The ecosystem and how this company was put together
1312_ 11/19/12 - We're talking about the ecosystem and how this company, Cloud Elements, was put together. "Cloud Elements is based in the Innovation Pavilion down in the DTC, and it's been a great entire Internet ecosystem that we've been a part of." Mark Geene, Founder and CEO, is really pleased with the startup ecosystem that is building up around Boulder, Denver and the Tech Center - and here's an organization, The Founders Institute that is now a local chapter in Denver. It was initially based out of the Bay Area. Gary Gaessler, VP Sales & Marketing, is a key member of driving that. Jim Franklin, a friend of Mark's suggested, "Hey you're transitioning out of the company you were with, looking for something new, why don't you engage with the Founders Institute", which Mark did. It was a great opportunity to mentor companies that are starting up and developing. That led to connections to Gary, which lead us to the Innovation Pavilion, a tremendous incubator like Galvanize, bringing startups together. "So we go there now, meeting with other people that we've added to our organization, meeting through this community." Gary Gaessler and Mark Geene are co-founders and EIR’s (Executives/Entrepreneurs in Residence) at IP (Innovation Pavilion) and also mentors at Founders Institute. Mark said, "Channel Insight, really was a cloud company before there was a cloud. We built a large scale software as a service multi tenant platform. We built this from scratch because there weren't the infrastructure service providers and platform distributor providers built at the time we started to build that company. So when we left there we looked at the opportunity to help other companies build their applications faster. We swore we would never do it again in terms of building our own platform and our own technology because it was so difficult to do. So that's where we really became big believers of platform as a service." Listen for more......
RELATED LINKS: Cloud Elements || Founders Institute Colorado || Innovation Pavilion || Defrag || Foundry Group || TechStars || PodCasting Directory || KEYWORDS: Mark Geene, Gary Gaessler, Cloud Elements, TiE Rockies, Executives/Entrepreneurs in Residence, Innovation Pavilion, Jim Franklin, Jon Nordmark, Defrag, blur, The Cloud > bytes=4257648
LISTEN TO: Mark Geene & Gary Gaessler, Cloud Elements

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The app is free - it's a really special piece of technology
1315_ 11/19/12 - Spending a day at Blur is like taking a step into the future, with a reality feature that takes your breath away!
We spoke with Paul Berberian, CEO of Orbotix. As an overview, Paul told us Orbotix is the creator of Sphero, a little robotic ball that you control with your smart phone. What is special about Sphero is it is a robot gaming system. So think of a Wii or an Xbox except it rolls around on the ground, and there are over 20 different apps and games for it - and more coming out every month. Now, Paul was a keynote speaker at ‘Blur’, a very interesting conference here in Colorado, and today they just announced their new augmented reality application or game called Sharky the Beaver. It's a crazed little beaver that thinks he's a shark and he runs around your house eating cupcakes that you toss to him electronically. What's really special about this new application and game is it's the first time that you can take a 3-dimensional character and have it actually move around your house or office and interact with real world objects as well as virtual objects, without any setup, without any preparation it just works, it works in a bunch of different environments. The app is free - it's a really special piece of technology that just disappears into the end user - it's magical - they look at the ground and they see a robot ball, they look at their screen and they see a little crazy, whacked out beaver running around the house, and the technology disappears into the background. It just becomes really immersive and fun. Paul is a serial entrepreneur and goes onto offering some great advice for business owners and aspirating entrepreneurs. BTW, you might want to consider buying a Sphero for a year-end holiday present ...listen for more...
RELATED LINKS: Sphero Home || TechStars || Paul Berberian 10 years ago || Foundry Group || Defrag/blur Info || KEYWORDS: Paul Berberian, Orbotix, Sphero, Defrag, blur, Sharky the Beaver, Game, Electronically, Robot Ball, Colorado, Entrepreneurs, > bytes=4832760
LISTEN TO: Paul Berberian, CEO, Sphero coming to you from the Blur Conference

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Advice for an aspiring entrepreneur
1309_ 11/12/12 - As anticipation grows, we're quickly closing in on the start of DefragCon 2012. Getting a few minutes for this interview with Eric Norlin is an accomplishment in itself. And, it is our last chance because he immerses himself and his team in the detailed, constant activity of putting on a conference that continues to live up to and supersede its reputation. While talking with Eric, he did say, "When you work on anything for twelve years you kind of figure it out eventually - or you go broke. One of the two, right?" We are talking with a guy that has tremendous contacts with all kinds and sizes of organizations and we wondered what are the biggest challenges, today in our environment, for technical companies. Eric said he thinks we're leaving the phase where consumer facing companies are all the rage, and entering a phase where enterprise tech companies are becoming hot again. But you still have to do the normal blocking and tackling of landing customers - and then somehow find a way to rise above the noise. Because, throughout the recession we've seen in the last few years where there has been some slow down, it really has been a lot less severe than any other sector. Greatest opportunities? Eric points to some fairly big technical trends everyone is familiar with - Cloud computing, big data and even the mobile wave. What advice do you give an aspiring entrepreneur? "First of all if you've got an idea and you've got a team and you've got some prototype built, the first piece of advice is, if it's something you really want to do - Go do it. Don't let anyone tell you not to do it. Because being an entrepreneur is one of the most exciting decisions you can make in life. It's a terrifying decision to make - there's a lot of fear associated with it, but at the end of the day, it is so fulfilling that whether your company succeeds or not, it's entirely worth it...Eric has more to say... ***Join w3w3® at Defrag and Blur
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RELATED LINKS: 25% Defrag Discount Code: www123 || BLUR Discount Code: bifr12 ($477.00) || Defrag 1 Site, 2 Shows 3 Days || Foundry Group || TechStars || Blog || KEYWORDS: Eric Norlin, Defrag, BLUR, Brad Feld, Entrepreneurs, Technology Conferences, Social Business Technology, Big Data, Social Business Technology, bytes=5403274
LISTEN TO: Eric Norlin, Defrag - blur Conference 2012

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Spending a lot of time here with the tech scene in Colorado
1305_ 11/12/12 - Who is Daniel Feld? His background as an entrepreneur, in venture capital, as an investor, a business founder, a business exec - he's worked with all kinds of organizations... we wondered who really knows Daniel Feld? and what is he doing today? Daniel said, "So I have had a variety of roles and responsibilities in my career, varying from consumer products and services to technology products and services - enterprise as well as consumer." He started out in the advertising industry in Dallas and worked with some of the nation's largest consumer packaged goods brands on go-to-market strategies and full service advertising solutions for them. So, TV, radio, print, new product blowout, branding, packaging, anything to do with traditional consumer packaged goods. Sales and distribution, he's had a chance to experience that too. About 15 years ago, he moved to Boulder, Colorado and started a company working with technology startups on channel development services. Helping those companies with go-to-market strategies typically through third parties, as a way to expand their distribution beyond their immediate reach. That lead to working with a venture capital firm, Mobius Venture Capital as they were looking to expand their business incubator [Hot Bank] to Colorado. They had one up and running in California, wanted to expand that to Colorado and Daniel came on as a co-founder to run that operation and create that for the business here. That was in conjunction with Mobius. That lead to working in a deep operating role with one of our portfolio companies, Still Secure. It's a network security company, still operating and based in Superior, Colorado. These are just some of the things Daniel's done. Most recently he's spent some time as a partner in a web design firm, Slice of Lime - an award winning web design firm and a really talented group of people working on the graphic design side of things, a high end web design and web application shop. The other thing Daniel has fun with is mentoring with the TechStar's companies...
RELATED LINKS: Daniel Feld History || Slice of Lime || StillSecure || Foundry Group || PivotDesk || TechStars || Slice of Lime 2011 || KEYWORDS: Daniel Feld, Mobius Venture Capital, StillSecure, Foundry Group, Slice of Lime, PivotDesk, TechStars, Venture Capital, TV, Radio, Print, New Product Blowout, Branding, Packaging, bytes=5709639
LISTEN TO: Daniel Feld, Entrepreneur

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First Ever in North America!
1313_ 11/19/12 - Recently announced - ViaWest is the first ever in North America, of a co-location data center company to receive a Tier I4 Rating from the Uptime Institute. Understandably Dave Leonard and ViaWest are very proud of this distinction. The Uptime Institute with the Tier Ratings, 1 through 4, is all about the quality of the data center, Tier I4 being the highest quality. So in response to an increasing customer requirement for quality of data center, ViaWest has now designed the latest data center in Las Vegas to be fault tolerant. It's been certified by the Uptime Institute to be Tier IV Quality. That's the first co-location data center in North America. Dave said the ViaWest customers are really helping by increasing their expectations. It's all about the customers peace of mind - they don't have to worry about their most valued applications. The Northwest Vegas project is ViaWest's current largest build that's going on - augmenting their existing Las Vegas data centers. It's going to be a 74,000 square foot raised floor in a 108,000 sq. ft. building and it's going to be the greenest co-location data center ever built! And as mentioned the highest quality data center in North America. Dave went onto say, "We are building this data center to be Leed Certified, to be Green Globe certified, to be Energy Star certified, but most importantly it's going to be extraordinarily energy efficient, with a power usage effectiveness of 1.2." Lone Mountain Las Vegas data center earns first-ever Tier IV design certification for a collocation facility in North America...listen for more exciting details...
RELATED LINKS: ViaWest || Uptime Institute || Media Center || Software Channel || Data Center Communities || Blog || KEYWORDS: Dave Leonard, ViaWest, Uptime Institute, Tier IV, Las Vegas, Data Centers, Green, Lone Mountain, Marketplace, Data Center Operations, Local Partner, Service Territory, bytes=4014814
LISTEN TO: Dave Leonard, Sr Vice President, Data Center Operations, ViaWest

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An entrepreneurial blitz in the tech scene
1314_ 11/19/12 - Larry interviewed Daniel Feld a serial entrepreneur. Larry asked, "With the economic times we've gone through these past few years, what do you think are the biggest challenges that companies face today?" Daniel was quick to respond, "I think there are obvious answers to that, but I think some of the biggest challenges are just staying in business. Keeping cash flow coming in, whether that's from outside sources of capital, from investors of some sort - or from cash flow from your business. You have to have cash flow to keep the lights on, so that's just an obvious one. I think a less obvious big challenge today is getting the attention of consumers. There are so many different ways to reach out to consumers today. And, consumers are constantly being bombarded by messages across the different channels. First of all, knowing who your target audience is, is critical. Knowing how to get to those folks in a meaningful way, and connect with them to attract them to your brand or your solution, is also very critical." Larry turned the table and asked, "What are the greatest opportunities for businesses today?' His reply, "The biggest opportunity as well as the biggest challenge is, there are so many ways today, to connect with consumers directly. Having the expertise to figure out the strategy and the tactics to use those channels, whether it's using social media - and there's a lot of variety and different ways that you can track customers and speak to customers. But I think the fact that you have direct access to customers and that customers have a large megaphone out to the world themselves, means that companies really have to be on their toes about how they interact and respond to customers. Finding the right tools and the people to help them take advantage of those is a critical opportunity for people." There's more great advice, listen for more...
RELATED LINKS: Daniel Feld History || Foundry Group || TechStars || PivotDesk || In the News || KEYWORDS: Daniel Feld, Mobius Venture Capital, PivotDesk, Foundry Group, TechStars, Venture Capital, TV, Radio, Print, New Product Blowout, Branding, Packaging, bytes=4655128
LISTEN TO: Daniel Feld, Entrepreneur

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Building and expanding a business in the West
1308_ 11/12/12 - As the senior vice president of data center operations, Dave Leonard directs all of ViaWest's day-to-day facility operations and procedures, as well as expansion projects and future data center builds. We're at ViaWest headquarters, to get the skinny on the expansion at this dynamic Colorado icon. Very unique and, another company that launched in 1999 (like w3w3.com and Defrag...) We are talking with Dave Leonard, ViaWest Senior Vice President of Data Center Operations - well known to Frontier, United and Southwest Airlines - as he visits all the ViaWest Data Centers so often. Dave has two separate teams, one that operates the data centers (there are 23 data centers). The second team builds data centers and they are building a new, very large data center in north Las Vegas to compliment their two existing data centers in Las Vegas. So, the expansion is very aggressive and keeps happening throughout our service territory - and coming soon, outside of our service territory. But, Las Vegas is a great example where we are very successful in Las Vegas filling up the existing data centers that we had and demand led us to build a large new data center which will be going online at the end of December. Larry wondered what challenges ViaWest faces in this expansion? "You read about organizations like Facebook and Google building data centers out in the middle of nowhere, where there is very cheap power and very good conditions for free cooling, for instance. We don't site data centers that way. We put data centers where we believe our customers are going to be. There are two things happening in the data center industry, if Dave were wearing his construction hat, that building new data centers have been a good opportunity for ViaWest in two aspects, the green aspect, and the other is the quality of the data centers... Listen for more...
RELATED LINKS: ViaWest || Uptime Institute || Software Channel || Data Center Communities || PodCasting Directory || KEYWORDS: Dave Leonard, ViaWest, Uptime Institute, Las Vegas, Data Centers, Green, Marketplace, Data Center Operations, Local Partner, Service Territory, bytes=5214775
LISTEN TO: Dave Leonard, Sr. VP of Data Center Operations, ViaWest

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Be very methodical in growing your company
1305_ 11/12/12 - At the ACG Denver November meeting, Chris Pelley introduced us to our speaker, John Sullivan, Ph.D., President and CEO of Mesa Laboratories. Todd Roebken ACG Denver president, joined the discussion, asking Dr. Sullivan what was the greatest challenge facing him in trying to grow his company. Interestingly John said it was twofold. They've experienced a lot of growth in recent years "... and just reorganizing the company to deal with all that growth has really been a challenge. With new positions and recruiting the right people, getting the right infrastructure in place - things like that, that's been quite a challenge. The other is just continuing to go through acquisitions. We've had a lot of success in that regard. In the last few years several acquisitions have been completed. And, just finding the right company that fits in well with our culture, our product lines and financials has been a challenge. But so far so good, and we just hope to continue on in the future." Todd wondered about the success of finding talented people here in Colorado. John's response, "Absolutely. Quite a bit. We've gotten several people here in the Denver area. They've come on board with Mesa and we've gotten some good people here locally, absolutely!" If you're not familiar with Mesa Labs, John said, they make products for quality control applications, both instrumentation and consumable. They have several different product lines that came to them through acquisition in the past few years and they're all doing quite well. Another favorite question we put to Dr. Sullivan was what advice would he give to businesses here in Colorado for the next year? With a chuckle John said, "Be patient! You know we are very methodical in growing the company. We're very conservative and that patience has really paid off. We don't want to make any mistakes in our growth plan."
RELATED LINKS: Mesa Labs || ACG Denver || M&A || Jones Lang LaSalle || Capital Investment Management || Monthly Speaker: John Sullivan, Mesa Laboratories || Rocky Mountain Corporate Growth Conference March 20-21, 2013 || KEYWORDS: John Sullivan, Mesa Laboratories, Acquisitions, Quality Control Applications, Instrumentation, Consumable, ACG, Denver, Rocky Mountain Corporate Growth Conference, > bytes=2706184
LISTEN TO: John J. Sullivan, Ph.D., President & CEO, Mesa Laboratories

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