enough to get those quantity views and then… 6/9/08 > Read More -or- Listen

From Venture Capitalist to Entrepreneur Music Producer
Lucy Sanders, CEO and Founder of NCWIT, board member, Lee Kennedy along with Larry Nelson interviewed Heidi Roizen, CEO of Skinny Songs. Heidi Roizen has achieved success as an entrepreneur, a corporate executive, a corporate director and venture capitalist… 10/27/08 >
Read More -or- Listen

The BEST is yet to come - 2009

2008 Top Event Photos

Mastering Change - We would like
your ideas and suggestions

Brad Feld with 2009 Predictions

. Let’s make 2009 Magnificent, together!!!