Go with something that you are really passionate about
1389_ 6/3/13 - Larry sat down with Keith Larson, President, SKiL Business Advisors to discuss some business issues. Their purpose is to help small to medium companies be successful. They help in many areas like finance, sales and marketing, human resources, funding, operations and specialize in startups. Keith is also a charter member of TiE Rockies. It is an organization set up to foster entrepreneurs. He has had a good career as the president of sales & marketing of a $2 billion company and the CFO of two $800 million companies. SKiL Business Advisors & TiE Rockies are organization where he can work on new exciting projects and also give back to entrepreneurs. Larry asked, "What are the biggest business challenges today?" Keith answered, "The biggest challenges are around resources and sense of urgency. Small businesses are usually short on resources such as cash and expertise. They seem to have a very high sense of urgency to hit a home run immediately. My experience is that they need help and they need it fast but they also need to follow good business practices and communicate. The biggest challenge is to slow down the process and do things right from the beginning." We asked what opportunities do you see? "I have been pleasantly surprised at the quality and quantity of great ideas in the Denver area. I am working on 8 startups now and most of them are in the Denver area. The startups are in energy, healthcare, nutraceutical, technology, international business, healthy products. The need for better healthcare, better energy, and improved technology are limitless. This is an exciting time. I find more and more people wanting to work for themselves or small companies and make a real impact. Keith's advice for entrepreneurs today was, "Go with something that you are really passionate bout. Never stop. Get good advisers through organizations like TiE. Be totally honest about your situation. If you don’t have funds.. .Listen for more...
RELATED LINKS: Innovation Pavilion || w3w3 Blog || In the News || KEYWORDS: Keith Larson, SKiL Business Advisors, Charter Member, TiE Rockies, Colorado, Energy, Healthcare, Nutraceutical, Technology, International Business, Healthy Products, > bytes=4960238
LISTEN TO: Keith Larson, President, SKiL Business Advisors,
Charter Member TiE Rockies

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When you are querying the system, you want a really fast response
1391_ 6/3/13 - We're here at Gluecon 2013 with Matt Ingenthron, director of Developer Solutions at Couchbase a No SQL database company. No SQL database is a term thrown around in the industry these days. Matt said, "What it really means for us is we are a document oriented database and we are focused on interactive applications. So think of situations like Orbitz, one of our deployments. For example, where you are querying the system - you want a really fast response because you want to be able to browse these hotels very quickly. So we are really designed for easy scale, for a flexible data model, you don't have to force yourself into a relational database kind of structure. And, we're also very good at high availability and really good response time. Couchbase works with all different size companies and we're open source, by the way. So that also means we have a number of companies and people that just write projects on the side, and they just want to use a database that's easy to use." But going back to the big deployments, AOL uses Couchbase for ad targeting, Orbitz uses Couchbase for content behind their travel system, everyone from Starbucks to BMW USA. We're also very big in the social gaming space because those are situations where people really need a high through-put and low response times. Matt asked, "Have you heard of a game called Draw Something or Pictionary - those guys when they started with Couchbase had six nodes of catch space and in about 45 days they grew - because their game became very popular, very quickly. So in about 45 days they needed to grow that to just under 100 nodes. Games usually measure things as daily active users, they went from 60,000 daily active users to 25 million in 45 days." When asked what challenges companies are facing today, Matt said, "I would say we continue to see unprecedented opportunity to take a lot of the data we see in an organizations, a lot of the way companies touch their users, and do that in a more meaningful way. ...listen for more.
RELATED LINKS: Couchbase || Glue 2012 || Defrag Conference 2013 || Defrag || Software Channel || w3w3 Blog || KEYWORDS: Matt Ingenthron, Couchbase, No SQL database company, SAP, AOL, Orbitz, Starbucks, BMW USA, Eric Norlin, Gluecon, Defrag, > bytes=5121988
LISTEN TO: Matt Ingenthron, Couchbase

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Autism affects one in 88 people today
1385_ 5/28/13 - Introducing Kim Tenune, Director of Outreach and Policy Program, Autism Society of Colorado along with James Buckles, CEO...and we are talking about how Autism effects the workplace. It is important to understand that Autism is a spectrum disorder that effects the brain development of social and communication skills. Obviously Autism manifests itself in deficits in the social, communication, maybe restricted interests and repetitive behaviors. It is truly a spectrum disorder, it effects everyone differently. What we are seeing in the business community is an increase in prevalence. The CDC's most recent numbers indicate nationally, one in 88 people are affected by autism - in 1990 it was one in 2500. As that number increases, what we're seeing is not just children being affected by autism, but adults being affected by autism. And obviously when we're dealing with adults we're dealing with workplace issues. Adults who have gone undiagnosed their entire lives, suddenly unemployed, seeking answers and finding out they do have autism - going through that diagnosis process. Kim said in the workplace there are issues around communication. "We've had some great stories come back from employers saying these individuals I have with autism are wonderful, they're productive. They may not be as social with their coworkers but they do their job and they do it well. Kim said, "Our mission is to improve the lives of all those affected by autism. That includes the individual with autism, their parents, teachers, potential employers, and their coworkers, the business community. We want to be a resource, a bridge to connect people, much like your radio show does. There is still definitely stigma around autism. The beauty of the walk is bringing people together, and for employers it's going to create a place where their employees can really be themselves. It's going to create a healthy workplace. Walk With Autism - Share the Journey kicks off on Sunday morning, June 9th. Register at 8:00AM - the Walk starts at 9:30AM and you'll be home by noon." Listen for more...
RELATED LINKS: Autism Society of Colorado || Walk Page || ASC Programs || Donate || Blog || KEYWORDS: Walk for Autism, Kim Tenune, James Buckles, Autism Society of Colorado, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Autism Friendly Business. Sensory Friendly Films, CDC, Beau Jo's, Autism Friendly Environment Started in Colorado, bytes=8461900
LISTEN TO: Kim Tenune & James Buckles - Walk With Autism - Share the Journey

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The art of raising money has changed a great deal [2 of 4]
1387_ 5/28/13 - Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA, a professor at the CU School of Medicine, Department of Otolaryngology and he is President/CEO of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs. Part 2 of 4...We're talking about money and Arlen says... "The problem is there isn't access to it and from the standpoint of not that there isn't enough of it, because there is. It's just a question of how do Colorado entrepreneurs; particularly in healthcare get their fair share. I think it's useful to provide an overview. What's happening is that because of all the dynamics, venture capital has shrunk in the state. That whole business model is coming into question. Community based innovation is driving innovation. Accelerators have accelerated and it's easier than ever to start a business. Unfortunately it's not as easy to scale and fund a business. For instance, statistics indicate that the number of businesses started in the United States, in terms of reflecting entrepreneurship has dropped. It is now about a-half million businesses created in the U.S. And that's a good news/bad news story because some people interpret that as the economy is improving, as the real estate bubble has broke and now is re-growing, people are actually getting employed and finding jobs and there is no need for them to start their own business. So I don't like it when people are relieved of that sense of urgency whether it's by the economy sense or whatever. Getting back to the money, the issues are; There's not enough of it in Colorado and we need to create ways to get our fair share. I think there are a couple of ways to do that. One is, we need to rethink how the government, that is state government provides incentives to fund new startups. Particularly at the community level - not top down but bottom up. Two, we need to do a better job marketing Colorado as a technology hub and going to the money. The old Louie Sutton. Now he is on the coast, so we need to do a better job of going to the coast to get the money. Three, we need to be more innovative as far as how we create whether it's a fund-to-fund, crowd funding, all of these things that we've talked about over the last 30 years...listen for more...
RELATED LINKS: Society of Physician Entrepreneurs || CU School of Medicine || Economy Builders || KEYWORDS: Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA, CU School of Medicine, Otolaryngology, SoPE, TiE Rockies, Colorado, Society of Physician Entrepreneurs, Myogen Gilead, bytes=4928473
LISTEN TO: Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA; President/CEO, Society of Physician Entrepreneurs (SoPE)

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PSA: Walk with Autism –
Share the Journey Sunday, 6/9/13

1385_ 5/16/13 - Autism is a disorder that affects the brain’s normal development of social and communication skills and in Colorado, 1 in 85 children are diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder every year. That’s why ASC is hosting an inaugural Walk, to connect Walkers to an extensive community of families, volunteers, and donors who are committed to raising awareness and acceptance. The Autism Society of Colorado (ASC) Walk with Autism is a fun, healthy, and effective way to show your support for all those impacted by autism and to raise funds for ASC—All money raised here, stays here! RELATED LINKS: Autism Society of Colorado || The Walk ||

High tech conference and raising money
1388_ 6/3/13 - It's been a year since we spoke with Seth Levine, managing director, Foundry Group, it was here at the Glue Con. This year the conference is bigger and better than ever. Seth said, "This year is the largest, we have about 500 attendees this year. I really feel that Glue as a conference is growing into its own. One thing I've noticed there are more large companies here this year - HP is here, Disney a whole bunch of different companies have sent folks here to understand what's going on. You know the history of Glue, which started as a developer conference for a lot of startup developers. The first couple of years that was the group that came together, and that was great and still the foundation of Glue. It's really nice to see some of these larger companies looking to Glue as the place to go to see what new and interesting companies are innovating on. And of course, a number of what were startup companies a few years ago have turned into really big businesses. I just sat through the New Relic presentation - that's a great example. They've been here for a couple of years and that's a large, large company. We've had a few companies acquired that were involved early on in Glue and are now part of large organizations and it's really nice to see. At its core Glue is a technical conference and Defrag, which is another conference that we help run is more of the kind of C-Level conversation. But Lew Cirne is a great example, from New Relic, a CEO that still codes. The event attracts CEOs that have a slight technical bent that want to surround themselves with developers and ops people and technical folks. Larry asked, "What else is the Foundry Group focusing its attention on?" Seth replied, "We continue to invest across a handful of themes, long term technology trends that we believe drive innovation over 10+ years. We've been very active. We see more business ideas now than I think we've ever seen, we stopped counting, it got to be too many. We'll probably see 5000 business plans this year, probably spend time with maybe 10% of those. At least a little bit of time with maybe 500 of those companies and our investment pace has continued to be seven to maybe ten on the high end, investments a year. We raised our third fund, all of our funds are the same size, $225 Million each. And we started investing that fund here in 2013. We do..." Listen for more...
RELATED LINKS: Glue 2012 || Defrag Conference 2013 || Defrag || Foundry Group || Software Channel || Podcasting Directory || KEYWORDS: Seth Levine, Gluecon, Foundry Group, Brad Feld, Jason Mendelson, Ryan McIntyre, Marketplace, Defrag, Business Plans, > bytes=6599056
LISTEN TO: Seth Levine, Managing Director, Foundry Group

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Companies are starting to do more dynamic pricing
1390_ 6/3/13 - At the Glue conference, Larry corralled Thomas Grassl, the Director of Developer Relations at SAP Global Marketing, Inc. - he is looking after all of their developer outreach programs and Glue was the perfect conference for Thomas because there are tons of developers here. SAP, as most people know, is big enterprise and process software for the enterprise, and has over 200,000 customers. They're keeping an eye on new technologies and how they can help their customers to enhance the business processes, putting these new technologies into the customer's hands. SAP is globally focused, in fact Thomas said, "I don't know which country SAP isn't in, and we really do work from the small business up to the giant companies out there. This can be a developer from the system integrator to an individual who does their own consulting practice or a mobile developer who starts their own business around developing mobile apps for the enterprise business space. So, basically we are looking at all types of developers and helping them to get kick-started on these things and also helping them to learn about the enterprise and what to build for the enterprise. It's a little bit different than if you are building mobile apps for example, in the consumer space. Larry asks, "With all the different changes we've been through, what are the biggest challenges for businesses today?" Thomas said, "Businesses definitely need to be very agile. It's no longer like you've figured out a product, and you know how to produce it and sell it. There are always new challenges coming up. It's like new economies are coming up and they're eating into your market. So these companies are constantly looking at what new technologies, the latest technologies will help them improve their business processes. A good example is we have this new memory data base, it's called SAP HANA and it allows..." There's more...
RELATED LINKS: SAP Global Marketing, Inc. || Glue 2012 || Defrag Conference 2013 || Defrag || Software Channel || Economy Builders || KEYWORDS: Thomas Grassl, SAP, Eric Norlin, Gluecon, Defrag, Cloud Computing, Mobile Development, SAP HANN, Enterprise, Globally Focused Brad Feld, Seth Levine, Jason Mendelson, Ryan McIntyre > bytes=4670174
LISTEN TO: Thomas Grassl, SAP Global Marketing

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Expanding into foreign countries, the challenges and opportunities
1384_ 5/28/13 - Balan Nair is the Executive Vice President and CTO for Liberty Global a leading international cable operator. Their revenues, over $10 Billion with over 21,000 employees, and active in 13 countries. LGI operates mostly in Europe with operations in South America as well (Chile and Puerto Rico). As a matter of fact a 14th will be added very soon with their acquisition of Virgin Media in the United Kingdom. Balan says they are very bullish on Europe and very bullish on the paid TV business. It's counter intuitive for the macro economic situation in Europe is somewhat challenging - our business has grown right through it. Balan said, "Our customers don't buy luxury goods from us, they buy basic necessities, voice, video and data. Even in the worst of times you really don't want to disconnect that and especially your broadband pipe. And we price them in Europe where it's really affordable and consistent with the competitive landscape there." Larry asked, "If you were talking with a business person thinking of expanding overseas, what advice would you give them?" Balan replied, "There are a number of things I would look at depending on the country you want to get into, and they are all different. Among the local regulations, you ought to look at the labor environment in both hiring as well as firing and what that does to your costs. You'll definitely have exposure to currency fluctuations, so you want to look at that track record. And fourth, definitely the political situation because the political climate drives the other three so you ought to have a good sense of that. Then, you decide if your product is relevant in that environment, that country. Can you price it in the right way and still be competitive." They went on discussing the greatest opportunities and the biggest challenges in doing business in foreign countries and TiE Rockies in Colorado ...listen for more...
RELATED LINKS: Liberty Global || LGI Officers || Podcasting Directory ||
KEYWORDS: Nair, Liberty Global, Cable Industry, TiE Rockies, Europe, South America, Chile, Puerto Rico, Virgin Media, United Kingdom, Voice, Video, Data > bytes=6800930
LISTEN TO: Balan Nair, Executive Vice President & CTO, Liberty Global

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Working in the Cloud, Mobil and Big Data spaces, and APIs
1386_ 5/28/13 - Larry and Pat were interviewing Eric Norlin, Founder of the Glue Conference. Eric gave an overview. "Glue is an event focused on developers that are working in the Cloud, Mobil and Big Data spaces, and that often includes APIs, so if there's one overarching technical theme, it's the API. But you'll find a lot of mobile developers here, a lot of cloud and big data folks here as well. From an attendees side, we set out to make Glue the most technically deep conference, we think in the country. There are other conferences that are pretty technical, but our goal has always been to go as deep as possible. So for instance Wednesday, Adrian Cockcroft, who is the chief cloud architect for all of Netflix did a four hour and 15 min. workshop on their architecture. I talked to him last night and he said, 'The funny thing is I ran over by 15 minutes but I only got through 40 of 89 slides.' I think next year we're going to have him do an eight hour workshop. There's no limit to how deep we want to go, and I think the people that come here are very technically adept and hungry for that type of interaction." They discussed a number of other aspects. Larry asked about the upcoming Defrag Conference (11/4-6/13). "We're running Defrag here at the Omni Interlocken from November 4th to the 6th. It'll be three days long which is a little bit different for us. We're wrapping in a whole bunch of new content this year. We already have Chris Anderson who is the ex-executive editor of Wired Magazine, and is now running a drone startup company. He's coming to talk drone technology. Paul Kedrosky (of Bloomberg, Kauffman Foundation and SKV) who is with us every year will be back. We have a guy named David Soloff, CEO of Premise Data Corporation, which is working in creating real time macro economic data on a global scale. So, you know, Defrag is always, kind of out of left field, off the wall, high-end kind of topics. You know, we'll talk everything from 3-D Printers to drones to enterprise software and clouds to the quantified self in the next year.
RELATED LINKS: Photos Gluecon 2013 || Glue 2012 || Defrag Conference 2013 || Defrag || Software Channel || w3w3 Blog || KEYWORDS: Eric Norlin, Gluecon, Defrag, Cloud Computing, Mobile Development, Big Data, APIs, CIO, CTO, Techno Babble, Renaissance Enterprise Developer, Drone Technology, Foundry Group, Brad Feld, Seth Levine, Jason Mendelson, Ryan McIntyre > bytes=5096074
LISTEN TO: Eric Norlin, Founder, Gleucon

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Mastering Change in the Midst of Chaos™1307_ 11/12/12 -

Here’s what you’ll learn in this 200 page book!
     - Apply the Principles of A-to-Z Planning to
        Build a Winning Team
     - Tap into Your Team’s Mental DNA to
        Increase Performance
     - Understand Your Sector’s
        History, Trends & Ground Swell

Regardless of the economy, application of these 3 initiatives will help you achieve your goals, meet your bottom-line metrics and accomplish incredible results. These 3 initiatives are Powerful, Proven and People-Oriented. Larry predicts there will be more significant changes in 2013 than in the last 10 years combined…across all sectors. Read More at Mastering Change .

Order now… It’s yours for $10.00 and we’ll pay the shipping in the US… (last chance - free shipping)