Crowd Funding and the Crowd Funding Alliance
1192_ 4/9/12 - We've been hearing about Crowd Funding from Brian Tsuchiya for a couple of years (May 17, 2010 interview). Brian explained at that time, "There's a gap if you're not VC fundable (which is only one in a thousand businesses that are VC fundable, roughly), it's tough to find investors. If you don't have the assets, banks aren't going to lend you the money - You need 1/2 to two million dollars, angels - most angels don't invest that much. You know the average syndicated investment from an angel group is only a quarter million dollars. "What we are focused on is getting that money from a crowd. So imagine 1,000 people, and that's a lot, but as an example, and they each gave you $100. Now there's a lot of money in that. Can you find a lot of people that can give you a thousand or a hundred bucks? Well, that's the concept. You're getting a small amount of money that you would typically think of in terms of an investor, but you get a lot more of those people. The cash funding hole is basically this quarter million to two million dollar range, that's just hard to find. It's just not something people think of in terms of funding their business, but it is viable." Fast forward to March 2012, and now the excitement has a hit a new high! with the recent passage of the JOBS act (H.R. 3606). We know you've been hearing about this legislation - the news is being reported everywhere. During the process of getting involved Brian has reached out to the industry connectors, Woodie (Sherwood) Neiss, author of the bill with his partners Jason Best and Zak Cassady-Dorion among them. Brian's been reaching out, talking to and getting to know them. They're in the process of creating a self-regulatory organization and they've asked Brian to join them. "As part of the conversation", Brian said, "we're going to talk about Crowd Funding Alliance and see if we have their support." If he has their support, Brian will come back and incorporate. He said, "It is his intention, to create the Cloud Funding Alliance, ideally this will be the global trade association, based in Denver, Colorado. We have Wall Street on the east coast, technology on the west coast and we want Denver, right in the center to be headquarters for Crowd Funding." There's more...
Related Links: StartUpGuru || Funding Launch Pad || Jumpstart Our Business Startup Act || Venture Capital || Entrepreneurs Channel || Keywords: Brian Tsuchiya, Startup Guru, Crowd Funding Alliance, Entrepreneurs, CrowdFunding, Vim Funding, Jobs Act, H.R. 3606, Advisor, Colorado, Entrepreneur, bytes=4305296
LISTEN TO: Brian Tsuchiya, Startup Guru

Powered by Podbean.com

Startups in Boulder, Business is a Real Pitch
1194_ 4/9/12 - With all the successful startup systems, Boulder is thought of as a "Mecca" and others are in in awe. 25 states plan on sending delegates to Boulder in June to observe and learn how the New Venture Group and others like Foundry Group, Boulder TechStars, etc,. are making Boulder the hotbed of startups. Brad Feld is a well-known venture capitalist and supporter of the entrepreneurs in our area and was very involved with this program. Brad was gratefully thanked for the financial donation he made for a porcelain chamber; a $25,000 donation for the first-floor men's room in the Wolf Law Library building to be named after him. The bathroom inauguration, a gift to the Law School for all they have done for entrepreneurship in Boulder. "I don't like to pay whole buildings as they tend to be too expensive... but bathrooms hold a special place in my heart." Brad joked he has being prodded to change the placard from "Inspiration comes at inconvenient times!" Brad proudly visits his masterpiece of plumbing every couple of months. The money will be used to support the needs of various entrepreneurial group functions at the CU Wolf Library. Baker Hostetler, attorney & registered broker dealer, informed the crowd that the laws on funding have not changed since 1930! Jumpstart Our Business Startup Act (JOBS Act) Not just pennies from heaven – but rules up in the air! The rules were finally approved by Congress this week with much bipartisan support. This includes both how to solicit funds and types of funding methods allowed for early and mid-stage companies. Briefly, Rule 504 allows for crowd-funding and new solicitation rules to include non-accredited investors. The new limit is $1 million dollars per year. There were also five pitches from newer companies. First up was Acadium, presented by Rebecca Wolf. Then Antezen – presented by Shashank Shekha. Then GizMonyx – Where innovation meets inspiration – presented by Nate DeVault. Then Cleverlike.com makes the music better with SmartSound – presented by Brian Dickman. and followed by BlogMutt – We work like a dog to fill up your blog – presented by Scott Yates. *Special thanks to Mike Hamers, founder of Lightspeed Commercial Arts for covering this event for us.
Related Links: Silicon Flatirons || Foundry Group || Acadium || Antezen || GizMonyx || SmartSound || BlogMutt || Lightspeed Commercial Arts || Keywords: Silicon Flatirons, Brad Feld, Brad Bernthal, Entrepreneurs, Mike Hamers, Lightspeed Commercial Arts, Foundry Group, Acadium, Antezen, GizMonyx, SmartSound, BlogMutt

FIRST Colorado a competition you won't believe
1188_ 4/2/12 - FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) was founded in 1989 by Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway Human Transporter. In January each team receives a 'box' of parts (electronics to metal pieces) to build their robots. This year the FIRST Robotics 2012 Colorado Regional Competition was held at the DU Magness Arena, with 68 teams competing (60 from Colorado plus one from Mexico). Each year there is a different game, always challenging, exciting and amazing. More fun than you can imagine, beginning with the amazingly crazy MC, to inspiring stories from past participants, to the tension filled competition, even the audience gets into the act. You will laugh, and you will cry as you are pulled into this odyssey. FIRST was founded in 1989 by Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway Human Transporter. We met Dean Kamen in 2002 when Richard Pankoski and CSIA brought him to Denver. FIRST was founded on partnerships with businesses, educational institutions and government. Many Fortune 500 companies provide funding, in-kind donations and volunteers to support the program. The key to FIRST's success is the work of thousands of volunteer mentors, professional engineers, teachers, and other adults working with youth across the country. In addition to the volunteer team mentors, FIRST competitions and other events were organized and staffed by over 5000 event and committee volunteers. FIRST programs are growing rapidly in the United States and Canada, and demand is accelerating in other countries. Watch the short video with six teams competing and click on the event photo link to see all the photos.
Related Links: FIRST Colorado || FIRST at a Glance || FIRST Leadership || Photo Albums (2) FIRST Colorado Robotics || Podcasting Directory || Keywords: FIRST Robotics, FIRST Colorado, Dean Kamen, Robots, Competition, Inspiration, Recognition, Science, Technology, DU Magness Arena - Watch Video - Colorado FIRST Regional Competition 2012

Community Leadership, Educational Leadership, Entrepreneurial Leadership
1190_ 4/2/12 - We are talking with Brandy Bertram, Executive Director of YouthBiz. YouthBiz is an after school program that is on a mission to increase the economic and social prosperity of our community through our focus on youth leadership. Our after school programs focus on one of three areas, 1-Community Leadership, 2-Educational Leadership and 3-Entrepreneurial Leadership. Brand said, "It is so much fun. Our young people are really the leaders, directors and the drivers of the work that we do. They come to us from all areas of the community - representing 40 different schools - they make their way to us for two hours every single day during the school year as well as summer programming." The progress is evident in the changes they see in the community to make it a safer, more vibrant, more energetic place to be. YouthBiz is celebrating their 20th anniversary. Started in 1992 by a community leader, Brian Barhaugh, who is still engaged in the community. He started it with a group of youths in response to the 'summer of violence' in 5 Points. We lost so many young people. They decided there must be something they could do together to show their community the value of their young people, not the liability. That works remains relevant and needed today. Larry asked, "What are some of the innovations and changes YouthBiz is going through right now?" Brandy replied, "For many years we've stood on our foundations, which will not change, which include peer based leadership - young people teaching young people. We incentivize and pay financial wages to our young people. We understand they are up against the gun when it comes to what they're going to do with their after school time. Economic strife is a very real concern in their community. We combat that by paying them wages for their time and by getting them involved in actual hands-on work. We are realizing our mission by helping those young people, not just learn the skills...Listen for much more...
Related Links: YouthBiz || CIMCO || Community Reach Channel || Social Entrepreneurs || Keywords: Brandy Bertram, YouthBiz, Youth, Community Leadership, Educational Leadership, Entrepreneurial Leadership, CIMCO, Social Entrepreneurs - bytes=5449250
LISTEN TO: Brandy Bertram, Exec Director, YouthBiz

Powered by Podbean.com

Get your copy of Larry Nelson's popular book...

Change Is Not an Event,
It Is an Ongoing Process
as it is with Chaos

Check out the Mastering Change Blog
Get your Copy at Amazon

Supercharge Your Business!
Seminars / Keynotes

w3w3.com can help you...
Support the Community - Grow Your Business &
Increase Your Profits!    CHECK OUT this link

CrowdFunding for Colorado Entrepreneurs with the JOBS Act
1191_ 4/9/12 - Larry sat down with Steve Reaser, a serial entrepreneur and seed-stage investor who recently came west to join the Boulder startup community. Steve pointed out, "When the legislation included in the JOBS Act (H.R. 3606) eventually goes into effect, crowdfunding will join friends & family, angel funding, and professional lending/investing sources as one more piece of the fundraising ecosystem. The biggest benefits include the ability to reach out to non-accredited investors and the freedom to use the internet to spread the word about your offering... This bill has naturally led to a lot of talk and excitement in entrepreneurial circles and has raised unanswered questions for many business owners... Is this for real? Is crowdfunding right for my company? How will crowdfunding actually work? Having followed this legislation through from the very beginning and having studied how crowdfunding already works abroad, Steve from Vim Funding is here to help bring some clarity to this new capital-raising option. Did you know that you can legally raise up to $1,000,000 from the crowd in the state of Colorado, today? There is no need to wait for the upcoming national crowdfunding legislation. Crowdfunding, at its core, requires two things: 1) The ability to tell lots of people about your offering. 2) The ability to involve non-accredited investors. It is possible to legally do both of these things today, once you have the proper registration in hand." Prior to moving to Colorado Steve co-founded an educational technology company in Raleigh, NC, and helped grow it to 150 employees, over one million users, and solid profitability. Over the eleven years there Steve built several internal teams from the ground up, and was responsible for user-experience design, project management, and executive duties. One of Steve's previous ventures was to co-found Arenal Outdoor Center, an eco-tourism and bungee jumping operation in Costa Rica. Get ready for the money...Listen for more...
Related Links: Funding Launch Pad || Steve Reaser Blog || StartUpGuru || Jumpstart Our Business Startup Act || Venture Capital || Entrepreneurs Channel || Keywords: Steve Reaser, Entrepreneurs, CrowdFunding, Vim Funding, Jobs Act, H.R. 3606, Advisor, Colorado, Entrepreneur, Brian Tsuchiya, Startup Guru - bytes=7544897
LISTEN TO: Steve Reaser, CEO Vim Funding

Powered by Podbean.com

Innovating and motivating around the world
1193_ 4/9/12 - The monthly luncheon speaker at the Denver Association of Corporate Growth was George Godfrey, who is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Crestcom International, a leading international franchiser of management training programs. He joined Crestcom as its Chief Operating Officer in 2008, accepting his current position in March, 2009, when he also became President, CEO and Director of its parent, Crestcom Holdings, LLC. He had previously served as Senior Vice President of Sales for Phoenix American, a provider of insurance vehicle service contracts in Miami, Florida. Before joining that firm, George spent eleven years with General Electric, as a Regional Sales Manager and Senior Vice President. A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, he served five years as an officer in the U.S. Army, where his final assignment was as Detachment Commander. Crestcom poses these questions (and has the answers). How are businesses learning to innovate and motivate in India and Germany? How are executives leading change in Asia? How are managers throughout Africa and the Middle East planning for tomorrow? And how are most admired firms in North and South America making a bottom-line difference through better negotiation and strategy?
In addition to our luncheon presentation, ACG Denver also awarded the annual David Sloan Scholarships as well as the ACG Cup. The Scholarship Program is named after one of our former board members, David Sloan. As a result of MS, David had to leave his job and his work on the ACG Denver Scholarship Program. David was recently featured in the Denver Post and has written a very inspiring book about his journey. Each attendee at the April luncheon received a copy of his book, 'One Day at a Time'...listen for more...
Related Links: Crestcom Home || ACG Denver || M&A || Rocky Mountain Corporate Growth Conference || One Day at a Time Book || Denver Post Article || Keywords: George Godfrey, Crestcom, ACG, Denver, Leadership, Training, Association for Corporate Growth, David Sloan, One Day at a Time, ACG Cup - bytes=3258726
LISTEN TO: George Godfrey, President/CEO, Crestcom International

Powered by Podbean.com

Raising $21.6 million round of funding
1187_ 4/2/12 - Introducing the opening keynote speaker for the RVC Angel Capital Summit was Scott Yates, CEO of Blogmutt. The Angel Capital Summit is a three day event designed to connect investors with entrepreneurs while providing valuable workshops, speakers and networking events. Scott said, "It is because of Jim Franklin that I can stand here as the CEO of my third company to introduce Jim Franklin." Scott explained, "Jim knew that what defined me was not my most recent setback, but that I was a fellow traveler on this path called serial entrepreneur ism. He knew I'd bounce back because he'd bounced back."
     As an insight, Scott tells us a story about Jim, beginning with the fact that Jim is an ultra-long distance runner. Last August, Jim had successfully completed a 100 mile foot race in Leadville the highest incorporated city in North America. In a rocky place with not much air to speak of, Jim ran for 100 miles. On the Monday following that race, Jim went to work, laying the ground work for a company he'd just taken over to close a $21.6 million round of funding. Tuesday night was the last night for the Founder Institute for 2011. And, on this night the first speaker was Jon Nordmark. Jon doesn't get to come out as often as he once did, and he went a bit long. About two hours. Then another speaker, and then it was Jim's turn. Jim stood in front of this group -- in flip-flops because his feet were battered -- and said, "You know those signs on I-70 coming back from the mountains, the ones that say 'Truckers, you are not home yet!'? Well, that's us, we still have a lot of ground to cover." And cover it he did. I still don't know how the guy could stand, let alone talk, let alone deliver some of the most important content imaginable to people hungry to understand the path that they were on. Delivering in spite of obstacles...
      Jim Franklin has a long history with RVC. He moved to Colorado in 1992, with no job, a good education, no money, in debt, and one contact who saw that Jim was young and hungry and ambitious - and he said, "You need to go to the Rockies Venture Club". So Jim put on his suit and tie and went down to Rockies Venture Club, it was September of 1992... Listen to Jim in his own words.
Related Links: Rockies Venture Club || Angel Capital Summit || SendGrid || Blogmutt || Venture Capital || Entrepreneur Channel || Podcast Directory || Photos, Angel Capital Summit || Keywords: Jim Franklin, Scott Yates, Peter Adams, Kirk Ryder, Rockies Venture Club, Angel Capital Summit, Venture Capital, Angel Investors, Entrepreneurs, Boot camp, Investment Advisor, Colorado’s Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, Pitch Academy - bytes=15065655
LISTEN TO: Scott Yates & Jim Franklin, Angel Capital Summit

Powered by Podbean.com

CEO Environment, Leadership in a Turbulent Economy
1189_ 4/2/12 - The Corporate Growth Conference in has been very exciting. Here we are talking with Bob Prince who just got off stage from the "CEO Roundtable - Leadership in a Turbulent Economy". We asked Bob for an overview of what his company does. Last February Bob came to Hyperion as it's new CEO and spent the last year changing the company, changing the direction, new leadership throughout the company. And, so today we changed the name to Gen4 Energy. What the company does, we're bring commercial, out of the Los Alamos Laboratory, a new type, more safe, nuclear power plant than has existed. It's really little, about the size of a Mini Cooper. It's a sealed unit and lasts for ten years for 24/7 power. We take it out sealed, we hook it up and you operate it for ten years. Ten years later, we'll come and get it and give you a new one. Larry said, "One of the things you referred to in your experiences along the line were the values established by your people." Bob said, "I think good companies just make money. Great companies make money and do a lot more. I think everybody wants to work for a great company. How do you do that, I think setting up a set of values and then adhering to them and driving them down into your procedures, your methods of operation, your performance appraisals and living those values makes the difference. We developed them over time and there came to be six values. The first was safety (handling radioactive material - they needed to),. The second one was people. You've got to believe in people and the key is what does that mean, how do you implement that and how do you drive that into your business? And how do you show that you value people, because they'll see right through it - if it's just a plaque to put on the wall, they will see that. 3.) Integrity is the next. Bob thinks that is the number one characteristic of a company or a leader.... Next is quality. You do it right because it's right and you want to be the best quality. If you're handling nuclear waste..."listen for more...
Related Links: Gen4 Energy || ACG Denver || M&A || Rocky Mountain Corporate Growth Conference || Event Photos - Corporate Growth Conference 2012 || Keywords: Bob Prince, Gen4 Energy, Hyperion Power Module, ACG, Denver, Leading Resilient Growth, Association for Corporate Growth, Los Alamos Laboratory, - bytes=6225400
LISTEN TO: Bob Prince, President/CEO, Gen4 Energy

Powered by Podbean.com

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

Powered by Podbean.com