534_ Change Is Not an Event, It Is an Ongoing Process (the Same is true with Chaos)
Mastering change is one of Pat and Larry Nelson's favorite topics. There's a good reason. They have lived in and owned businesses in five foreign countries stretching from Norway to Australia. They are truly serial entrepreneurs as they have started more than a dozen companies. Some were extremely successful and others learning experiences. One thing that was true in every situation were the rushing changes. At times they were victims and others they were victors. Larry has conducted seminars for numerous companies both large and small, public and private sectors, in a dozen countries, on the subject of 'Mastering Change in the Midst of Chaos'. In this recorded discussion Larry and Pat discuss the 'Six Truths About Change'. The topic includes; Resistance, Involvement, Making Losers, Vision, Benefits, and Follow up. Like the Nelsons say, "Master Change Before It Masters You." Listen now...
Related Links: Beyond the Trends || 3-Filters || Training Trends || Free Newsletter || Keywords: Mastering Change, Chaos, Pat and Larry Nelson, Involvement, Making Losers, Vision, Benefits, Follow up > Bytes: 8472349 LISTEN 8/4/08

531_ "We Could Change This Industry Forever With the Right Team"
“Our goal was to develop a disruptive technology, photonic integration, and use that to change the fundamental economics of optical communications for our customers. When we started the company, the experts told us it couldn’t be done. We didn’t know if we could do it. But we knew that if we could do it, we could change this industry forever.” That's what Jagdeep Singh, President, CEO and Founder, Infinera said when he received the 2008 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® Award for networking and communications in the Northern California program. Prior to founding Infinera, Jagdeep was Co-Founder and CEO of OnFiber Communications, an optical telecommunications carrier. He was also Co-Founder and CEO of Lightera Networks, an optical switching equipment company, which was acquired by Ciena Corporation. Jagdeep was the keynote speaker at a TiE Rockies event held at the Level3 Event Center and there he revealed a number of key strategies for entrepreneurs of all sizes. The focus of these three strategies is people, teams and the need to not be concerned that others don't think you are right. Listen now.
Related Links: Infinera Home || TiE Rockies || Entrepreneur Channel || Photos, TiE Rockies || Keywords: Jagdeep Singh, Infinera, TiE Rockies, Photonic Integration, Optical Communications - Bytes: 4450328 LISTEN 8/4/08

504_ 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 ultimately be able to deliver the quality to the investor. And that can be a very time consuming and arduous process without some technology and some tools, explains Kelly Burton, Founder, Investor Avenue.com. InvestorAvenue.com is the private equity and real estate investment community's web portal where accredited investors, entrepreneurs and service providers can present opportunities, capital sources and services to other members of the community. Investors need deal flow; entrepreneurs need visibility, and both need service providers to execute successful transactions. Post, find, and view opportunities and resources quickly and efficiently at your convenience 24/7 on InvestorAvenue.com. Listen, there's more...
Related Links: Investor Avenue || Venture Capital Channel || Rockies Venture Club || Podcast Directory || Keywords: Kelly Burton, Investors Avenue, Quality Investments, Deal Flow, Efficiency, Visibility, Entrepreneurs - Bytes: 10075222 - 6/9/08

492_ Board of Directors: To Be or Not to Be Is Not the Question
“CEO’s without a board are missing so much value,” states Sue Kunz, CEO/Founder Solidware. Just like building a good team, first look at your own skill sets and identify the gaps that you have and what you need in building a business. Then strategically look for folks who can fill those gaps. You want people around the table who are smarter than you are.” Generally investors come with a board seat. Sue pointed out that a board is not just active at the board meeting. She looks to her board for dialog, sometimes weekly, when a lot is going on, daily. When asked if there was a ‘downside’ to having a board, Sue said, “It’s a lot of work. With these top notch people you don’t want to waste their time. I try to be very organized, very focused on the dialog at hand. Sue goes on to point out, "Think small initially. You don’t want to build a huge board too quickly. Because you’re going to find over time, there are gaps you’re going to want to fill. Sit down, understand what you’re good at, and understand where your holes are. I think you can certainly find that combination of filling in your needs with someone who’s willing and able and has a proven track record. Of course, that’s a win/win for everyone. There is a difference when building an Advisory Board. Sue is a guest panelist at the Colorado Capital Conference. Listen Now for more ideas...
Related Links: Solidware Technologies || 20th Annual Colorado Capital Conference || Entrepreneurs Channel || Rockies Venture Club || Keywords: Sue Kunz, Solidware Technologies, Board of Directors, Advisory Board, Colorado Capital Conference, Rockies Venture Club - Bytes: 22736460 - 5/19/08

422_ Best Practices for Building a Successful Online Business
"When you look at the web analytics, how many people come to your site, how they got there, so many people go to the search engines. A lot of my customers find that 30 to 75% of their business comes from search engines," says Lee Kennedy. Lee has worked with Brad Feld, been the CIO at Webroot Software and today is CEO/Founder of TriCalyx, a consulting business focused on helping people build an online business. 85% of the world’s online population, purchase online! And that’s up 40% over the past two years. And then for people in the 75K and higher income bracket it’s more like 90+%. Even for people who don’t buy online, they come online to research their purchases. With search engine optimization, there’s quite a mystique around SEO because it’s not one of those things you can totally get your arms around. I'll try to demystify it. Basically it’s figuring out how to get your web site [and the words people are searching to find your web site] ranked on the first page of Google. If you are selling on your site, there are so many ways to bring traffic to your site that really cost you nothing...
Related Links: TriCalyx || NCWIT || Women in IT || Blogging || Keywords: Lee Kennedy, Tricalyx, Search Engine Optimization, Online Business, Bytes: 16982834 - 4/21/08

447_ Taking the Mystery Out Of Search Engine Optimization
Whether you are a new entrepreneur or successfully growing your company one of the things, top-of-mind for businesses and organizations of all sizes is acquiring new customers. One of the main ways of doing that on the web is acquiring them through search engine optimization. Jeff Finkelstein, founder of Customer Paradigm is an expert in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Pat asked Jeff, “Every business doesn’t sell something on line, why is it important for them to show up in the SEO rankings?" Jeff's reply really got Larry's attention beacuse w3w3.com does not sell online. "Every business doesn’t sell something on line, but if you do come up through word-of-mouth and your company still doesn’t come up top with the search engine rankings, you’re perceived by customers as less relevant, less important because your site isn’t coming up in the search engines. It is unfortunately a zero sum game," pointed out Jeff. He goes on to point out that Google is the overall market leader, they have, depending on who you talk to, between 55-85% of the search business, more so in the business-to-business community, a little bit less in the business-to-consumer realm; Yahoo is the second and MSN is the distant third. Jeff gives specific steps and metrics on how any company can make search engines work for them. LISTEN 2/25/08

Related Links: Customer Paradigm || 12 Strategies for Effective Email || Search Engine Optimization || Find It || Keywords: Jeff Finkelstein, Customer Paradigm, Search Engine, Optimization, SEO, Google, Yahoo, MSN > Bytes: 23684391 LISTEN

443_ Venture Capital, Angel Investors and Getting Involved The Rockies Venture Club annual meeting has been the place to connect with others creating Colorado success stories. For nearly twenty years, through many market cycles, the CCC has been a great place to connect with others starting and growing Colorado-based technology businesses. Jim Franklin started with RVC in 1992 with no contacts and is now the President of RVC and has a robust Colorado technology network. Hear Jim Franklin tell his story of how the contacts he made at RVC -- and the CCC in particular -- have resulted in 100x return to shareholders, 100+ jobs in Colorado and an economic impact of over $100M to the state of Colorado. Jim feels the key is to get involved. When I first showed up and didn’t know anyone, I just raised my hand and said, ‘how can I help?’. I started off on the government affairs committee where I met Eric Weissmann, who is the founder of Decisioneering. About two years later, I became the CFO of Decisioneering and that was the company that I ultimately became CEO of and we sold to Oracle with a very successful exit. RVC has the Colorado Capital Conference coming up on May 22, 2008 – a true showcase event. Jim shares some great networking advice... 2/18/08  LISTEN

Related Links: Colorado Capital Conference|| Crystal Ball || Rockies Venture Club ||   Keywords: Jim Franklin, Crystal Ball,Decisioneering, Colorado Capital Summit, Oracle, Entrepreneurs, Rockies Venture Club, Technology > Bytes: 12860084 LISTEN

446_ Looking for that next role? Networking and Beyond
Whether you are in a job search or career enhancing process, there are some should do, shouldn't do and then there are the steps you can take that are magical. Larry talked with Jim Franklin, president of the Rockies Venture Club and VP and General Manager of Crystal Ball Global Business Unit of Oracle. As a 15 year member of the Colorado tech community, Jim Franklin has been on both ends of the Job Search process. Jim has been a CEO, VP Sales, Founder and CFO at various local technology companies. After having been fired a second time, Jim decided he should be more systematic in his approach. His approach includes the Who List, the Opportunity List and the Five Criteria for assessing the Opportunities (1- Team fit; 2- Market Traction; 3- Role to contribute; 4- Location; 5- Compensation, both equity and cash). Listen to Jim describe his methodology for bringing order – and results – to the Job Search process. It's beyond networking and the process behind the chaos. As an important side, Jim says that the Annual Colorado Capital Conference is one of the 'must be there' events comig up, 5/22/08. LISTEN 2/25/08

442_ Startup Capital: Family, Friends and Fools...or...?
Entrepreneurs specifically, always face the challenge of credibility early on. David Cohen, a serial entrepreneur, co-founder of Tech Stars and founder of Colorado Startups understands that challenge, firsthand. David points out a number of the comments (often not heard by the new entrepreneur)... who are these people?, what are they building?, you know, it’s two guys in a garage – are we really going to buy something from these guys?. Just getting great people around them is a big challenge. There are lots of startup companies that are coming out of the woodwork and I think the smart ones go and find great advisors and bounce ideas off of them. Those people are pretty easy to find, but there are so many companies looking for help, sometimes it’s a challenge to find the right people to help you. And if they’re looking for funding, of course you see one percent of people getting funding from angels and VCs, that’s a tough road. Most companies need money to get rolling and they do it with ‘Friends, Family & Fools’; and I think that’s right. You should start and get to the furthest out value point that you can with as little money as humanly possible, to show a prototype and some progress. Most people who need more money say $500k or so, tend to approach angel investors, that’s the range of money typically that angel investors can put together. Listen for more TechStar solutions... LISTEN 2/18/08

437_ Colorado is as Quintessentially Entrepreneurial as We Could Ever Imagine
Our mission here is we have a responsibility of educating future business leaders to tackle the complex problems of tomorrow. And at the heart of that is entrepreneurial thinking and critical skills, approaches and innovation. Paul Jerde, Executive Director for the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship, Leeds School of Business at CU Boulder gives the credit to his team and his predesessors. Last year, MBA enrollments were up 60% and still climbing. Paul went onto explain," We launched the “Sustainable Venturing Initiative. We then launched the “Clean Tech Venture Challenge”, a business plan competition in the clean tech sustainable space, and began to do a number of other programs." The Clean Tech Challenge is really a program element of the Sustainable Opportunity Summit. The operative word in the name of this summit is 'opportunity'. Sustainability in the past may have been thought of as something having to do with environment and regulatory threats, but what’s happened today is businesses are looking at it as a necessary element of creating and pursuing opportunities and that is what the Summit (SOS) is all about. listen now.... LISTEN 2/11/08

440_ Going From Yoga to High-Tech: From Yokohama to Boulder

Her first business was a yoga studio in Yokohama, Japan. Gwen Bell, a serial entrepreneur went on to explain; After 3 years she realized she needed a web site and so she entered the world of “tech”. Since then she has created a small design firm and ended up doing blogging, branding, all sorts of work in the tech world. Today she is a member of the TechStar team.
      The TechStars success rate has been extraordinary. In 2007, seven of the ten team have done either venture or angel funding. It would be wonderful to get a team of women hooked up with TechStars. Now based in Boulder, that is exactly what Gwen is focused on accomplishing. David Cohen and the other founders of TechStars are delighted to have a person like Gwen working on this. This is a wonderful opportunity with a number of perks...$10 - 15,000, surrounded by incredible mentors from Boulder to the Silicon Valley and tons more support as well as connections. The application to apply takes only a few minutes to complete...do it now! 2/11/08  LISTEN

Related Links: TechStars Home || Apply Now || Entrepreneur Channel || GwenBell.com   Keywords: Gwen Bell, TechStars, Entrepreneurs, David Cohen, Startups, Mentoring > Bytes: 8519160 LISTEN

435_ Raising Capital for Startups, Mentoring, and Much More
TechStars is essentially a mentorship driven investment model. We invest a small amount of money, $10 - 15,000. for a very early stage company explains David Cohen, the founder and Exective Director of TechStars. David goes on,"We bring them to Boulder; surround them with incredible mentors from Boulder, the Silicon Valley and elsewhere. It’s almost like a boot camp environment where they learn everything there is to learn about running an early stage company. At the end of summer we have an “Investor Day” and they get to pitch their ideas. We take ten teams every year and now is the time to get involved. The success rate has been extraordinary. In 2007, seven of the ten have done either venture or angel funding or a combination of both and an eighth that is quite profitable and hasn’t taken investment yet. They learn how to deal with early adopters, early customers; how to bring their product to market, figuring out what the right product is and tactically how to do that, really everything to do with startups, raising money, pitches, elevator pitches. They can also expect to build a really great network and that’s one of the key benefits of TechStars. LISTEN 2/04/08

Related Links: TechStars Home || Apply Now || Entrepreneur Channel || Colorado Startups || Keywords: TechStars, David Cohen, Startups, Mentoring, Raising Capital, Entrepreneurs > Bytes: 15438056 LISTEN