Winners in the communications industry
968_ 2/14/11 - 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 > 2/14/11 bytes=6662585 LISTEN to Tim Sisneros and Dave Leonard, Past Communications Executive of the Year

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Here it is; say it in any language right now
966_ 2/14/11 - 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 - 2/14/11 bytes=22974696 LISTEN to Sarah Allen, CTO, Mightyverse, RailsBridge, President & Founder - NCWIT Hero

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Leads for building your business
964_ 2/7/11 - If your potential clients can't find you, that's a problem. Once they get to your website, if they can't understand or get something out of your website, that's a problem. It's amazing how many businesses don't have those and other important marketing things put together - today we're with an expert. We are interviewing one of the Colorado Companies to Watch winners, Dan Goldstein from Page 1 Solutions. Dan said, "With the Internet the one thing he's seen is constant change. When Page 1 was started ten years ago, Google didn't exist. Now, Google dominates the search engines, on the other hand we have Facebook, YouTube, all kinds of other social media and they are actually garnering more traffic than Google now. So, what you need if you want to be active and successful, is you need to be able to look at those changing environments and be able to react to them quickly." Larry asked for an overview of what Page 1 Solutions does. Dan explained, "Page 1 offers a wide range of solutions. Our slogan used to be, 'Page 1 Solutions: dominate the Internet'." When they started that meant dominating Google. But more and more that means you have to have a successful presence on all of the different vehicles - search engines, social media and all the different ways that people can come to your business or your practice. Page 1 focuses primarily on web site marketing for attorneys, doctors and dentists. They also have a subsidiary, Mega Hunter, that does website marketing for businesses throughout the nation. "We really do everything from soup to nuts. We start by designing their website, we write the content, we work on SEO for their websites, so they show up high on Google. We do lobbying for them. We do all kinds of things with content, some of that includes writing and publishing press releases, building links to come back to the website. More and more though, we're seeing a really high demand for video."...Listen for more...
Related Links: Page 1 Solutions || Colorado Companies to Watch Home || MegaHunter || CCTW Channel || CCTW Event || CCTW Gala Celebration || Keywords: Dan Goldstein, Page 1 Solutions, MegaHunter, Colorado 50 Companies to Watch, Search Engines, Social Media, Google, Facebook, YouTube 2/7/11 bytes=6689335
LISTEN to Dan Goldstein, Page 1 Solutions

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Selling your business, reactive or proactive
962_ 2/7/11 - 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 - 2/7/11 bytes=9150696 LISTEN to Chris Younger and David Tolson, Capital Value Advisors

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Business community helping with technology maturation
969_ 2/14/11 - 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 > 2/14/11 bytes=6913361 LISTEN to Lauren Costantini, CU TTO "Business Advisor of the Year"

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Leadership in the new economy
967_ 2/14/11 - "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 || Blog || 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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Rebuilding a company one person at a time
965_ 2/7/11 - "When you think about the economy, fortunately for the supermarket industry, people still have to eat. Until that changes, we're going to have some semblance of order. In some cases there's advantage to be taken." We're here at the Association for Corporate Growth luncheon and Sam Martin, President & CEO, Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. (A&P) is our keynote speaker. Sam's wife Carina attended, she runs a non-profit here in Denver, the name is 'A Precious Child', and she is dedicated to helping children in the Denver Metro Area and throughout the Colorado market, with basic essentials. Last year alone she helped over 26,000 kids. Larry asked, "Sam what advice would you give to executive types running large and medium size companies over this coming year?" Sam replied, "Company culture is important to look at early on and always, so that you don't allow your culture to erode, or change in a dark way and start to take your company down from a results standpoint. It is amazing to me how many companies lose sight of the impact their culture has on the bottom line results. That culture in A&P's example starts back in 1859. One hundred-fifty-one years ago, the culture of the company was one of accountability, trust, a huge focus on discipline and growing the people. They grew the people enough to make a company that had 16,000 stores across the country by the 1930s. If you think about that kind of culture and then you reflect on today on a company that's actually in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, along the way that culture eroded and it brought the results of the company down." Sam feels that the culture is one of the essential pieces in building a team. He said, "If a person doesn't fit into the culture of your organization, and align with your core values, it doesn't matter their skill sets, they're not going to be successful in your organization." It's an important part of recruiting and putting management and leadership in place is to make sure the culture is preserved and the mission of the company, the core values that we stand for are aligned with...listen now
Related Links: Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (A&P) || A Precious Child || ACG Denver Rocky Mountain Capital Growth Conference || ACG Denver || M&A Channel || Keywords: Sam Martin, A&P, ACG, ACG Denver Rocky Mountain Capital Growth Conference, Carina Martin, A Precious Child, Company Culture, Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company > 2/7/11 bytes=4183252
LISTEN to Sam Martin, President & CEO, A&P

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Incubator that's coming here to Colorado
963_ 2/7/11 - 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 - 2/7/11 bytes=7421181 LISTEN to Vic Ahmed, President & CEO, Colorado Plug and Play Tech Center

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Achieving Your Personal and Professional Goals
933_ 11/29/10- Don't Let Another Year Go By - The Ultimate Win is Yours - Larry Nelson has taught this material in seminars in over a dozen countries, from China to Canada, from Norway to Australia, from Germany to Japan as well as throughout the USA. He shares the results of his international research about the Characteristics of an Achiever and then goes on to help you lay out your "personalized blueprint" to personal and professional success. Larry is an internationally published author, has been a consultant to many Fortune 1000 companies and is best known for his train-the-trainer programs. ...listen now a complete step-by-step program including a downloadable manual and resource guide...this is an in-depth strategic planning and goal setting system for achievers...Read More about how to Supercharge Your Business... The links below are valuable and extremely helpful to setting your course for the next year! And they're free. Related Links: Ultimate Win Resources || Training Trends || 3-Filters Technology™ || Podcasting Directory || Your Goal || Keywords: Ultimate Win, Your Goal, Training Trends, 3-Filters TechnologyTM, Setting Goals, Larry Nelson; 11/29/10 Chnl: Entrepreneurs

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