Helping existing businesses grow and expand
1180_ 3/19/12 - We're talking to a very popular guy, he works for the Governor's Office of Economic Development and International Trade as a relationship manager. That means he primarily works in business retention and expansion, helping existing businesses grow and expand their businesses, but also working to keep businesses here in the State of Colorado. In addition to this, Sam Bailey is also the program director for Colorado Companies to Watch. Sam says they're really the sales team for the State of Colorado, selling Colorado, promoting and really making this a great place not just to live and play, but also to conduct business. Larry asked, "Sam you run into and see all different kinds of businesses not only with CCTW, but obviously with OEDIT. With all the things we've been through in the last couple of years, can you give us a handle on the challenges businesses might be facing this coming year?" Sam pointed out, "One of the big issues that we're seeing is access to capital. Companies want to grow, but they are really looking for that backing to help them grow, grants, small business loans, venture capital. Banks are still at that point where they're still evaluating the risks, are not lending as much as they used to. So companies are really struggling to find that liquidity or access to capital to help expand, make capital investments in their company, acquire new equipment - So that's one issue that we've seen. Another issue is workforce, and that's throughout the state. Issue that there is a skills mismatch. We've got jobs here in the state, but having a trained, skilled workforce to fill those jobs is hard. So we're working with local institutions, higher education, community colleges, other industry associations to identify how can we be better at training our workers here in the state of Colorado so they can fill those positions with workers here in the state. Sam described the focus of Colorado Companies to Watch. "We're focused on second stage companies. In Colorado these are privately held, headquartered in Colorado, have between six to 99 employees, and have revenues between $750k to $50M. These are full startup companies, so they're really set to take off. The reason we focus on these companies is they make up roughly 8% of Colorado's economy, yet they account for almost 35% of all the jobs created." There's more...
Related Links: Colorado Companies to Watch || Colorado Companies to Watch Channel || PodCast Directory || Gala Event || Colorado OEDIT || Keywords: Sam Bailey, Colorado Companies to Watch, Office of Economic Development and International Trade, Edward Lowe Foundation, COCTW, Nominate, Second Stage Companies - bytes=5377779
LISTEN TO: Sam Bailey, Program Director, Colorado Companies To Watch

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Providing innovative and cutting edge technologically
1182_ 3/19/12 - And yet another COCTW winner. In and amongst the selection criteria to become a Colorado Company to Watch is community involvement and philanthropy. With that in mind, we introduce you to this week's Company to Watch, Garmat USA, represented by Debbie Teter. Debbie is Marketing Director for Garmat USA, a Colorado based manufacturer of paint spray booths and equipment. In her role Debbie wears many hats from in-house agency to event management. In addition to her role with Garmat USA, she also serves as VP of Operations on the Colorado AMA (American Marketing Association) and also as board chair on S.W.A.G. (South Westminster Arts Group) a community based arts initiative. Debbie holds a B.S. in Marketing from Metropolitan State College located in Denver Colorado. Garmat® USA's mission is to provide innovative and cutting edge technologically advanced products that enhance your facility's productivity and profitability, while providing an environmentally safe atmosphere for the refinish technician. When asked what advice she would offer an entrepreneur in today's market, Debbie said, "Go work hard". She further explains that she's never worked for a company with more dedicated individuals than Garmat. While they're salaried, they put in long hours, much longer days because they just believe the customer needs to get what they want. While they work through a distribution network, and often they are the ones dealing with the end user to make sure that everything they need in place is there. The phone are open for them to call anytime to check on their order or just check on how something works, etc. Debbie tells us they have booths that have been in the market for over 24 years - and there is a young lady in the office, if you need a part, she can still tell you the part number for that booth that's 24 years old, and she doesn't have to look it up. She knows where the booths are and can tell you the specifics on any of those booths. She amazes us and the clients too. All Garmat® USA cabins and mechanical units are designed and manufactured at our Englewood, Colorado facility. Each unit is built for the client's specific application...
Related Links: Garmat USA || Colorado Companies to Watch || Colorado Companies to Watch Channel || w3w3 Blog || Gala Event || Keywords: Garmat USA, Debbie Teter, Lowe Foundation, Colorado Companies to Watch, Gala Event, COCTW, Second Stage Companies, Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade - bytes=5667425
LISTEN TO: Debbie Teter, Marketing Director, Garmat USA

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The opportunity lies in the technology itself
1176_ 3/12/12 - We caught up with Steve Foster, President/CEO of the Colorado Technology Association, aka CTA. Steve is new to a number of people in the community, Larry asked Steve for a little overview. Steve said he came into the technology world about 11 years ago. Prior to that Steve was a police officer and prior to that he was a security expert in the USAF. He started a small company called Business Controls, a SaaS model software company and services behind it that helps organizations manage employee misconduct through the use of technology. "The company's been very successful. We're very happy. It's grown dramatically over the years. We now manage about 23,000 locations in 130 countries." They were a Global Microsoft Award winner in 2006 at the Worldwide Web Conference in Boston. Larry asked about C-Level at Mile High, coming up this Thursday (online registration closes at noon, Tuesday, March 13th). "This is a unique event and an opportunity to connect some very high level CIO's, CTO's and those very high level decision makers in those organizations that need help getting projects completed. They need to connect with vendors and vendors need to connect with them. So we built C-Level at Mile High to do just that. It's evolved to an event for everyone to connect." Steve gives more details. Larry asked, "What are opportunities and challenges facing business owners today?" Steve replied, "I think the challenge is the economy itself, and over regulation of the business community. I tend to be someone who wants to allow the business community to grow and prosper without too much dabbling into it from the government. I think that's a bit of challenge, but I think you have to be able to strike a balance there. One of the things I've said, I know I'm successful if I'm paying taxes. I like paying taxes because I know I'm making money, I'm doing well. And that's the way we should think. But I think the opportunity lies in technology itself, innovation, entrepreneurial ism, and Colorado is positioned very well..." listen for more...
Related Links: Colorado Technology Association || C-Level @ A Mile High || Business Controls || Software Channel || Podcast Directory || Keywords: Steve Foster, Colorado Technology Association, CTA, C-Level @ A Mile High, Software, Innovation, Technology, Business Controls, Entrepreneurs - bytes=4792636
LISTEN TO: Steve Foster, President/CEO, Colorado Technology Association

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Venture capital and software where technology intersects
1178_ 3/12/12 - Silicon Flatirons, ATLAS, ITP, and the Boulder Software Club present Jim Franklin as the featured entrepreneur with moderators Brad Bernthal and Jill VanMatre. The unplugged series was designed for the function of bringing together people with a diverse set of backgrounds to learn more about and engage in entrepreneurship. Jim Franklin is the CEO of SendGrid, Inc., a Foundry-backed infrastructure applications company. Prior to his tenure with SendGrid, Jim was the Vice President of Enterprise Performance Management and the General Manager of the Crystal Ball Global Business Unit of Oracle Corporation. The Crystal Ball Global Business Unit was formed in 2007 as a part of the acquisition of Hyperion Solutions. At Hyperion, Jim served as VP and General Manager. Jim had held the roles of Decisioneering's CEO, CFO and VP of Sales prior to Decisioneering's acquisition by Hyperion. Decisioneering was the maker of the Crystal Ball brand of software. Mr. Franklin was also the founder of webfamilies.com and the CFO of Vericept Corporation. Jim serves on the board of aWhere, Inc., Denver Software Club and Querio. Jim has also been a mentor for Techstars and the Founder Institute. In this part 1 of 4 video, Jim talks about his early beginnings that lead into business. Jim loved school but had it in his head that he wanted to be a businessman. He took accounting not to be an accountant, but a business person. He graduated with an accounting degree - but what do you do with it? Well he thought, accounting taught you to add and subtract and Law school would teach him to read and write, to be that well rounded person. So he went to law school...watch and listen for more...
Related Links: SendGrid || Silicon Flatirons || RVC Angel Capital Summit || Blog || Keywords: Jim Franklin, SendGrid, Silicon Flatirons, Entrepreneurs Unplugged, Decisioneering, Foundry Group, ATLAS, ITP, Boulder Software Club, Brad Bernthal, Jill VanMatre - Watch Part 1 of 4: Jim Franklin, CEO, SendGrid, Inc.

Execution, the difference between success and disappointment
1179_ 3/19/12 - It is interesting when speaking to many successful business leaders, we find a lot of grads from the 'school of hard knocks'. We are speaking with
Tom Krekel, CEO of Full Sail Strategies. He says he learned the hard way, he started his first business back in 1983, which they grew and developed. Over the last 30 years he has run and developed business that ranged in size from the startup that he had to companies that had a couple hundred employees. He wishes he had had access to the kind of resources out there that he now brings to companies through the Mastering the Rockefeller Habits seminar and workshops, they will be conducting in Denver on April 24th. Larry asked, "with the economy we've been through the last few years, with the challenges we've been through, what are the biggest challenges coming up this year?" Tom replied, "It's interesting, we talk about what's happened with the recession, new technology impacting businesses. If you go back to the early 90's, Fortune Magazine does a cover article, "Why do CEO's fail?" They looked at strategy, access to resources - cash? No, it was really all around execution. In their study, what they found was the ability to get people rowing in the same direction, at the same time, whatever you want to call execution, that really was the prime area and that's still true today. You see people who start businesses, thankfully because most of our new jobs come from small business startups. But regardless of the business type, they soon learn to grow they have to change from being a functional specialist to becoming a leader of other people. That's not an easy transition. What I try to do is have them focus on a couple of disciplines. Establish priorities, and btw Tom says he's gone into companies, "...and they pull out their 12 priorities - Tell you what, any more than five, those aren't priorities, that's a checklist." 1.) No more than five priorities and one has to be the top. 2.) You've got to have some metrics so you can see what's happening on a contemporaneous basis. Not things that look backward, but things that will help you predict the future. And 3.) You've got to put in communication rhythm to keep that pace going, make sure everyone is aligned around what the goals are. And you drill it right down to every member of the team." Listen for more great ideas...
Related Links: Full Sail Strategies || Mastering the Rockefeller Habits Workshop || Gazelles || Entrepreneur Channel || Podcast Directory || Keywords: Tom Krekel, Full Sail Strategies, Entrepreneurs, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits Workshop, Gazelles, Leaders, CEOs, Fortune Magazine, Metrics, Predict the Future - bytes=4775500
LISTEN TO: Tom Krekel, CEO, Full Sail Strategies

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The dot bomb that became a worldwide winner
1181_ 3/19/12 - The Rocky Mountain Corporate Growth Conference in Denver was kicked off with a great breakfast and as always smothered in comfortable, natural, awesome networking. No one was at a loss for words. Then the program began with the open fireside chat with guest, Joe Assell, Co-founder, CEO, President of Golf TEC. Larry interviewed Joe - 17 years in business & 148 locations. If you want to play better golf, you have come to the right place. For more than 15 years, GolfTEC has been helping golfers of all skill levels play better and enjoy the game more. Larry asked Joe to share some of his many experiences. "When you start up with an idea that's never been done before and you have to innovate along the way, there are trial and error and we certainly had a roller coaster in our business. The hardest part was the late 90's when we were navigating through the dot com days and we were really a service business, a golf lesson business, but all the investors wanted us to be a dot com. We tried to be a dot com but it led us to be a dot bomb. We ran into some severe problems and it was almost the end of our business. Joe was dating his future wife at the time and Joe told us she believed in him so much and encouraged him to stay with it, stating that she made enough to support both of them. In the meantime like so many startups have stated, Joe cleaned the bathrooms, gave golf lessons, did the marketing and anything else that was needed. "But we persevered and found the right partners and then from there road a really significant up where we partnered with a private equity fund. We partnered with Golf Smith to collocate and open our GolfTEC in their centers and we started franchising. Those three things... in 2007-08 we opened a new GolfTEC every nine days, 77 improvement centers in a two year period, and really cemented GolfTEC as the market leader in the United States for golf instruction." It took Joe/GolfTEC three years to hit their first million dollars. "Then it took another six or seven to do a million in a month. Then last year we did a million in a day. It's been fun to watch it grow" said Joe. Now they are in Mexico, Canada and...listen for more...
Related Links: GolfTEC || ACG Denver || M&A || Rocky Mountain Corporate Growth Conference || Event Photos - Corporate Growth Conference 2012 || Keywords: Joe Assell, GolfTEC, Rocky Mountain Corporate Growth Conference, Denver, Golfer, ACG, Denver, Leading Resilient Growth, Association for Corporate Growth - bytes=2856649
LISTEN TO: Joe Assell, CEO/CoFounder, GolfTEC

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The focus is on networking, content and thought leadership
1175_ 3/9/12 - We're checking in at the ACG Denver's Sponsor Appreciation Dinner, a very special and lovely event as always. We managed to get ACG President, Todd Roebken, Managing Director of Jones Lang LaSalle and Norm Thiele, Managing Director/Founder, Emerging Global, to talk to us about the upcoming Rocky Mountain Corporate Growth Conference, being held next week, March 13th and 14th here at the Inverness Hotel and Conference Center. This conference is the largest of its kind in the Rocky Mountain region. The conference focus is on networking, content and thought leadership for the mid market business community across all industries. Norm said they spoke with Carly Fiorina the keynote speaker, "Who is the former CEO of Hewlett Packard and former senatorial candidate from California. Norm said he picked up a couple of things from the conversation, one she is a super nice lady but more importantly she's a very astute business woman, obviously." Her unparalleled record of hard work and success includes more than two decades at AT&T and Lucent Technologies, where she led the largest-of-its-time IPO of Lucent and became President of its largest business. In 1998, she was first named as Fortune magazine's most powerful female American executive and continued to top this list throughout her tenure at HP. Carly has led profound change and transition within her companies, and she will share her insights on how she was able to lead organizations that could capitalize on opportunities and always stay adaptable. Listen for the details...
Related Links: Rocky Mountain Corporate Growth Conference || Jones Lang LaSalle || EMERGENT Global || ACG Denver || M&A || Keywords: ACG Rocky Mountain Capital Growth Conference, Carly Fiorina, Todd Roebken, Norm Thiele, Hewlett Packard, AT&T, Lucent Technologies, IPO
LISTEN to Todd Roebken & Norm Thiele, ACG Denver

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Routed through a members only intelligent network
1177_ 3/12/12 - Lucy Sanders says, "It's quite an accomplishment to be named the most innovative network and internet technology company in 2011 by the Wall Street Journal, that's a huge accomplishment!" Our listeners will want to check into this. Lucy Sanders, CEO for the National Center for Women and Information Technology or NCWIT along with Larry Nelson, Director of w3w3® Media Network interviewed the CloudFlare co-founder and Head of User Experience, Michelle Zatlyn. Cloud Flare is an infrastructure based business that is really making performance, security and access to the kinds of features that web sites need, much more accessible to all types of web sites, not just the high end web sites that can afford this type of infrastructure. For every extra hundred milliseconds it takes a site to load, you lose 2% of your visitors - that's a really big problem for web site owners. The Internet is made up of 250 million web sites around the world, from blogs to business websites, to national governments. Michelle said when they first started the question was how can we make a service that really makes speed and security accessible to the entire internet, and that's what we've done. Launched over a year ago, live for 15 months, they went from very little traffic over their network around the world to 430 million web surfers every month, that's a really big number. We do more traffic than Amazon, Wikipedia, Twitter, AOL and Bing combined.
      w3w3® Media Network is proud and honored to bring another NCWIT interview to our audience. We've long since recognized the need for education and support for our youth and particularly for young women, in math and science, engineering and technology. The women we interview are bright guiding lights for the future of our youth, generously sharing their experiences - challenges and all. They are inspiring, often humorous and motivating. This series is a real jewel and a valuable set of tools for the future of young women and everyone who has the good fortune to listen.
Related Links: Cloud Flare || NCWIT Home || NCWIT Practice || NCWIT Blog || Heroes Channel || Keywords: Michelle Zatlyn, Cloud Flare, Innovative Network, Internet Technology, Security, Lucy Sanders, National Center for Women and Information Technology, NCWIT, w3w3® Media Network, Amazon, Wikipedia, Twitter, AOL, Bing - bytes=20760767 LISTEN TO: Michelle Zatlyn, CoFounder/ Head of User Experience, CloudFlare

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