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Boulder Startup Week 2013: what we did.
May 18th
Jann Scott is Boulder’s critical voice
First of all we are not exactly a start up. We are more an old school OG Boulder entrepreneurial company. That is to say Brad Feld and David Cohen didn’t invent the entrepreneurial movement here in Boulder. They joined it in the 90s and capitalized on it. Yes they are modern day Gurus, but Boulder has 100’s of gurus. Boulder’s entreperurship started in the late 1800s during the Colorado Gold rush and it never stopped.
So old timer tech entrepreneurs look at Feld , Cohen and Polis with some bemusement. They’ve seen it all before. This new hippy feel good neo communist business start up scene was really started by Moe Segal and the natural foods biz heads of the 1960s and 70’s. One CU business professor scoffed at the notion of Start Ups. ” Most of it is junk” he said. ” One or 2 out of 100 will be swallowed up by the VCs and make it to market but the other 98 will fail. So this is nothing new and Brad Feld is not that special.” he said.
And this is where I’d like to pick up. So what did we at Boulder Channel 1 do during this years Boulder Start Up Week. ?
We kept working that’s what we did. Part of our work was to send out sales reps to various event s to see where there was an opportunity to make some money by selling our services. What?? yep. We were looking for advertising clients, We were not looking for funding an angel or a VC. But we were looking to deal. We were selling. Overtly and not so overtly. We were looking for one $20,000 client for a year. One advertiser who needed banner ads, video, sm, pr, design, a show series, a web site and who wanted consumers from Boulder to buy their goods. We were on the hunt. We set a goal and went after it. That’s what start Up Week Boulder meant to us. No bullshit. No drinking. No fucking around. No chasing millionaires. Just hard work. Sales.
Did we land anyone. Yep we did. Two. we made $40,000 bucks this week off of Boulder Start Up week from two companies who wanted our services….. who needed our service… and who did not want to be dicked around by a bunch of drunks who are playing at business.
There is a lesson here for those of you who want to be serious business people. ( We have been successfully in business since 1975 here in Boulder. Like everyone else who digs this city, it only keeps getting better) We live in Utopia and we don’t take it for granted. We are truly blessed
What do we do to give back to Boulder?? We have been here for a long long time. We are established and have roots. we give cash to 30 different Boulder charities who help feed and clothe people. We produce videos for free for any non profit. We don’t charge non profits. We mentor homeless techies who need a hand up. We mentor kids of impoverished families.
Jann Scott is the CEO of Channel 1 Networks
Boulder Start Up week starts up on Wednesday
May 14th
Boulder start Up week is developing from an elitist all white college aged “new entrepreneurial vision of neo -com American business run by wine and coffee snobs” to something that the city of Boulder has endorsed and made an official event. In it’s early days BSUW was an invite, register only press censored event. Much of it was low on substance and high on partying. Don’t get us wrong Boulder start Up week is still a week long drinking convention for 20 and early 30 somethings, but it now has to conform to city strict Human rights policies. Read. It is now open to the public, press and the homeless.
Some of the more serious presentations for entrepreneurs are held by Metzger and Associates and the Boulder Chamber who bring in qualified mentors to actually assist aspiring Start Ups. Yet the week is an overt promotion to attract tech companies to Boulder. Look at the schedule of events and much of it partying drinking. Boulder has a huge rep for drinking drugging and partying in the start Up scene and for those looking for that, you won’t be disappointed. Yet, the schedule has tons of events and with a discerning eye you are bound to find something useful.
“What is Boulder Startup Week?
Each May, we throw a 5-day event that showcases the unique startup culture of Boulder. No registration required. You’ll find meetups, coffee shop pow-wows, the largest Ignite in the world, parties, drinks, food, hikes, bike rides, sun, and good people.
Wednesday is the official launch of Boulder Startup Week 2013. People from across the Front Rage will be flocking to Boulder to get a taste of the entrepreneurial culture and what it means to get an idea off the ground.
Here is Boulder start Up week Schedule
Maybe you’re in search of a co-founder. Maybe you need workshops to help your ideas to take shape.
Maybe you just need beer.mWhatever you’re looking for, you’ll find it over the five-day span of this year’s Boulder Startup Week. We’ve created a dang-near definitive go-to guide to help you get the most out of the week. Buckle up and let’s go.
Looking for a gig? There’s an entire listing of who’s hiring.
Need the schedule? You can access each day’s events right here.
Want to attend an event? Each event on the calendar has an Eventbrite link. BE SURE TO REGISTER. Many events are beyond full at this point. While some don’t have max capacities, some do. Be sure to check the Eventbrite link on each event before you just show up.Going to Ignite Boulder on the 15th? It’s sold out. Be glad you scored tickets. If you need tickets, sending out a tweet can sometimes help as can standing in front of the Boulder Theater to snag a spare from people who have already bought tickets and have a spare.Need to get to Boulder Startup Week? Catch the Uber Express Bus. The bus schedule is right here. Buses are running multiple times per day between Denver and Boulder to make it easy.Have you registered to attend Boulder Beta? Well, why not? It’s kinda the big shindig of the whole week. Tickets are $15 and available here.Need to feed? Nearly every day features breakfast and lunch sessions, sponsored by some of the coolest startups in Boulder. Be sure to say thank you as you breeze by and grab that pancake, breakfast burrito, or lunchtime taco-and-beer.For more information, stop by the Boulder Startup Week popuptent on Pearl Street. See you there!
some information was gathered from Erica Napalatono and Boulder Startup website
CU’s nLab breeds real-world innovation among all walks of students
Feb 21st
Interdisciplinary thinking bolsters innovation. That’s the concept behind the University of Colorado Boulder’s new nLab, a mobile hub that allows students to develop their entrepreneurial ideas through peer and mentor-based collaboration, sustainability resources and other tools.
The free resource, launched last fall by CU-Boulder’s Deming Center for Entrepreneurship at the Leeds School of Business, is designed to help students campus wide tap into communities beyond their academic spheres. The CU Environmental Center, an nLab partner, offers specialized support to integrate sustainability into student ideas.
A passerby chats with Sarah Dawn Haynes (right) of the CU Environmental Center near the kiosk that is part of nLab — a free resource that allows students to explore their ideas through interdisciplinary collaboration and mentorship. (Photo by Patrick Campbell/University of Colorado)
The nLab supports cross-campus entrepreneurship curricula, the CU New Venture Challenge business plan competition and individuals who want to explore ideas.
“You don’t have to be a business major to think like an entrepreneur,” said Costa Raptis, a junior in geography at CU-Boulder. “You just have to be driven and have a versatile mind and kind of know what you’re after.”
Raptis, who’s interested in cultural anthropology and marketing, is exploring his idea — a talent agency that operates without a traditional hierarchy — using the nLab. He’s been paired through nLab with an employee-owned solar company for mentorship.
Other student ideas that have been brought to the nLab are a cosmetic line and a job-search website called Startups 2 Students, which matches students with position openings at unique companies.
The nLab includes a website where users can post ideas and browse existing projects. It also hosts weekly co-working sessions on campus and provides a mobile kiosk intended to spark both planned and impromptu meetings, and to serve as a workspace. Faculty also can enlist nLab.
“I’m beginning to use nLab as an additional tool to give my students a safe, welcoming and helpful place to apply course material to ideas of their own and others,” said Eben Johnson, a CU-Boulder lecturer in the Lockheed Martin Engineering Management Program. “The value of nLab is that it’s for the whole campus. From music to biology, history and finance, great ideas for new products and services are found everywhere.”
Johnson teaches an undergraduate and graduate-level course called Marketing and High-Tech Ventures. Each semester, his students conceptualize new ideas from lithium ion batteries for cell phones to algae nutritional supplements, and nLab will be a resource for such projects, he said.
Other campus supporters of nLab are CU’s Technology Transfer Office; the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology and Entrepreneurship; the Alliance for Technology, Learning and Society, or ATLAS; and the Lockheed Martin Engineering Management Program.
For more information about nLab visit http://nlab.colorado.edu/. For more information about the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship visit http://deming.colorado.edu/.
