Techstars Startup Week and Artup Week Fort Collins 2020: Full Schedule

February 24-28, 2020!

8:00am MST

Work-Life Balance for Solo Business Owners

Limited Capacity full
Adding this to your schedule will put you on the waitlist.

Are you running your business or is your business running you? Many entrepreneurs are working more for less and less return. Get control of your work-life balance and boost your business success with a few simple and easy-to-implement productivity tools! You can increase your impact and income by working smarter, not harder!

Using the 80/20 rule to get more sales doing less marketing and promotion
How to simplify your business so you become the sought-after, well-paid expert in your field
How to use your schedule to get paid more while working less

Speaker: Chrysta Bairre

Speakers

Chrysta Bairre

Career Coach | Speaker | Author, Live Love Work

Chrysta Bairre is a career coach, speaker, author, and founder of Live Love Work.Chrysta works with women who want more from life and career. Her clients increase their professional impact and income-- so they can say no in business, make more money, and find happiness in and out... Read More →

Monday February 24, 2020 8:00am - 8:50am MST
CSU Venture Lounge at Rockwell North

Business Education/How-To

8:00am MST

Your Identity, Your Brand: How to Use Your Identity as Your Brand and Unique Selling Point

Limited Capacity seats available

What sets you apart from your competitors? What is your brand, and how is it marketed? Do you know your unique selling point? Many entrepreneurs, business owners and freelancers have a hard time answering these questions. One sure way to answer these questions is to look in the mirror. The answer is YOU, yes YOU! Your identity plays a vital role in business just as it does in other areas in life. Showing up as your most authentic self, and being confident in your ability has the potential to lead to an increase in business opportunities and partnerships.

In a business world full of competition and chaos, understanding how to use your identity as your brand and unique selling point, can be one of the BEST investments you will ever make for your business. This presentation will afford attendees an opportunity to find value and worth in self aka their identity, and how to use their identity as their brand and unique selling point.

Key Takeaways
1. Understand the importance of their identity in business and how to use their identity as their brand
2. Become familiar with ways to develop confidence in using their identity as their unique selling point
3. Be equipped to with some tips on how to show up as their most authentic self in business (and life)

Speakers

Jamila N. Bryant

Author | Leadership & Personal Development Trainer | Speaker, Push FORWARD Development Ltd.

With over 16 years in the Air Force, Jamila is passionate about personal development and leadership. Jamila is a talented speaker and the founder of Push FORWARD (Facing Our Reality With Action, Resiliency & Determination) Development Ltd., a personal development and leadership training... Read More →

Monday February 24, 2020 8:00am - 8:50am MST
CSU Bohemian Auditorium at Rockwell West

Marketing/Sales

9:00am MST

Setting bold and realistic goals for your business

Limited Capacity full
Adding this to your schedule will put you on the waitlist.

Often we know that we want our business to grow. But “growth” can mean many different things. What does growth look like for you? What key factors should you focus on to measure your success? In this session you will learn how to define your goals more clearly, break them down into measurable chunks and create action plans for execution.

Speakers

Tamara Parker

CEO / OWNER, UNIcycle Business Consulting

Tami’s Bio: Tami Parker is the CEO of UNIcycle Business Consulting. She brings 26 years of big business experience to help small businesses grow. Tami views every issue from a business strategy and HR / Team Management back ground. She breaks down issues as it applies to the customers... Read More →

Setting bold goals worksheet docx

Monday February 24, 2020 9:00am - 9:50am MST
CSU Venture Lounge at Rockwell North

Business Education/How-To

9:00am MST

Marketing to Hispanic Consumers

Limited Capacity seats available

The Hispanic population in Colorado expected for July 2019, was 21.7%, while its national purchasing power was over $1.5 trillion. In this workshop, you will learn more about the impact acculturation level has on Hispanic consumers, explore their buying behavior related to some products and services, importance of understanding the Hispanic culture, best practices to effectively market Hispanics, and the importance of culturally sensitive marketing materials.

Speakers

Natalia Infante Caylor, PhD

Owner, Infante Consulting and Research

Natalia Infante Caylor, Owner of Infante Consulting and Research, specializes in market research and business translations. She has conducted face-to-face and telephone focus groups in English and Spanish throughout the U.S., for almost ten years. She is a CSU graduate with a background... Read More →

Monday February 24, 2020 9:00am - 9:50am MST
CSU Bohemian Auditorium at Rockwell West

Marketing/Sales

10:00am MST

Realities of being a first time founder and what you should know before getting into entrepreneurship and then more importantly what might be helpful to know to increase you chance of success

Limited Capacity seats available

Most people have this fairy tale like dream of being an Entrepreneur and all that but the reality is different. I will be talking about what you should know before getting into entrepreneurship, the realities of being an Entrepreneur especially a first time founder and then how one can increase the chance of success as they start. I will be talking the majority of the time about my experiences as a first time Entrepreneur and story. I will be opening up to question 20 to 30 minutes in, so please bring your questions!

Speakers

Moses Mbowe

CEO/Co-Founder, Foundation Inc

Hey, Folks,My name is Moses. I'm the co-founder of Foundation Inc. The goal of Foundation is to give people the capacity to live the lives that they want to live with a purpose and we are starting with building a online marketplace where employers can find quality candidates and where... Read More →

Monday February 24, 2020 10:00am - 10:50am MST
CSU Bohemian Auditorium at Rockwell West

Business Education/How-To

10:00am MST

The Ways We Work: Being Human in the 21st Century and Beyond

Limited Capacity full
Adding this to your schedule will put you on the waitlist.

The number of individuals reporting mental health issues continues to climb, with younger generations voluntarily leaving jobs at much higher rates than previous generations due to its negative impact.

What if the increasing levels of "mental illness" was actually an appropriate & reasonable response to a “sick” society? What if the large percentage of humans experiencing anxiety and depression is a warning sign that our personal, family, education, business, health and political structures are not aligned with our current capacity for the human condition?

How could we then respond, individually and collectively, to reinvent these internal and external paradigms to move us forward toward a “mentally fit, well-adjusted” society and self? How can we mindfully re-structure and expand our cognitive capacities in pace with change from technological innovation?

Join this panel for a conversation exploring what it means to be a mentally fit human; family; workplace; city... now and coming centuries. We will specifically discus immediate actions to steward well-being for ourselves and those around us in the workplace.

Leave with concrete ideas and conversation starters to contribute to creating a mentally agile society, workplace and self, positioned for breakthrough performance and emergent leadership.

Speakers

Kyle Matthews

Chief Connecting Officer, Helios

An entrepreneur from a young age, Kyle started his first business at 15. Since then he has worked in companies ranging from startups to corporate, across multiple industries, including automotive, transportation, and business coaching. Along the way, his goal has always been... Read More →

Kate Peabody

Founder & Coach, Kaptivate, LLC

Kate developed her path as a creative life, career and business coach after jumping off the top of the Fortune 500 career ladder at age 30. Despite success in the corporate world and as a consultant, Kate found herself unfulfilled by her work and deeply depressed. Through deep awareness... Read More →

Hollis Moore, M. Ed.

Founder / CEO, Moore From Life, LLC

After jobs in traditional corporate sales, non-profit work, and teaching high school English left her feeling unappreciated, under-compensated, and stifled creativity, Hollis realized that she was “psychologically unemployable” and is now an entrepreneur. As a self-proclaimed... Read More →

Kent Frazier

Kent Frazier is a loving co-parent to two beautiful kiddos and his life’s work is dedicated to alleviating unnecessary human suffering. He is the co-founder of Fully Human at Work.Over the past 25 years, Kent has held a variety of leadership roles within the “people practices... Read More →

Jill Schnipke

Business Teams Coach

Jill Schnipke is a certified Strengthscope® Practitioner, with 18 years' experience as a trainer, facilitator, and coach. She's coached thousands of people and teams, including everyone from corporate executives to cooks and government leaders to scientists. Her specialty is helping... Read More →

FullyHuman.AtWork 8 practices wksh pdf

FullyHuman.AtWork Bonus practices pdf

Monday February 24, 2020 10:00am - 10:50am MST
CSU Venture Lounge at Rockwell North

Wellness/Health

11:00am MST

HR101

Limited Capacity filling up

So your business has grown and you have your first employee. Now what? Businesses often think that Human Resources is only for corporations. The reality is, as soon as you have one employee or independent contractor, several rules and laws apply. This session will take you through the basics of what rules apply to small businesses, how to implement basic structure, and how to find resources to ensure you're compliant and minimizing risks to your employees and your business.

Speakers

Tina Todd

HR Business Partner/Co-Founder, simplyHR

FCSW HR101 pdf

Monday February 24, 2020 11:00am - 11:50am MST
CSU Venture Lounge at Rockwell North

Logistics/Operations/Structure

11:00am MST

How to Publish Your Book for Under $100

Limited Capacity seats available

You don't have to spend thousands of dollars to bring your book to market. Using Amazon's platform, Harrison Hand has published four books in the last four years. Each one has cost him less than $100 to publish. In this session, he'll tell you how to do the same with your book.

Speakers

Harrison Hand

Owner, The Harrison Hand Studio

Harrison Hand is creator of the Skyler Tortuga fantasy/adventure series and author of “Art for the Masses (Instead of the Asses)”. As an entrepreneurial artist, he's also had success as a hair fashion designer, actor, and photojournalist.

Monday February 24, 2020 11:00am - 11:50am MST
CSU Bohemian Auditorium at Rockwell West

Marketing/Sales

12:00pm MST

FREETHINK!

Limited Capacity filling up

FREETHINK! is a bite-sized portion of a LoCo Think Tank chapter meeting.

Specifically, the agenda for our 50-minute FREETHINK! session will include:

1-minute max biz introduction, 1-minute personal from each attendee - up to 12
1-minute each - nominate your business challenge or opportunity!
5-minute discussion of which 2 issues the assembled will have time to process
15-minute Issue Processing #1
15-minute Issue Processing #2
7-minute Wrap-Up/Q&A

Speakers

Curt Bear

Founder, LoCo Think Tank

I am blessed to have founded LoCo Think Tank, a peer advisory group model that started in Fort Collins in 2014. We build groups of high-performing small business owners and wrap them around a give-back minded facilitator, and together advance the causes that our members are most passionate... Read More →

Monday February 24, 2020 12:00pm - 12:50pm MST
Cohere Coworking

Business Education/How-To

1:00pm MST

Improv for business

Limited Capacity seats available

Why improv for business? Improv training is good for individuals, the team, and your entire organization because it can serve as a lens to discuss anything that requires clear, collaborative communication. The Harvard Business School says that "Improvisation is probably one of the two or three cardinal skills for businesses to learn in the future..." But why wait until the future...say "Yes, and..." do improv now!

In this interactive & hands-on workshop you will be introduced to activities and games that will:

Promote Problem Solving
Overcome Blocks to Creativity
Foster Organizational Innovation
Foster Better Communication
Build Trust and Support in Teams
Improve Individual and Group Decision Making
Enhance Focus & Concentration
Manage Change
Manage Conflict
Communicate More Effectively In Crisis

Speakers

Hollis Moore, M. Ed.

Founder / CEO, Moore From Life, LLC

Monday February 24, 2020 1:00pm - 1:50pm MST
CSU Bohemian Auditorium at Rockwell West

Arts/Music/Literature/Food

1:00pm MST

Expanding Your Footprint: Using Voice to Scale Customer Discovery

Limited Capacity seats available

In this presentation, Tony will run you through how to use Programmable Voice to validate your customer journey and grow customers. This will include a live demo to show you how you can use the same tools as Airbnb and Uber to identify your high-expectation customers and reach product-market fit.

Speakers

Tony Blank

Director, Community Development, Twilio

Tony is a noted speaker at industry events and has delivered hundreds of workshops, mentor sessions, and speaking engagements to help startups grow. Previously, Tony led the startup program at SendGrid, supporting a world-class team, helping over 5,000 startups find product/market... Read More →

Monday February 24, 2020 1:00pm - 1:50pm MST
CSU Venture Lounge at Rockwell North

Marketing/Sales

Audience Intermediate

2:00pm MST

Visualize your Business

Limited Capacity full
Adding this to your schedule will put you on the waitlist.

Visuals are a powerful way to share and understand information. They are also a great planning tool. I wish to share some basic techniques to help participants use visuals to start and improve their businesses.

Speakers

Ellen O'Neill

Illustrator, Graphic Recorder, Sketchnoter, Visual Practitioner, Noted by Ellen

Custom illustrations and live drawing for meetings and presentations. Visual representation of information in various forms to help clients form and spread their valuable ideas!

Monday February 24, 2020 2:00pm - 2:50pm MST
CSU Venture Lounge at Rockwell North

Business Education/How-To

2:00pm MST

Improv for Mental Health

Limited Capacity seats available

Are you anxious in social situations?

Are you a constant worrier?

Do you fear being negatively judged or scrutinized?

Do you fear rejection?

Is this impacting your performance at/in work?

Improv can help:

Increase confidence

Be free to create & innovate

Become connected to others

Be present and in the moment

Quiet your inner critic

Accept risk

*During all types of improvisation (jazz, rappers, improvisors), the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex decreased in activity (your inner critic) and the medial prefrontal cortex increased (our language and creativity center). Experience FLOW, the optimal psychological state when one is engrossed in activity, as your medial prefrontal cortex is freed up to be creative and uninhibited. Discover how to be the best you by reducing your anxiety through play and improv games.

*Resource: Theatrical Improvisation, Consciousness, and Cognition.(book)

Attendees Will walk away with:

Start to accept risk and embrace it by making mistakes in an environment where the consequences are positive rather than negative Know that whatever you say will be accepted by your partners in the scene versus the fear of rejection, which is where a lot of anxiety stems from.Strengthen relationships and communities by knowing that you will be truly seen, heard, and valued by your partners.

Speakers

Justin Franzen

Founder & Executive Director, Grafenberg Productions

Justin lives and breathes improv. He has been improvising for 19 years. From humble beginnings in highschool speech and debate in Denver, to studying at iO Chicago and Annoyance Theater, Justin has spent his adult life absorbing improv theory and learning production. He has been... Read More →

Hollis Moore, M. Ed.

Founder / CEO, Moore From Life, LLC

Monday February 24, 2020 2:00pm - 2:50pm MST
CSU Bohemian Auditorium at Rockwell West

Wellness/Health

3:00pm MST

The Importance of Culture while Scaling

Limited Capacity seats available

A strong foundation on establishing and building a great culture is essential to scaling a business. As more team members join your company you'll need to think about how to effectively greet them into your whole team. It may be difficult to assimilate new members from the original core ofemployees and coworkers. If not done properly, it leave room for disaster. If done correctly, it promotes not only happiness, productivity, it cements a culture rooted with the people, not just mission statements and value props.

Speakers

Nate Shugrue

Business Development, Brillity Digital

Technology and psychology, these are the two main subjects that drive Nate’s interest in the digital marketing field. Discovering, tinkering, and mastering the functionalities of new digital platforms fascinates him. Studying human interaction and behavior with technology captivates... Read More →

Monday February 24, 2020 3:00pm - 3:50pm MST
CSU Bohemian Auditorium at Rockwell West

Business Education/How-To

3:00pm MST

Why not having a formal sales process is killing your leads...and what to do about it.

Limited Capacity full
Adding this to your schedule will put you on the waitlist.

You have a newer business. You have spent the time and money to create your marketing plan, build a website, set up funnels, have a list of contacts and yet still little (or gasp...no) sales!Do you find yourself thinking “I’ve been sending them the information and we had a few phone calls. I can’t make them buy.”

But this is where the magic of a sales process comes in. Sales is psychology. It is an art and a science. Many people say that they hate sales and that they are bad at it but it could be that they just don’t really understand sales.

In this session, you will gain a better understanding of:

What a sales process is
Why you need one
When you need one
How sales can be fun
How to equip yourself and your team to start closing more sales

Speakers

Alison Proffit

Proffit Coach

Alison Proffit teaches small business owners how to become more effective in the sales aspect of their business. Her work focuses on becoming more clear on where the breakdown is, creating a sales process that resonates with them so that they can go into sales conversations more confidently... Read More →

Monday February 24, 2020 3:00pm - 3:50pm MST
CSU Venture Lounge at Rockwell North

Marketing/Sales

4:00pm MST

Branding

Limited Capacity full
Adding this to your schedule will put you on the waitlist.

Description:

Brand is a word that is used a lot. Most entrepreneurs agree that strong branding is critical to the success of their business. But it’s hard to pin down exactly what brand means and it’s often hard for founders to know how to get started. In this session, we’ll provide answers to the following three questions with a focus on helping founders and early executives clarify their brand and begin charting a course to build it.

1. What is a brand? This session will provide perspective on the many things that fall under the umbrella of branding and help you focus on a clear way of understanding branding that will serve you well from early-stages to scale-up through to becoming an established brand.

2. What makes a great brand? This session will provide perspective on how great branding can differ by product category and business model to help you think about the requirements and benefits of a strong brand for your business.

3. How do Istart? The ultimate focus of this session is to provide you practical advice and tools that will help you define your own brand narrative. Just like a good alibi, the first step in any branding journey is to get your story straight. Pat will provide a framework called a “brand house”, walk you through a real-life example, and leave you with a one-page template you can use to define your brand hierarchy and core messaging. It won’t cost you anything but your time. And you can use your "brand house" as a compass for your brand and product marketing over time to make better decisions and smarter investments.

Speakers

Pat Nicholson

My career started in finance and operations where I learned business fundamentals and developed an orientation towards results and profitability. I’ve leveraged this business background to successfully lead integrated sales and marketing strategies for Apple's software, education... Read More →

Monday February 24, 2020 4:00pm - 4:50pm MST
CSU Venture Lounge at Rockwell North

Marketing/Sales

4:00pm MST

CSU Venture Validator

Limited Capacity seats available

Excited to get your venture off the ground? This snapshot of the CSU Flagship "Venture Validator" program will do a quick dive into helping you figure out if your idea has what it takes to turn become a venture. We'll do a quick dive into best practices for understanding & communicating with your customer and learning your competitive landscape. This session is led by Dr. Scott Shrake, Director of the Institute for Entrepreneurship with a Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Speakers

Scott Shrake

Director, Colorado State University Institute for Entrepreneurship

Monday February 24, 2020 4:00pm - 5:50pm MST
CSU Bohemian Auditorium at Rockwell West

Business Education/How-To

5:00pm MST

Northern Colorado: Attracting Global Business

A panel discussion on how to expand globally. Produced by the Global Chamber Northern Colorado, a journey into the experiences and skill sets necessary to be successful globally and how to connect with partners and customers globally.

The panel will be made up of global professionals from Northern Colorado who have insight and experience in global business in different parts of the globe. Topics will be chosen that are of interest to and applicable to local businesses. Taking into consideration global-minded skill sets, communications, best practices, and what to be aware of when going global.

The Global Chamber: https://www.linkedin.com/company/grow-globally/

Speakers

Natalia Infante Caylor, PhD

Owner, Infante Consulting and Research

Ajay Jha

Ajay Jha has PhD degree in Biotechnology and MBA on strategic management and over 20 years of entrepreneurial experience and raised over multi-million investment venture fund for energy, food, pharma and hi-tech industry. He has been advisor Founders of entrepreneurial startups like... Read More →

Todd Cornell

Director, cultur668

Monday February 24, 2020 5:00pm - 5:50pm MST
CSU Venture Lounge at Rockwell North

Marketing/Sales

7:00pm MST

HIFF Presents: Growing the NoCo Film Network

The Horsetooth Int’l Film Festival was established in 2019 as a festival For Filmmakers, By Filmmakers. This session features local film resources, organizations, filmmakers and the quick intro by the HIFF team, sharing how HIFF is part of helping grow the fillm network in NOCO.

Rundown for the Evening:

The audience will be treated to a sneak peek of film work from each of the featured panelists as we open up a general discussion about NOCO as a growing film scene, opportunities for participation and audience Q&A. This portion of the event runs from 7:00-8:30 p.m. A short mix and mingle will be hosted in the lobby of the Lyric from 8:30 p.m. onward.

Film screening for the first 15 - 20 minutes, then the session rolls into a filmmaker panel Q&A with knowledgeable panelists from the NoCo region's filmmaking community.

Panelists:

Director Kyle Rasmussen - Winner of Best Feature Film, HIFF - Beyond Karma
Director Blue Stephens - Best Music Video, HIFF - RED,
Director Sheryl Glubok - CO Short film in HIFFCurators’ Collection - Lily ‘N’ Rose
Owner of VIA and NoCoast Artists, curator of the 53:14 Music Video Experiment - Doug Usher
Feature Writer and Director, Shari Due, "Desplazado", "Beer Bands Bikes & Broke", "Watering the West: A Water Western..."
Local Filmmaker and Manager of FC Public Media, Chris Winslow

There is also a bonus "filmmaker mingle" in the lobby of The Lyric right after the feature presentation. Join us to learn more, ask real local filmmakers your burning questions, and hang out with other creatives in the area passionate about film. You just might get inspired to make your own!

Speakers

HIFF - Horsetooth International Film Festival

HIFF was founded with the intent to establish Northern Colorado as an international destination where progressive thought and action are celebrated through the art of filmmaking and other forms of creative expression.

Katrina Pfannkuch

Communications Director, Horsetooth Int'l Film Festival

Katrina Pfannkuch is a creative consultant, catalyst, strategist, writer, editor and podcaster passionate about creativity, entrepreneurship, and personal transformation. She started her own business, Creative Katrina, LLC, and has created content, strategies, and provided marketing... Read More →

Monday February 24, 2020 7:00pm - 8:30pm MST
The Lyric

Arts/Music/Literature/Food

8:00am MST

How Data Analysis Is Going To Become Your Best Friend

Limited Capacity seats available

Data analysis may not be the sexiest thing in the world, but when looking for a long term partner, it's really what you are looking for.

Data analysis is constantly talked about and adopted by many companies. But what does data analysis actually do? In this session we will go through and talk about the purpose of data analysis and how to accurately use it to improve efficiency and effectiveness of digital marketing efforts.

Using real life case studies we will identify what data should be collected, how to review the data, and how to use that data to make business course corrections to improve marketing.

At the end of the session, all attendees will get access to the spreadsheets that I have personally developed to help businesses collect and analyze information. This will save hours of development work and give businesses context for their own companies.

Speakers

James Lopez

Magician/Copywriter, Freelance Copywriter

James Lopez is a magician and freelance writer based out of Denver, CO. He specializes in close-up magic for corporate cocktail parties and events. James is also a public speaker, known to jump on the storytelling circuit, and a full-time copywriter working with companies all over... Read More →

Tuesday February 25, 2020 8:00am - 8:50am MST
CSU Bohemian Auditorium at Rockwell West

Business Education/How-To

8:00am MST

Digital Ads 201: Stop spending $$$ without getting results!✋

Limited Capacity full
Adding this to your schedule will put you on the waitlist.

With dozens of ad platforms available, how do you know which to use? Should you think about Facebook Ads? Should you do Google Ads? What about LinkedIn?

And what about those fancy words like “geofencing?” Does that matter? What is ROAS?

For even intermediate marketers, finding the right channel and getting the right results is challenging. It’s nearly impossible if you’re just starting out.

Tyler Brooks from Analytive will help you sort through this digital mess to determine the right strategies, tactics, tools, platforms, and content that fit well with your unique business model.

This no-holds-barred assessment of ad platforms and strategies is designed for one thing: To help you get more leads and revenue into your business. We won’t just talk “theory,” but instead will give you practical examples and tools so you walk away with a clear understanding of your next steps if you want to start using digital ads.

Speakers

Tyler Brooks

Founder, Analytive

For the past seven years, Tyler has built a massive following of entrepreneurs, marketers, and sales people. He’s written hundreds of blog posts on marketing and growth, driven tens of thousands of visitors to client companies, 10x’ed traffic to websites, built lead generation... Read More →

Tuesday February 25, 2020 8:00am - 8:50am MST
CSU Venture Lounge at Rockwell North

Marketing/Sales

9:00am MST

Message Mastery: Rehearsal Techniques that Guarantee You'll Nail It

Limited Capacity full
Adding this to your schedule will put you on the waitlist.

This session will give participants the tools they need to master delivery of their messages. So many times we pore over the content but skimp on rehearsing it for maximum impact on the stage. When it comes to investor pitches, sales pitches, keynotes and elevator pitches, total message mastery takes speakers to a new level of credibility.

When you've completely nailed the delivery, instead of the audience seeing the wheels turning in your head (what do I say next? what slide is next? What if I forget? What's my memorized line at the end again?),the audience will be drawn into you and your message.

We will talk in depth about the Rehearsal Trifecta:
How to Practice (this is done alone and out loud)
How to Rehearse (with others there, how to give them a 'job', and why this is a step up)
When to Visualize (do this when you're using the technique of "How to Rehearse without Rehearsing" - that's using a device and recording the "I Nailed It" version of your speech)

Here is a videos to help explain. This is both about how to make great slides, and I walk viewers through the trifecta as well:

Here is an email I just sent to a client. He suggested that to reduce nervousness he should slow down his pace. No sir, that won't be enough. Here's why:

Dear [Client]
"I was just on a podcast today as a guest and we talked specifically about how to overcome nervousness. Slowing down seems like a logical answer but in fact there is so much more to it and we will tackle it together tomorrow. Largely, it has to do with speakers making a significant commitment to rehearsing the message out loud - both alone and in front of others - until it is so familiar to you that nothing can rattle you.

You probably know what I mean when I say that when you sit in an audience, you can tell when the speaker’s wheels are turning in their head... When they are trying to remember what to say, which slide they are on, and what comes next. The only way to push through that is to get so good at your message that the delivery of the content become second nature.Then and only then can you have an opportunity to relate to your audience, persuade with emotional appeals, and come off as personable, even a little vulnerable. Most speakers do not make this commitment and are therefore decent but not amazing.

When content is mastered and delivery can be addressed, that is where authentic presence comes into play. It is detectable by audience members right away. I have an awesome technique to teach you on which I rely myself, and if you can commit to it you will stop being nervous! It will change your feelings about public speaking and you will begin to see real improvement soon."

Speakers

Cindy Skalicky

Owner and Head Coach, On Point Communications

Cindy Skalicky is a Certified Instructor of Rockies Venture Club (RVC) content and the Owner of On Point Communications, LLC, a boutique messaging firm in Colorado. She provides expert public speaking coaching and brand consulting to individuals and teams who seek to master their... Read More →

Tuesday February 25, 2020 9:00am - 9:50am MST
CSU Venture Lounge at Rockwell North

Marketing/Sales

9:00am MST

Musical Coffee and Free Drop-in Coworking at the Music District

Calling all musicians, music businesses, music nonprofits, and anyone else working in music! The Music District is hosting free coworking on Tuesday, February 25. Enjoy free coffee and snacks, connect with others working in music in Northern Colorado, and visit the Musicians' Help Desk with any music-related questions you may have. Enjoy some noteworthy networking and coffee tasting time with your fellow ARTup attendees before we kick off our day of creativity and collaboration!

Speakers

Mickey Davis

Business of Music Manager, The Music District

Talk to me about music business, artists as entrepreneurs, sustainable careers in the arts, music tech, coworking, and, most importantly, your favorite album right now.

Tuesday February 25, 2020 9:00am - 11:30am MST
At The Music District

Arts/Music/Literature/Food

10:00am MST

Setting up a business - tax & accounting perspective

Limited Capacity full
Adding this to your schedule will put you on the waitlist.

Ready to start a business? Here is what all business owners should know as they are setting up their business entity. I'll cover the required steps to create a legal entity and discuss other reporting and compliance requirements that apply to most businesses such as sales & use tax, payroll tax, 1099 reporting, personal property tax, workers' compensation, etc.

I keep the presentation in easy to understand terms without getting into too much IRS jargon. I highlight which steps are appropriate for business owners to take care of themselves and which are better to outsource.

Come learn what areas you need to have covered on the tax compliance side and start in the right direction.

Speakers

Pavel Verbsky

Partner, RLR, LLP

I'm passionate about small business accounting and taxes. Come find me if you want to know how to structure your business for the best tax results, what you need to do to set the business up, what is tax deductible and what is not, how to setup business accounting, etc.Getting small... Read More →

FoCo Start Up Week Starting business Handout pdf

Tuesday February 25, 2020 10:00am - 10:50am MST
CSU Venture Lounge at Rockwell North

Logistics/Operations/Structure

11:00am MST

Developing a Purposeful and Actionable Business Plan - Part 1

Limited Capacity seats available

Develop a Business Plan with Purpose & Durability

Adapted for brevity from the Larimer Small Business Development Center course. (Two 50-minute sessions instead of two 3-hour sessions so expect a high-level overview absent most of the exercises in the SBDC course)

Day 1: Defining the Business You are Creating

Session One Objectives:

- Connect with one another & understand individual objectives for this session
- Review the Business Model Canvas layout and work through an example canvas
- Understand and develop Mission, Vision, Values & Purpose for your business
- Review and discuss operational, capital, marketing & other requirements

Speakers

Curt Bear

Founder, LoCo Think Tank

Tuesday February 25, 2020 11:00am - 11:50am MST
CSU Bohemian Auditorium at Rockwell West

Business Education/How-To

11:00am MST

Content Marketing

Limited Capacity full
Adding this to your schedule will put you on the waitlist.

I gave this presentation at the 2019 FCSW and the room was at capacity, so it seems like attendees liked it! I would love to give this presentation again (hopefully in a bigger room :-)\

Creating a Winning Content Strategy for Your Business Using Tech Platforms
Content is now the way that businesses should be selling their products and services. Creating a consistent content strategy will set you up for success. The presentation will cover ideal target market, marketing messaging, content creation, content hack to create a month worth of content with just one source and creating a content calendar.

Before getting into the content strategy, the presentation with start off with identifying for whom the content will be created. We will be reviewing how to find your Ideal Target Market and niching down with demographic stats, psychographics and where the ideal target market is hanging out online.

Once identifying the "who", we'll get getting into creating content. The presentation will go deeper into the types of content and using a Content Hack where you can create ONE piece of content and repurpose it for the entire month.

And lastly, the presentation will get into how to create a content calendar and distribute content, using tech platforms and social media platforms.

Speakers

Jean Ginzburg

Founder & CEO, Jean Ginzburg.com

Jean Ginzburg is a #1 best-selling author, award-winning entrepreneur and digital marketing expert with more than 12 years of industry expertise helping companies scale revenue, optimize sales and marketing processes and improve productivity. Jean is the CEO and Founder of JeanGinzburg.com... Read More →

Tuesday February 25, 2020 11:00am - 11:50am MST
CSU Venture Lounge at Rockwell North

Marketing/Sales

11:30am MST

Lunch & Learn: Shooting at a Moving Target - The Digital Marketing Tools You Need To Get Started and How To Use Them

Limited Capacity filling up

This panel is a mix between straight up digital marketing and music industry grit. Meet Sophia Babb, digital marketing and social media strategy professional, and Amanda Alexandrakis (founder of Music Promotion, Inc.), a 25 year veteran in strategic marketing in the music business. Together, they will combine their skills to help you maneuver the volatile field of digital marketing for artists and bands.

This panel will walk you through the steps needed to promote yourself online. Topics include how to optimize your website and social media pages, what content should you include, how to create and control your online presence, and how (and when) to advertise. Drawing from their experiences in both the indie and not-so-indie worlds, Amanda and Sophie will discuss how to craft a social media strategy that you need in order to survive in the digital age of music.

Speakers

Sophia Babb

Sophia is a storyteller at heart, and a marketer by trade. In her childhood, Sophia would spend hours telling stories to her little sister to help her fall asleep at night. In her teens, she wrote stories through song lyrics and poetry. In college, she wrote stories for newspapers... Read More →

Amanda Alexandrakis

Founder, Music Promotion, Inc.

Amanda Alexandrakis (Founder/Owner of Music Promotion, Inc.) With over 25 years of experience in the music business, Amanda Alexandrakis has become one of the leading names in music marketing. Ms. Alexandrakis has a Certificate in Disruptive Strategy from Harvard Business School (online... Read More →

DIY Worksheet docx

Tuesday February 25, 2020 11:30am - 1:00pm MST
At The Music District

Marketing/Sales

12:00pm MST

Lunch & Learn: Pinot's Palette

Limited Capacity seats available

Picasso once said, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.” Making art and doing creative activities is fun, relaxing, therapeutic, and makes us feel accomplished. If we can agree that the arts are beneficial, then why do we stop doing once we’re adults? In this talk, we will discuss how the experience of creating art is just as important as the final product and how we can incorporate creative practices into our daily lives. This talk is perfect for the beginning artist (or someone who wants to release their inner creativity) and we will make a small painting during the class.

Speakers

Amy Heyse

Lead Artist, Pinot’s Palette

Amy Heyse is a local artist from Fort Collins, Colorado. She is married to an amazing graphic designer and they have two beautiful little girls. Amy graduated from Colorado State University with a BFA in Fine Art Drawing and a BA in Art Education. After graduating, she worked as a... Read More →

Tuesday February 25, 2020 12:00pm - 1:00pm MST
Pinot's Palette

Arts/Music/Literature/Food

12:00pm MST

FREETHINK!

Limited Capacity filling up

Speakers

Curt Bear

Founder, LoCo Think Tank

Tuesday February 25, 2020 12:00pm - 1:00pm MST
Cohere Coworking

Business Education/How-To

1:00pm MST

Price Your Service Right

Limited Capacity full
Adding this to your schedule will put you on the waitlist.

Competitively pricing your services is a challenge for many freelancers and service-based entrepreneurs. Come hear from our panel of prosperous entrepreneurs discussing the nuances of pricing your services right. Learn from their pricing successes and mistakes so you can enjoy a successful and thriving business!

Panelists: Chrysta Bairre, John Garvey, Nick Armstrong, Alison Proffit

Speakers

Nick Armstrong

Geek-in-Chief, WTF Marketing

I’m Nick Armstrong and I’m #2 on the speed dial of most small business owners, right after mom. When they’re stuck in a rut and need a whiteboard-worth of fun, profitable marketing ideas to fill up client waitlists and bank accounts for a year, they call me.Gathering together... Read More →

Alison Proffit

Proffit Coach

John Garvey

Chief Storytelling Officer (pomp!), Garvington Creative

Do people understand, at first glance, what you do and why they should care? Most businesses struggle to clearly communicate what differentiates them, define the problems they help solve, and connect with customers by speaking to their needs with their marketing. I help busy entrepreneurs... Read More →

Chrysta Bairre

Career Coach | Speaker | Author, Live Love Work

Tuesday February 25, 2020 1:00pm - 1:50pm MST
CSU Venture Lounge at Rockwell North

Business Education/How-To

1:00pm MST

Turning Your Risk Into a Reward

Limited Capacity seats available

I grew my business from a shared office space in the basement of an office building to a full natural health center with 6+ employees and 10 renters. Knowing which risks to take and then tweaking instead of freaking to make them work for you is what scaling up is all about.

Speakers

Marissa Orchard

Founder, The Orchard

Tuesday February 25, 2020 1:00pm - 1:50pm MST
CSU Bohemian Auditorium at Rockwell West

Scaling

1:00pm MST

Creative Outfitters Expo

Limited Capacity seats available

Kick your career into high gear at the 2020 Artup Week "Creative Outfitters" Expo. Equip yourself with the key promotional and professional elements that make for a polished portfolio. We'll have industry experts on hand to give you feedback on artist statements and band bios, and professionals to connect with about press kits, contracts, graphic design, and more. Prep for upcoming festival submissions, map a tour, learn about video resources, and even get your updated band photos or solo headshots. (Designed for all types of artists, musicians and creatives)

Tuesday February 25, 2020 1:00pm - 3:30pm MST
At The Music District

Arts/Music/Literature/Food

2:00pm MST

Human Networking: A Storytelling Workshop

Limited Capacity full
Adding this to your schedule will put you on the waitlist.

Do you ever feel limited to numbers, job titles, or data when networking for business? Do you hang up the phone or leave the meeting and feel like you've been holding your breath for an hour? Do you secretly wonder if your coworkers or boss are robots with no emotion?
We get caught up in the professionalism of business and forget what motivates humans more than anything else: humanity. This includes emotions, relatability, and storytelling.
Got an awkward elevator story? An anecdote about working from home with children? Maybe a holiday tale about the time you saved the planet by making DIY gifts and gave your grandmother a soap ball homemade with shea butter and essential oils, then watched as she opened her gift, smelled vanilla, and promptly took a bite out of it thinking it was a cookie?
There's a difference between speaking about business and speaking FROM it. Your human experience is what will get you clients and innovative partnerships. Join Sierra Frost in this workshop to create and practice your networking story that leaves such an impression on clients and colleagues that they go home to tell their families about you around the dinner table.

Speakers

Sierra Frost

Recovery Coach/Author/Speaker, Invitation Wellness

Sierra specializes in coaching people to recover from childhood adversity or long-term patterns caused by trauma. Her mission is to revolutionalize mental health in America by empowering everyday communities with accessible support and recovery skills. She is thrilled to bring her... Read More →

Tuesday February 25, 2020 2:00pm - 2:50pm MST
CSU Nancy Richardson Design Center - 120

Business Education/How-To

2:00pm MST

Hybrid Professionals: People Who Integrate Multiple Professional Identities Together

Limited Capacity full
Adding this to your schedule will put you on the waitlist.

In this panel, you’ll hear from professionals who are hybrids and how they lead one-of-a-kind work because they’ve tapped into ways of combining their professional identities together. They’ll share stories as well as lessons on how they’ve leveraged their identities and created new ways to brand themselves that break conventional stereotypes and trends. If you’re a jack/jill-of-all-trades, a multi-talented professional, or are trying to figure out what differentiates your professional identity, this panel will fill you with a whole new vision of who you are in the workforce.

I'm a researcher of hybrid professionals, and I've been studying this topc for nearly 10 years. I recently gave a TEDx Talk "Are You a Hybrid Professional." I'll be releasing a book about this in April titled "More Than My Title: The Power of Hybrid Professionals in a Workforce of Experts and Generalists."
The problem professionals are facing is this: If you do more than one thing for work, then you ARE more than one thing, but how do you create a professional identity around that without sounding like a “master of none”? Hybrid professionals are a hidden segment of the workforce who deliver value from the intersections of their multiple professional identities, and the secret is getting out.
Panelists
Sarabeth Berk, PhD (moderator)-- (Creative Disruptor and Director of Futurebound) Hybrid professional whose primary professional identities include artist/researcher/educator/designer

Andrea Bazoin (Founder, everHuman, LLC): is a human resilience activator, which means she works withindividuals and teams to identify and dismantle the practical and personal barriersthat keep them from thriving in our ever-accelerating future.

Brian Corrigan (Creative Strategist): works at the intersection of creative economy/technology/community development.

Chelley Canales: (Founder and Spiritual Sparkplug): is a coach, speaker, podcast/on-camera host, blogger and author with a firecracker spirit in a form that can hardly contain it.

Speakers

Chelley Canales

Founder and Spiritual Spark Plug, lighthouse/haven

Chelley Canales is…an entrepreneur based in Denver, Colorado. She is the Founder and Spiritual Spark Plug of lighthouse/haven, a hub created to inspire, connect and enlighten awakening souls. She is a coach, speaker, podcast/on-camera host, blogger and author with a firecracker spirit in a form that can hardly contain it. After finally acknowledging the unrelenting whispers of her soul, Chelley accepted... Read More →

Sarabeth Berk

Founder, More Than My Title

Dr. Sarabeth Berk is a hybrid professional who calls herself a Creative Disruptor. She blends her artist/researcher/educator/designer identities together to lead innovation strategy and systems design for organizations seeking to connect different stakeholders and silos together to... Read More →

Andrea Bazoin, M.Ed.

Founder, everHuman

I'm Andrea Bazoin (say "Bah-Zwah"), M.Ed. and I'm a hybrid professional. This means when I work, I often combine my experience in higher education administration, community and youth advocacy, entrepreneurship, writing, and wellness. My personal cross-cultural identity gives me a... Read More →

Brian Corrigan

Creative Strategist

Brian Corrigan is a creative strategist who uses critical, creative and conceptual skills to solve problems and issues in the new economy. Recognized by CEOs for Cities as an innovator and community change agent who is shaping the future of America in cities, Corrigan specializes in creating strategies rooted in culture. He believes in the natural selection of ideas where crowds inform what assets are the strongest and then optimize accordingly.B... Read More →

Tuesday February 25, 2020 2:00pm - 2:50pm MST
CSU Venture Lounge at Rockwell North

Freelancing

2:00pm MST

Intellectual Property 101

Limited Capacity seats available

Intellectual property is an important part of every business and people should know how to establish rights, monitor, and protect them.Learn about what intellectual property options are available and how to obtain and enforce your patent, trademark, copyright, and trade secrets from our panel of experts.

Speakers

Laurie Rasmussen

Partner, Perkins Coie LLP

Laurie Rasmussen helps client procure, manage, assess and improve their intellectual property assets. Laurie is experienced in a variety of technical areas, managing large portfolios and providing practical advice that delivers a return on investment in a company’s patent portfolio... Read More →

Justin Cruz

Attorney, Michael Best

Justin assists clients in achieving their business goals by obtaining protection of their intellectual property rights and developing strategies to enforce them. Justin has extensive experience resolving IP related disputes through litigation. He has achieved positive results on behalf... Read More →

Mollybeth Kocialski

Director, Rocky Mountain Regional United States Patent and Trademark Office

As the Director of the Rocky Mountain Regional United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), since January 2016, Mollybeth (Molly) Kocialski carries out the strategic direction of the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO, and is responsible for leading the Rocky Mountain regional office. Focusing on the nine states within... Read More →

Tuesday February 25, 2020 2:00pm - 2:50pm MST
CSU Nancy Richardson Design Center - 121

Legal

2:00pm MST

Creating Avatars as a Central Feature of your Marketing Plan

Limited Capacity seats available

Avatars are imaginary people--my customers. I've identified 5 customer-avatars as part of my client base. A great marketing plan includes the use of avatars. In this session, I will share the avatars I have created as examples. You will leave with a new understanding of this tool as a way to improve your marketing, in the following ways: 1) it will open a window into your various customers' mindset, their lives, motivations and the solutions you bring, and 2) sharpen your communication styles for each avatar and 3) help you design appropriate marketing pathways to each.

Speakers

Shelley Kerr

Sculptor/Owner, Kerr Art Works

I'm in a business expansion mode as a bronze sculptor. I've benefited from a relationship with a business mentor (and referred professionals) through the Larimer County Small Business Development Center and this has made a BIG difference in my business.

Tuesday February 25, 2020 2:00pm - 2:50pm MST
CSU Bohemian Auditorium at Rockwell West

Marketing/Sales

2:30pm MST

Strength in Women Business Ownership

Limited Capacity filling up

Women in entrepreneurship navigate a unique set of challenges to build and run a successful business. Come and learn from 4 women entrepreneurs about their unique journeys as women in this field and their wisdom on how to be a successful businesswoman and entrepreneur.

Speakers

Jennifer Vancil

Career Counselor, College of Business at CSU

Jennifer Vancil is an educator and an entrepreneur. Currently serving half-time as a Career Counselor in the College of Business at CSU and as faculty for the MBA Career Management class, she also has a full Career Consulting practice serving Northern Colorado clients in person and... Read More →

Miriam Altman

Founder, Natural Selection Products

Raised an animal lover and active in agriculture, Miriam received two graduate degrees; one in Natural Resources and one in Environmental Management of CAFOs. After, she entered the field of marketing for 7 years. In 2018, Miriam founded Natural Selection Products, allowing her to... Read More →

Emily Altman

CEO, The Couples Workshop

No BS Couples Therapy When you have the support of a loved one, then you can tackle any stress life throws your way. I don’t want you to dream about finding an escape. I don’t want you to keep your darkness inside of you. I don’t want you to be alone. I want your relationship... Read More →

Jill Brito

Program & Grants Director, Institute of Global Agriculture & Technology Transfer

Jill Brito is the Program & Grants Director for the Institute of Global Agriculture & Technology Transfer (IGATT). She holds an MBA in Global Social and Sustainable Enterprises from Colorado State University and over 5 years of experience in marketing and consulting for startups businesses... Read More →

Tuesday February 25, 2020 2:30pm - 3:30pm MST
InnoP Incubator/Accelerator

Community/Culture

3:00pm MST

What is "Professional Communication" right now (And can I use emojis?)

Limited Capacity filling up

Thanks to everyone who attended this session! If you'd like more help with email, make sure to text the word Appendance to 22828 to get your coupon to our April 28th Email workshop! If you'd prefer not to text, feel free to email me at jenny@appendance to get more info!

Language has rules, but those rules change over time as every new generation influences the way we speak, the way we write, and what we think of as "standard" or "formal". Technology keeps changing the way we do business (not so much face-to-face), what platforms we use (email, text, LinkedIn Messenger), and what professional language looks like.

In this session, we'll talk about what the standards are now, where those standards come from, and how they are changing. We'll answer challenging questions like
-how many exclamation points can you use at a time?
-can you use emojis in a professional message?
-when can you use abbreviations like lol versus lmao versus lmfao?
-who is an "american"?
-and how does "they" work?

Speakers

Jenny Morse

Founder, Appendance, Inc

Words, language, communication, writing, books, poetry, brains. My background is in creative writing--poetry, non-fiction, and I've written a YA novel. Now I train professionals in business writing at companies around the country and at CSU. My expertise is helping people learn writing... Read More →

Emojis presentation Feb 2020 pptx

Tuesday February 25, 2020 3:00pm - 3:50pm MST
CSU Venture Lounge at Rockwell North

Business Education/How-To

3:00pm MST

Protecting Your IP in an Online Market

Limited Capacity filling up

As online sales continue to grow around the world, more and more cases of infringement and fraud are coming to light.While the ability to sell goods and services on the internet provides the opportunity for increased income and brand recognition, it also creates the opportunity for theft and fraud.

Speakers

Laurie Rasmussen

Partner, Perkins Coie LLP

Mollybeth Kocialski

Director, Rocky Mountain Regional United States Patent and Trademark Office

Tuesday February 25, 2020 3:00pm - 3:50pm MST
CSU Nancy Richardson Design Center - 120

Legal

3:00pm MST

Podcast Panel with Franklin Taggart

Limited Capacity seats available

If you've been thinking about starting a podcast join this panel discussion with Monique Renee, Seth Silvers and Franklin Taggart to hear about how they got started, their challenges and triumphs, and what they would do differently if they were starting again.

Monique Renee is the owner of Silver Paw Photography Studio and is the host of the Tales with Tails podcast as well as the Critter Patter radio show on KRFC in Fort Collins.

Seth Silvers is the owner of Story On, a company helping businesses create and deliver great messages to their markets. He hosts the Small Business Story Tellers podcast.

Franklin Taggart is a business, career and life consultant who helps people leap into their greatest possibilities. He hosts The Reset with Franklin Taggart.

Speakers

Franklin Taggart

Creative Business Consultant, Franklin Taggart Coaching & Consulting

Franklin Taggart began his consulting career in 1996 when asked to be a part of a corporate transition planning team. His specialty at the time was conflict preparation and response. He's worked with businesses and organizations of all sizes in that capacity. In 2008 he shifted the... Read More →

Seth Silvers

Founder, Story On

Seth Silvers founded Story On in 2015 as after developing frustration with shallow marketing and a passion for helping businesses market through stories. Story On works with brands who are confident their work is changing lives but frustrated with knowing how to effectively grow their... Read More →

Monique Eckes

Photographer/Owner, Silver Paw Studio

Monique is the owner of Silver Paw Studio in Loveland & Fort Collins, Colorado providing custom photography and videography for pets and their people, for businesses, and for commercial clients. Silver Paw Studio emerged from her nearly 15 years in the veterinary industry fused with... Read More →

Tuesday February 25, 2020 3:00pm - 3:50pm MST
CSU Bohemian Auditorium at Rockwell West

Marketing/Sales

3:00pm MST

Round Canoe Syndrome

Limited Capacity seats available

Round Canoe Syndrome is a metaphor for a very serious condition that every organization has, or will have. My favorite version happens when the sales leader, marketing leader, and product leader all get in a round canoe, grab a paddle, and start rowing.

Not addressed, Round Canoe Syndrome will be deadly to your company.

The presentation I give mimics content on WebMD. It goes through symptoms of Round Canoe Syndrome, describes consequences of it going untreated, provides a self-diagnostic tool to know if you have it, and has prescriptions for curing it - before it's too late.

A few of the common symptoms:

Low quality or low quantity deals
Underwhelming product reception
Stagnant revenue
Too many meetings

You KNOW this is a serious issue and you've experienced it in your world - maybe even in your current company. It needs to be addressed! Come learn how.

Speakers

Erik Host-Steen

Founder, SMP Alignment

Talk to me about the intersection of sales, marketing, and product development. From this intersection, I help business leaders that normally (but not necessarily) have an engineering background and want to change revenue trajectory from zero or some other plateau. These three functions... Read More →

Tuesday February 25, 2020 3:00pm - 3:50pm MST
CSU Nancy Richardson Design Center - 121

Scaling

3:30pm MST

Gratitude Hour

Limited Capacity seats available

We are thankful for all the creatives in our community! Attend this unique networking event with your fellow artists, enjoy tasty tea and snacks. Kick the hour off with a tea meditation hosted by Kari Grossman of Happy Lucky's Tea House, then a short presentation from STAMP Executive Director, Jennifer Zidon, a original musical performance from Phil Donaldson and lots of great conversations are sure to occur - Come share in the gratitude!

Sponsored by the Downtown Fort Collins Creative District, The Music District, Startup Week Fort Collins and Happy Lucky's Tea House.

Speakers

Kari Grossman

Happy Lucky's Teahouse

Jennifer Zidon

Executive Director, STAMP

STAMP is an educational charity. It is a job-training program for artists, musicians, and performers who want to prosper professionally by touring in a way that is best for the environment. With our partners, through lectures, classes, and symposiums, STAMP’s Road Scholar program... Read More →

Phil Donaldson

Chief Operating & Creative Officer, PropelGrowth

Phil Donaldson is Chief Operating & Creative Officer at PropelGrowth, an online sales training company. With 25+ years of experience, Phil has helped companies with branding, content development, creative direction and media production. Phil has spoken and moderated panel discussions... Read More →

Tuesday February 25, 2020 3:30pm - 5:00pm MST
At The Music District

Arts/Music/Literature/Food

4:00pm MST

The Top Six Ways that Businesses Get in Trouble.

Limited Capacity filling up

Presentation will cover the major areas where business either succeed or fail.
Business failure is generally due to mistakes that are made in about half-a-dozen areas, and having an awareness of what to avoid, and what to make sure you're managing well is essential to
survival of the business.

Speakers

Mike OConnell

Director, Larimer Small Business Development Center - Ft. Collins

Mike O’Connell, Larimer SBDC Director In 2001, O’Connell purchased Mountain Woods Furniture (MWF), a manufacturer of rustic furniture, and owned and operated that business until 2012. MWF’s products were sold through Cabelas, furniture e-tailers, stores, and resorts and lodges... Read More →

Tuesday February 25, 2020 4:00pm - 4:50pm MST
CSU Nancy Richardson Design Center - 121

Business Education/How-To

4:00pm MST

Finance/Venture Jumpstart

Limited Capacity seats available

Come join us and learn how the CSU Institute for Entrepreneurial helps new business owners and entrepreneurs understand the world of business finance as it relates to their startups. This snapshot of the CSU Flagship "Venture Jump Start" program will do a quick dive into helping you create financial projections and learn how to apply accounting vest practices for business success. This session is led by William R. (Bill) Cobb, a prolific business leader who has held executive positions across the telecommunications industry, working with large corporations and startups alike. In addition to his corporate assignments, Bill has served as a member of the Colorado Commission for Space Science and Industry and has held multiple roles as both an officer and as a board member for the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association. He currently volunteers as a business coach for the Northern Colorado entrepreneurial community. Bill is also the author of “Targeted Tactics – Transforming Strategy into Measurable Results,” and co-author with M. L. Johnson, Ed.D., Ph.D. of “Business Alchemy: Turning Ideas into Gold.”

Speakers

Scott Shrake

Director, Colorado State University Institute for Entrepreneurship

Tuesday February 25, 2020 4:00pm - 4:50pm MST
CSU Bohemian Auditorium at Rockwell West

Funding/Finance

4:00pm MST

Story: How To Choose, Build, and Tell Them

Limited Capacity full
Adding this to your schedule will put you on the waitlist.

We all know story is important. But how do you choose the right one for your investor pitch, sales pitch, or keynote?

How do you build the story itself in the script for your pitch or talk? How do you know if it's too much of a lead in, or too much explanation before getting to the a-ha, or not enough at the end for the insight to click with your audience? Don't wing it, bring it. Bring your forethought to this fun and creative exercise so your story really sings. So it's memorable. So your audience can see themselves in it. So they want to act.

This session will give you the specific steps to follow concerning evaluating all your stories, choosing the right one, building it (both writing it and representing it via slides), and then your actual delivery of that story (use of pauses, word choice, non-verbals, etc).

Videos of me talking about Story:
1) This video shows the guts of the idea I'd present, only the workshop will be more polished steps and have exercises for people to do : https://www.linkedin.com/posts/cindy-skalicky-98892b103_new-video-tutorial-activity-6575812725325262849-Znqm
2) "Why is story important?) Me being interviewed (4 min)
3) And this helps too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTk5Fhn3RGg (2 min)

Speakers

Cindy Skalicky

Owner and Head Coach, On Point Communications

Tuesday February 25, 2020 4:00pm - 4:50pm MST
CSU Venture Lounge at Rockwell North

Marketing/Sales

5:00pm MST

Watch out edtech, child development ventures are the new frontier

Limited Capacity seats available

Ventures in the space of child development are on the rise, and Colorado has an ecosystem that's emerging to support them (one of the only in the country). While the startup community focuses on the latest markets (like cannabis), child development ventures are an area that's about to explode. The point of this session will be to discuss Futurebound, a new innovation ecosystem in Colorado that's supporting these ventures, and a panel of two or three of the top ventures in this space based in CO. Learn what it takes to be successful in this space, it's more complex than ordinary startups and there's specific criteria to pay attention to.

Speakers

Liz Oertle

CEO, Co-Founder, Nanno

I'm passionate about leveraging emerging technologies to solve the real-world problems of everyday people -- especially parents and families. As CEO and co-founder of Nanno, the first true on-demand childcare solution, I spend my days working with my amazing team to discover and build... Read More →

Sarabeth Berk

Founder, More Than My Title

Savannah Johnson

Program Manager, Uncharted

Savannah joined the Uncharted team in June 2019 and is excited to bring her experience as a K-12 educator, study abroad program director, and entrepreneurial leadership consultant to the Futurebound Acceleration Lab. She holds a B.A. in Sociology from Colorado College, an M.S. in... Read More →

Bryon Bhagwandin

Co-Founder / CEO, Recalibrate Solutions

Bryon Bhagwandin, PhD has 20 years’ experience in medical devices. He has successfully designed several diagnostic products. Bryon possesses a unique combination of leadership, technical expertise, and business acumen.

Tuesday February 25, 2020 5:00pm - 5:50pm MST
CSU Nancy Richardson Design Center - 120

Community/Culture

5:00pm MST

I hate sales, but I need to sell!

Limited Capacity full
Adding this to your schedule will put you on the waitlist.

"People buy for their reasons, not the salesperson's"
The traditional sales system, while it works, it is often inefficient and ineffective. The reasons why will be discussed. The "buyer - seller dance" will be described, and a new, no-pressure system for selling with dignity and respect will be outlined.

Speakers

Donna Kerr

Sales Trainer, Sandler Training

Imagine how thrilled Mom was when I told her I was closing a successful architectural design business to be a “salesperson”…..Why?People have always fascinated me. My first love was acting. Becoming someone else for a while; portraying my character’s beliefs, values, motivations... Read More →

Tuesday February 25, 2020 5:00pm - 5:50pm MST
CSU Nancy Richardson Design Center - 121

Marketing/Sales

5:15pm MST

Strategic Planning for Creatives: Maintaining a Healthy Art/Life Balance

Limited Capacity filling up

Work till 5 and want to catch a session? This session is for you! Creatives create - that's what we do best. For your creation to get out to the world, a number of non-creative tasks need completed - booking a tour, answering emails, planning upcoming releases - all of which can be difficult to stay on top of, especially when managing the rest of life as well.

In this session, musicians and superstar DIY project managers, Sarah Slaton and Alysia Kraft will demonstrate- using real projects submitted by those in attendance- how to create realistic timelines that honor the creative spirit and projects that inspired them. From the big details, such as avoiding burnout and knowing when to invest in yourself, to the specifics, like how project management tools can help your band, Sarah and Alysia will facilitate a hands-on workshop that honors creativity and creative output.

Speakers

Alysia Kraft

Alysia Kraft chokes up sometimes talking about how much she loves music… how grateful she is that one day in her early twenties she was visited by a strange and insistent compulsion to play it herself, to make her own music, to convince others to play with her, to play small stages... Read More →

Sarah Slaton

My name is Sarah Slaton. I spent 2015-18 fronting and managing, Edison, a national touring act from Denver. We played 350+ shows and traveled 170,000 miles. During that time we were featured at festivals like SXSW, CMJ, and Folk Alliance. As manager I helped lead communication between... Read More →

Tuesday February 25, 2020 5:15pm - 6:15pm MST
At The Music District

Arts/Music/Literature/Food

6:00pm MST

Should your business use WordPress? (Fort Collins WordPress meetup)

Opinions differ widely about the power, value, and impact WordPress can have in a business. In this session, we’ll cover what the great features of WordPress are, when it’s definitely the wrong tool for the job, and when there are important and hard-to-weigh trade-offs between WordPress and other options. We’re not selling WordPress here, just sharing a clearer sense of when you should (and shouldn’t) use it :)

Speakers

David Hayes

Co-Owner, WPShout

David B. Hayes is co-owner of WPShout. He's been using WordPress since 2007, and has a mature love (like an old married couple) for the content managment system. He's done loads of client work with it, uses it on a variety of personal projects, and generally thinks it's worth most people keeping... Read More →

Tuesday February 25, 2020 6:00pm - 7:00pm MST
Innosphere Conference Room

Technology

6:30pm MST

The Punk Pan-Indian Romantic Comedy

Limited Capacity filling up

The Punk Pan-Indian Romantic Comedy is a music-themed talk and performance piece by Indigenous artist and activist Gregg Deal. This new work focuses on the music that has moved him throughout his life, speaking in stories and antidotes that follow a timeline of struggle, survival, and ultimately healing through the power of music. A work that is upsetting, dramatic and at times pretty funny outlines the way music has affected Deal’s life from his earliest memories to the present and how it has influenced his ideas, his artistic work and his voice.

Speakers

Gregg Deal

Gregg Deal is a husband, father, member of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, artist and activist. As a provocative contemporary artist-activist, much of Deal’s work centers around Indigenous identity and pop culture, touching on issues of race relations, historical consideration and... Read More →

Tuesday February 25, 2020 6:30pm - 7:30pm MST
At The Music District

Arts/Music/Literature/Food

8:00am MST

How to build a crowd for a successful crowdfunding campaign

Limited Capacity seats available

Your business has decided that crowdfunding is one of your strategies for financing. Did you know that the Small Business Administration found 43% of crowdfunding businesses were as young as one-year-old. Eighty-eight percent were five years old or younger. These statistics go to show that crowdfunding is a strategy used by new and more established companies alike.

Having a crowd is one of the most important things in order for this strategy to work. It is also where many businesses miss the mark.

In this presentation, we will talk about:
* An overview of crowdfunding and it’s benefits
* The importance of growing the crowd
* Ideas on how to grow the crowd HINT- it’s not all just via social media
* Ways to stay engaged before, during and after your funding campaign to create raving fans of your business

Speakers

Alison Proffit

Proffit Coach

Wednesday February 26, 2020 8:00am - 8:50am MST
Challenger Peak Room 107

Funding/Finance

8:00am MST

How To Launch and Grow a Podcast For Your Dream Audience

Limited Capacity full
Adding this to your schedule will put you on the waitlist.

This session teaches you the strategy behind a profitable podcast for your dream audience.

Have you wondered if you should start a podcast? Have you wondered how you would make a return on investment? Have you wondered what the strategy to make a podcast succeed is? This session is for you.

In this session we will cover:
- What should the strategy be behind your podcast?
- What type of episodes should you create that position you to grow?
- How should you be marketing your podcast?
- Top growth strategies for podcasts.
- What should your expectations be when it comes to growing your podcast?

Seth Silvers is the host of The Small Business Storytellers podcast and has helped numerous other podcasts on their strategy, production, and execution in launching podcasts. Seth owns Story On Media, a marketing agency focused on helping small businesses grow by marketing with stories.

Speakers

Seth Silvers

Founder, Story On

Wednesday February 26, 2020 8:00am - 8:50am MST
Harmony Library Community Room

Marketing/Sales

8:00am MST

Self Care for the Self Employed

Limited Capacity seats available

Entrepreneurs tend to be very busy people - and the busier we are, the more we neglect our own self care. Many of us know that caring for ourselves is important - but how do we, as business owners, find the time? What does it even look like, anyway? And how do we even know what we really need?
Self care encompasses so much more than hot tea and quiet time. Join us for real talk about real business and the many different shapes self care can take for the self employed. We all know that our businesses thrive when we operate at our best. By focusing on self care as a foundational practice, this workshop is geared toward helping entrepreneurs develop custom self care rituals that fit into busy schedules and enhance quality of life, personal fulfillment, and business success.
In this informative presentation, business consultant Tami Parker and empowerment advocate Ali Owens share their experience and expertise on taking care of business - by taking care of yourself first.
Attendees will learn:

What self care is, what it isn’t, and how to determine what it means for you
Why self care is a major key to business success that so many still ignore
How to implement highly personalized self care rituals that work for your life, your schedule, and your business

Speakers

Ali Owens

Author, Speaker, Empowerment Advocate, Ali Owens

Ali Owens is an author and speaker with a passion for inspiring others to create authentic and fulfilling lives. Her work centers around empowering others, especially women, to overcome limiting belief systems, heal from trauma, speak their truths, show up in authenticity, and commit... Read More →

Tamara Parker

CEO / OWNER, UNIcycle Business Consulting

Self Care for the Self Employed Custom Self Care Map pdf

Self Care for the Self Employed List of Feeling Words pdf

Self Care for the Self Employed Session Overview docx

Wednesday February 26, 2020 8:00am - 8:50am MST
Long Peak Conference Room

Wellness/Health

8:00am MST

SAGE/SBDC Consulting

Limited Capacity seats available

Get 30 minutes of FREE one-on-one consulting from the experienced "main street" business consultants with the Larimer Small Business Development Center (SBDC), and the technology advisors from the Social Advisory Group for Entrepreneurs (SAGE). Just drop-in, no appointment needed.

Speakers

Scott Evans

Executive Vice President, ASG Business Brokers, LLC

Scott Evans is a M&A executive and business broker. He has lived the start up experience; in addition to working for an early stage company, he has started six businesses. He has the following skill stack:Business Sales and ValuationsB2B/Industrial Marketing StrategySales ManagementMarket... Read More →

Brian Hanning

Founder, Hanning Law Ltd.

Brian Hanning is the founder and sole attorney for Hanning Law Ltd. He earned a bachelors degree from Colorado State University’s College of Business and a juris doctor degree from Michigan State University College of Law. Combining these interests and skill sets sent him on the... Read More →

osvaldo buccafusca

Founder, Basement Zero

Dr. Osvaldo Buccafusca is an experienced technologist and product developer. His broad background includes research and development, manufacturing and competitive market analysis. Osvaldo is an innovator with multiple patents and trade secrets under his belt. He loves product development... Read More →

Renee Walkup

Founder, SalesPEAK, Inc.

Renee Walkup is a best-selling author, speaker, and business growth consultant. She founded SalesPEAK in 1996 after working in the corporate world for 17 years.Renee’s strengths are providing tactical steps to business leaders so that they can execute gaining more commitments, establish... Read More →

Mary S. Grant

Mary Grant is an experienced business executive who helps business executives and entrepreneurs reach their full potential. Ms. Grant assists in the development of executable business strategies, evaluate opportunities, analyze problems, and improve performance resulting in customer... Read More →

Franklin Taggart

Creative Business Consultant, Franklin Taggart Coaching & Consulting

Peggy Lyle

Director, Downtown Fort Collins Creative District

Peggy Lyle has been a creative force in Fort Collins and Northern Colorado for over 20 years and she loves to get involved. Peggy is passionate about the arts and creative approaches to business, branding and communications. With 20+ years of event production, marketing, and entertainment... Read More →

Mike OConnell

Director, Larimer Small Business Development Center - Ft. Collins

Jennifer Spencer

Fine Artist/Business Consultant, Artist, Inventor, Thinker

Jennifer Spencer has 20+ years business strategy and entrepreneurial experience with demonstrated results in start-up environments. Jennifer motivates people, produces consistent innovations, pioneers creative work and provides marketing successes with a repeated proven ability... Read More →

Andy Meade

Consultant, Larimer SBDC

Andrew Meade worked for over 35 years in the construction industry. As a project manager he has built dozens of large commercial construction projects. As a business unit manager, he ran regional profit centers for a major U.S. general contractor in Redwood City and San Jose, CA.In... Read More →

Wednesday February 26, 2020 8:00am - 11:00am MST
Mount Antero Student Success Center Room 552

Business Education/How-To

9:00am MST

One Million Cups - Startup Week Edition

Limited Capacity seats available

Speakers

Jana Sanchez

Executive Director, LaunchNo.CO

Jana specializes in helping people magnify what they’re passionate about and connecting them to resources and people. Jana is the Executive Director of LaunchNo.CO, a nonprofit organization helping companies form, grow, and stay in Northern Colorado. Jana is deeply passionate about... Read More →

Wednesday February 26, 2020 9:00am - 9:50am MST
Long Peak Conference Room

Business Education/How-To

9:00am MST

Mastering Slide Decks: Take Pride in Your Slides

Limited Capacity seats available

** Could also be a panel with others like Matt Faye, Nick Armstrong, others who do this?

Most speakers don't have a degree in fine arts design. They often don't have the money to hire out for help. And many slide decks I see look similar to those coming from college classrooms (and frankly, college students keep getting better with their tech savvy).

How can you create slides that sing? What if you have almost no experience with deck design? Learn a few simple tricks and take Pride in your Slides.

People will learn:
1) The psychology of slides. What are they for? What do audiences do with them as soon as they go up?
2) The audience experience. How building/animating slides dramatically improves your credibility and your audience's experience
3)Why cutting and pasting content from the web or documents isn't enough
4) Why you need images
5) How and why to animate
6) How to deliver the slide with finesse

Video example
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nf5ryggL98&t=7s

Speakers

Cindy Skalicky

Owner and Head Coach, On Point Communications

Wednesday February 26, 2020 9:00am - 9:50am MST
Challenger Peak Room 107

Marketing/Sales

9:00am MST

Video Marketing for 2020 & Beyond

Limited Capacity full
Adding this to your schedule will put you on the waitlist.

Are you curious about current and coming trends in Video Marketing for 2020 and beyond?

Are you looking for ways that you and your team can create more video content on your own?

If so, then this session is for you...

We will go through growing video trends that you may not have noticed yet with an eye towards how you can start to produce content on your own - even with your own phone - using free or inexpensive editing software to better promote your company with digital marketing. This session is geared towards people and companies that already have most of their digital marketing basics down and are ready to invest time and thought into how they can stand out from the competition using video in creative ways.

We will aim to make sure we deliver real actionable advice that you can instantly get to work on as well as Q&A time to brainstorm ideas, approaches, tech/apps, etc. Please note that this session is geared towards marketers and entreprenuers and not a video production class.

Speakers

Logan Hale

Creative Director, V3 Media

Logan Hale is the Creative Director at V3 Media Marketing, a commercial video strategy, production and marketing company. V3 Media Marketing specializes in helping companies promote their brands, products and services with modern marketing techniques that leverage the power of video... Read More →

Wednesday February 26, 2020 9:00am - 9:50am MST
Harmony Library Community Room

Marketing/Sales

10:00am MST

Bootstrapping A Business and Scaling With No Money

Limited Capacity full
Adding this to your schedule will put you on the waitlist.

I started my business with $15k and nothing else and now we’re 3 years old and have been profitable for the whole time that we have been open.

We have leveraged bartering and personal relationships to grow and make things happen.

Speakers

Joe Buckner

Founder and Visionary, Beautifully Savage: The Art of Pugilism

Joe Buckner is the Founder and Visionary of Fort Collins’ only boutique boxing studio, Beautifully Savage: The Art of Pugilism. Born and raised in Fort Collins, Colorado, Buckner has a passion for the community and helping others to reach their goals and dreams.Buckner spent his... Read More →

Wednesday February 26, 2020 10:00am - 10:50am MST
Challenger Peak Room 107

Funding/Finance

10:00am MST

Keynote: The Five Operating Conditions Necessary for Scale by Charles Fred

Limited Capacity filling up

This is the kickoff for the ScaleUp Program, which is based on Charles Fred's research.

Scaling Your Startup
In the US, only 4% of all startups reach $1M in revenue. And of those, only 10% reach $10M. So that means that your startup has a 0.4% chance of scaling to $10M and above. But research proves that there are specific conditions you can establish in your business to help ensure that it will grow and achieve both scale and long term sustainability.

Charles Fred is a bestselling author, serial entrepreneur and researcher on what makes companies successful. He is the co-founder of TrueSpace, an organization dedicated to helping businesses scale. Fred recently completed a 5-year study where his team was immersed in the daily working environments of 150 companies with $1-2M in revenue, all of whom were planning to reach $10M.

The research identified Five Operating Conditions necessary for small businesses to reach the middle market. The study, through a partnership with Gallup, now extends to over 4000 business across the U.S. For the first time, we have the science and the data to better understand the processes, cultures, challenges, motivations, and themes that emerge in businesses that reach the middle markets.

This year, Wednesday of Startup Week is dedicated to helping your business scale. Following the keynote, we’ll hold a series of fireside chats with entrepreneurs who have crossed that $1M revenue threshold in ten different industries. We’ll dig deep into their businesses to find out what specific things they did to cross that threshold and continue to grow their businesses.

Speakers

Charles Fred

Co-Founder, TrueSpace

Charles Fred is a bestselling author, serial entrepreneur and researcher on what makes companies successful. He is the co-founder of TrueSpace, an organization dedicated to helping businesses scale. He recently completed a 5-year study where his team was immersed in the daily working... Read More →

Wednesday February 26, 2020 10:00am - 10:50am MST
Long Peak Conference Room

Keynote, ScaleUp

Audience Intermediate

11:00am MST

Overcoming Isolation in Entrepreneurship

Limited Capacity seats available

Many of us who work for ourselves as solopreneurs, artists, or as part of teams remotely spend a lot of time with ourselves. It's easy to hole up in our homes talking to ourselves, wearing the same fleece pajama bottoms, and eating cereal and pizza, only braving the outside world when we run out of milk.
For real, this isolation can and often does lead to depression, anxiety, or other mental health challenges. Humans need connection (yes, even you introverts) and we become unhealthy without it.
Join Sierra Frost for this workshop to learn how to maintain your independent creative workspace, as well as your mental health. Expect part lecture, part experiential (hands-on) learning, and many parts fun during this session.

Remember, if your skin is as white as a vampire's, this workshop is for you. No garlic allowed.

Speakers

Sierra Frost

Recovery Coach/Author/Speaker, Invitation Wellness

Wednesday February 26, 2020 11:00am - 11:50am MST
Challenger Peak Room 107

Community/Culture

11:00am MST

Why Events Are Your Most Important Marketing Tool

Limited Capacity full
Adding this to your schedule will put you on the waitlist.

In this session, you’ll hear from three leading event marketing leaders who are leveraging events in their marketing plans to move the needle for their business (and their bottom line). Attendees will learn tips and tricks for acquiring the right audiences, developing expertly crafted content and experiences, and measuring what drives success for your business. Each leader will present a brief case study of how events are a critical marketing channel in their businesses, followed by a robust discussion between panelists and the audience.

Speakers

Rachael Walker

Owner and Head Brewmaster, Life's A Buch

Rachael Walker is the founder and Head Brewmaster of a local kombucha company called Life´s a Buch. In only two years she has grown her passion into a full-time job with her kombucha now available in 27 locations along the Front Range. With 10 years of experience in the Natural Foods... Read More →

Karen Lewison

Event manager, Scaled Agile, Inc

Karen Lewison is an event manager at Scaled Agile, Inc., which provides SAFe®, the world’s leading framework for business agility. Karen coordinates and plans both of the company’s flagship customer events—the European and Global SAFe® Summits.Prior to joining Scaled Agile... Read More →

Kristin McFarland

Founder/President, The Source Marketing Group

Kristin founded The Source Marketing Group in 2018 to turn her passion in to action after several community leaders and non-profit executives sought her help as a dependable, low-cost event manager to grow their events. The Source Marketing Group is a Colorado-based marketing agency... Read More →

Wednesday February 26, 2020 11:00am - 11:50am MST
Harmony Library Community Room

Marketing/Sales

11:00am MST

Positioning for Growth

Limited Capacity seats available

This session is part of our ScaleUp program, with sessions focused on helping your business grow.

You can’t drive a ‘69 VW bug 300 miles per hour. It’s simply not designed for that kind of performance.
Is your business in a similar situation? Is it designed in a way that makes it possible to scale past $10M in annual revenue? Does it have the resources, capital, mission and talent to be able to sustain that growth? What needs to change in your business model, offerings, market positioning to achieve true scale? Are you creating enterprise value that will ultimately achieve your exit goals?

In this fireside chat, Silencia Cox, CEO of MotherLove and Allison Seabeck, former president of ProSci will talk about what they needed to do to position their businesses for scale.

Key takeaways from this session:

Understand how to position your business for growth
Evaluate the capacity of your current resources, capital, mission and talent
Determine what remodeling will be needed to attain sustainable growth
Ascertain the scalability of your idea and offering

Speakers

Candyce Edelen

CEO, PropelGrowth

Candyce has 25+ years experience launching and growing B2B tech businesses. She has founded or co-founded 5 business, two of which grew into multi-million dollar enterprises. She's raised an oversubscribed Series A and made the Fast 50 list of fastest growing technology businesses... Read More →

Warehouse Business Accelerator

Executive Director, Warehouse Innovation

At the Warehouse, we have been “in the trenches” of startups and have successfully come out the other side. For the last 10 years, we have worked alongside companies looking to succeed beyond the incubator stage. We connect tomorrow’s innovative companies with a road map for... Read More →

Silencia Cox

CEO, Motherlove

Silencia Cox is the inspiration for, and now CEO of Motherlove Herbal Company, a family business thatbegan in a Colorado Rockies meadow and has grown into an international leading manufacturer oforganic herbal products for pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding. Motherlove was started... Read More →

Wednesday February 26, 2020 11:00am - 11:50am MST
Long Peak Conference Room

Scaling

12:00pm MST

Website Help Office Hours

Limited Capacity seats available

Have a website problem that you've tried to fix and you're stumped? Bring a laptop and get help from the Zentainer Tech Team! We do professional website work every day, and we're happy to help our our fellow entrepreneurs at Startup Week.

Speakers

Will Atlas

CTO, Zentainer

Building a super resilient, self-healing, autoscaling WordPress hosting platform. Healthy culture, healthy systems, happy clients.

Wednesday February 26, 2020 12:00pm - 12:50pm MST
Harmony Library Community Room

Technology

1:00pm MST

Fighting Opioids with Music Tech

Limited Capacity seats available

We have an opioid epidemic in our society. According to the CDC, over 70,000 overdose deaths per year, and climbing. Can 'music as medicine' be part of the solution? What does it take to build a Music Tech startup to learn the answer? Lend me your ears, I’ll tell you.

By the end of this session you will have learned how to build an idea to a scalable PaaS MVP with a clincical trial in the healthcare world - plus lessons learned along the way.. Oh, and some cool music.

Speakers

Gary Wayne Clark

Founder, Angel Investor, Grammy® Recording Academy Artist, XBT LLC

Gary Wayne Clark is an engineer by training, a venture capitalist by trade, but a storyteller at heart. A serial entrepreneur, a prolific songwriter, an experienced Angel Investor, and a technology architect of creative destruction, he's currently the CEO of Ten Bears Technology... Read More →

FC Startup Week HIH v19 HANDOUT pdf

Wednesday February 26, 2020 1:00pm - 1:50pm MST
Challenger Peak Room 107

Business Education/How-To

1:00pm MST

Salesforce for Nonprofits

Limited Capacity seats available

Do I need a CRM to manage my Nonprofit? Nonprofits face significant challenges, overcoming them requires new thinking.

If your donor database isn’t a complete platform, silos are preventing your organization to have a deep engagement and are tough for you to measure impact. You will love this lecture at Fort Collins the Startup Week. This session will be at the Harmony Library Community Room on February 26th at 1 pm, seats are limited, reserve your spot now.

Betina Pflug is a Nonprofit Specialist and is going to talk about:

- How to prioritize your needs

- Finding red flags with your team

- Setting a plan for success

- Overview of the Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack

- How to engage with Pardot

- Connecting with Communities

- How to efficiently collaborate with your team and stakeholder.

At the end of this session, you will have a clear view on how to implement a 360 view of your organization and all clear path on how to start applying for the 10 free license that Salesforces offers. Included on this session support material on How to Prepare your Organization for a New CRM and Find Metrics that Matter.

Speakers

Betina Pflug

Founder, WITY - Wisdom Important to You

Betina is a Salesforce Specialist, Life Coach with heavy expertise in Non-Profit Development, Education Sector, Hospitality, and Food& Beverage Industry, bringing Marketing Strategies, Sales, Service and Analytics that are tailored to our clients. She is known to bring innovation... Read More →

Wednesday February 26, 2020 1:00pm - 1:50pm MST
Harmony Library Community Room

Not-For-Profits

1:00pm MST

Establishing the Disciplines Necessary for Scale

Limited Capacity filling up

This session is part of the ScaleUp program, with sessions designed to help your business grow.

Discipline across the organization is a foundational requirement for scale. If you can build a “franchise-able business” then you can establish the capacity for nearly unlimited growth. This is not to say that you need to establish franchises. It’s about having the operational maturity to build repeatable, reliable processes. This is not something that culture takes care of. If you don’t have discipline in your organization, it won’t achieve sustainable scale. Growth will be sporadic and inconsistent.

In this fireside chat, Michael Stus from Canidium and Betsy Craig from MenuTrinfo discuss how they established operational discipline in their organizations.

Key takeaways from this session:

How to build reliable and repeatable processes.
Establishing operational policies, procedures, measurement and feedback processes
Making sure that your employees understand the requirements and can perform reliably

Speakers

Candyce Edelen

CEO, PropelGrowth

Betsy Craig

CEO, MenuTrinfo

Betsy Craig is our nation’s leading expert in the areas of food allergies, food safety,menu labeling and now accommodations. Craig, an Award-Wining CEO and Founderof MenuTrinfo®, LLC, assists over 100 major brands with menu labeling, 450+Colleges and Universities with food allergy... Read More →

Michael Stus

CEO, Canidium

Mike Stus is an energetic and thoughtful executive whose career has focused on information systems, technical consulting, and company building / leadership. Much of Mike's 20+ years experience has been invested in helping companies realize greater ROI from their sales and sales operations... Read More →

Wednesday February 26, 2020 1:00pm - 1:50pm MST
Long Peak Conference Room

Scaling

2:00pm MST

1099 Contractors or W2 Employees? Which costs less in the longrun?

Limited Capacity seats available

Avoid the pitfalls and penalties of Misclassification by learning more about what makes a worker an employee or an independent contractor. A hint is that it's more than just their title and what you've agreed upon. This session will take you through rules and examples that you can apply to your business. With misclassification penalties ranging from $5,000 to $25,000 per worker, this is one you don't want to miss.

Speakers

Tina Todd

HR Business Partner/Co-Founder, simplyHR

FCSW 1099 vs W2 pdf

Wednesday February 26, 2020 2:00pm - 2:50pm MST
Challenger Peak Room 107

Logistics/Operations/Structure

2:00pm MST

Building the Right Team and Culture for Scale

Limited Capacity seats available

This session is part of our ScaleUp program, with sessions focused on helping your business grow.

The people side of your venture is more important than your product, strategy or funding. In fact, if you have the right team, you can overcome just about any other problem with your business model. But problems with team culture can jeopardize the best business idea, no matter how well it's positioned or funded.

So how do you recruit the right team from the very beginning, and how do you establish a high performance culture? What are the signs that you have a problem, and how do you fix it? When a company is in launch mode, everyone sprints. But as it grows and scales, the team has to learn to run a marathon. How do you build endurance into the team and culture to play the long game necessary for sustainable growth?

In this fireside chat, Candyce is joined by Julie Dubin, co-founder of No Barriers, Dan Holt, Co-Founder and CEO of BillGO and Larry Dolgin who founded and led The Feet, Inc. for 22 years before a successful exit in 2016. We'll talk about how these successful entrepreneurs built their teams and established a culture that enabled their businesses to scale past the first $1M and continue growing.

Key takeaways from this session:

How to avoid having your growth limited by the capacity of the founders
Finding employees and stakeholders who can endure the growth journey
Why building a diverse team with the right mix of people can enable long term growth
How to establish a high performance culture that also builds in safety and trust
Approaches for eliminating "group-think" and encouraging team contributions

Speakers

Candyce Edelen

CEO, PropelGrowth

Dan Holt

CEO, BillGO

Dan Holt has a passion for making the world a better place through amazing teams and awesome products. Beginning when he was 8 years old, Dan launched a series of businesses in lawn mowing, paper routes, and selling door to door. Then he served 8 years in the military and as a US... Read More →

Julie Dubin

Co-Founder, No Barriers USA

Larry Dolgin

Facilitator of Business Owner Peer Advisory Group, LoCo ThinkTank

Larry Dolgin was President and founder of The Feet, Inc. a Northern Colorado based delivery and logistics company. Established in 1994 as a one-man operation, The Feet grew to more than 70 employees with facilities in Denver, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, and Cheyenne. It provided... Read More →

Wednesday February 26, 2020 2:00pm - 2:50pm MST
Long Peak Conference Room

Scaling

3:00pm MST

The StoryBrand 7 Part Framework

Limited Capacity full
Adding this to your schedule will put you on the waitlist.

Too many great businesses are held back by humdrum marketing. In fact, most businesses struggle to clearly communicate what differentiates them, define the problems they help solve, and connect with customers through stories. Those things are challenging, and the stakes are high.
The StoryBrand 7-Part Framework incorporates the elements of storytelling to help businesses achieve greater clarity, win high-value customers/clients, and create websites that convert. When I spoke last year I discussed how businesses can make their work more tangible and memorable by using storytelling in their marketing. This year I'll be giving the StoryBrand Keynote address, explaining the methodology and providing real-life examples.
The SB7 Framework is fun, practical, and saves businesses lots of time and money on marketing that doesn't work.

Speakers

John Garvey

Chief Storytelling Officer (pomp!), Garvington Creative

Wednesday February 26, 2020 3:00pm - 3:50pm MST
Challenger Peak Room 107

Marketing/Sales

3:00pm MST

Predictability Is the Fulcrum for Scale

Limited Capacity seats available

This session is part of our ScaleUp program, with sessions focused on helping your business grow.

Chronic inconsistency in forecasting accuracy is a key reason why businesses fail. When you miss forecasts, you risk running through your capital without results. Of the firms TrueSpace followed in their research, 90% consistently over-estimated, over-projected, and failed to achieve sustained growth. To build a predictable business that can sustain consistent growth, you have to establish key performance indicators across the business and constantly test and improve the quality of your assumptions. If you build a measurement culture, you will increase the value of your company.

In this fireside chat, Mike Freeman, CEO of Innosphere, and JB Kellogg, Co-CEO of Madwire talk about the types of KPIs they track, how they used these to report on progress, and the impact on their businesses.

Key takeaways from this session:

How to build a measurement culture
Establishing key objectives for each aspect of the business
Using feedback to improve the quality of your assumptions and the accuracy of forecasts

Speakers

Candyce Edelen

CEO, PropelGrowth

Charles Fred

Co-Founder, TrueSpace

JB Kellogg

Co-CEO, Madwire

JB Kellogg is the Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Madwire®. Madwire's brands — Marketing 360®, Websites 360®, SpaceCraft™ and Top Rated Local® are popular platforms used to help small businesses grow. Madwire has over 20,000 active paid subscribers and over 4,000 online reviews with... Read More →

Wednesday February 26, 2020 3:00pm - 3:50pm MST
Long Peak Conference Room

Scaling

3:00pm MST

Fort Collins Nonprofit Networking Group

Limited Capacity filling up

Join the Fort Collins-based peer-to-peer networking group for nonprofit organizations. Come to share your experiences and learn from others by discussing the most pressing issues you’re facing or ask questions you’ve never been sure where to find the answers. Work with Poudre River Public Library District's Nonprofit Resources Librarian, Sarah Scobey, to find and share resources for nonprofit management. Whether you’re supporting a start-up or a seasoned organization, we’d love for you to join us.

Featured presenter: Audrey Glasebrook, Volunteer Program Manager for the Poudre River Public Library District, as she discusses how to recruit, engage, retain, and manage your volunteers.

Speakers

Katie Auman

Marketing & Communications, Poudre River Public Library District

Sarah Scobey

Nonprofit Resources Librarian, Poudre River Public Library District

Sarah ScobeyPoudre River Public Library DistrictNonprofit Resources Librariansscobey@poudrelibraries.org

Wednesday February 26, 2020 3:00pm - 4:00pm MST
Harmony Library Community Room

Not-For-Profits

4:00pm MST

Managing Capital and Cash Flow to Sustain Growth

Limited Capacity seats available

This session is part of our ScaleUp program, with sessions focused on helping your business grow.

One of the trickiest parts of scaling a business is managing cash flow and capital. More than 60% of business failures were actually profitable — they failed because they ran out of cash. Managing your working capital and cash flow is absolutely essential to your business survival. Cash flow management is necessary to avoid cash crunches that prevent you from paying suppliers, buying materials and paying salaries. The problems come when your revenue comes in after your payouts are due. So cash flow management is all about delaying outflows of cash as long as possible while encouraging customers to pay as quickly as possible.

In this fireside chat, we’ll hear from Zubaida Bai, CEO of Ayzh and Matt Bryson, CFO of MadWire, and Mike Blazes, CFO of BillGO, about challenges they’ve encountered and how they’ve learned to effectively manage their capital and cash flow.

Key takeaways for this session:

Figure out the amount of working capital you need to fund operations
Identify capital risks and prepare in advance
Types of financing available to shore up shortfalls
How to speed up receivables and delay payables

Speakers

Candyce Edelen

CEO, PropelGrowth

Mike Blazes

CFO, BillGO

Mike started his career as a Captain in the Air Force, and after leaving in 1998, he entered the business world. Since then, he’s led a successful career in Operations, Finance and ultimately became CEO at Control Company, a software company that automated tests and measurements... Read More →

Matt Bryson

Chief Financial Officer, Madwire

Zubaida Bai

CEO, Ayzh

Zubaida Bai is a thought leader and innovator of health and livelihood solutions for under-served women and girls globally. Building on her expertise as a mechanical engineer, a product designer, and empathetic communicator, Zubaida has put her unique passion to work. In the process she built... Read More →

Wednesday February 26, 2020 4:00pm - 4:50pm MST
Long Peak Conference Room

Scaling

4:00pm MST

Breaking the Silence: Mental Health and Entrepreneurship

Limited Capacity seats available

A recent study published in Small Business Economics suggests that 72% of entrepreneurs are directly or indirectly affected by mental illness. Additionally, the US has seen a 30% rise in suicides since 1999. This panel features health and wellness experts, along with entrepreneurs who experience depression, anxiety, and other mental illness for an open and honest discussion about the impact of mental illness on entrepreneurs.

Speakers

Hudson Wilkins

Therapist, Gray Area Counseling

Hudson Wilkins is a Licensed Professional Counselor Candidate who has been working in mental health for over 10 years. He opened a private mental health practice in Fort Collins in 2018 where he specializes in supporting young adult to late adult survivors of sexual assault and other... Read More →

Chrysta Bairre

Career Coach | Speaker | Author, Live Love Work

Ali Owens

Author, Speaker, Empowerment Advocate, Ali Owens

Sierra Frost

Recovery Coach/Author/Speaker, Invitation Wellness

Wednesday February 26, 2020 4:00pm - 4:50pm MST
Challenger Peak Room 107

Wellness/Health

5:00pm MST

Keynote: Penn Street

Limited Capacity seats available

Don't be afraid, blindness is NOT contagious! In fact, blindness is my superpower. I am a disability advocate superhero. In my talk, I'm going to prove to you that people with disabilities are ASSETS not liabilities. In fact, hiring people with disabilities can bring superpowers to your firm, because we see the world from a different perspective. We make up 25% of the United States adult population, so we're probably a significant, if somewhat invisible, percentage of your target market.

Are you ready to learn how to add new superpowers, get perspectives your competition is TOTALLY MISSING, strengthen your business and possibly the world economy?

If so, I will see you Wednesday, February 26th at 5:00 pm!

*If you are afraid of the dark or find it hard to reach outside your comfort zone, bring a friend or your security blanket. Cause you're about to discover a whole new point of view!

Speakers

Penn Street

Client Relations Specialist, No Barriers USA

I am currently the Client Relations Specialist at No Barriers USA. My background is Community Outreach Management. I have worked for Ensight Skills Center, Disabled Resource Services, Sundance Film Festival, National Federation of the Blind, Model Mugging, and other incredible organizations... Read More →

Wednesday February 26, 2020 5:00pm - 6:00pm MST
Long Peak Conference Room

Keynote

6:00pm MST

Take a "Detour" to the Museum of Art!

Old Firehouse Books is excited to partner with the Museum of Art Fort Collins to host artist Thomas “Detour” Evans. We invite you to help us celebrate the release of Evans’ new book Be The Artist: The Interactive Guide to a Lasting Art Career. Join us at the Museum of Art on Wednesday, February 26th at 6:00pm to hear Evans speak about his book.

Thomas Evans, a.k.a. Detour, is an all-around creative specializing in large scale public art, interactive visuals, portraiture, immersive spaces, and creative directing. His book, Be the Artist, aims to be a go-to handbook as young artists enter the art world and begin navigating the nuances of becoming self-sufficient. It is designed to help up-and-coming creatives educate themselves on essential yet seldom-discussed strategies, learn about new and relevant artists, and gather the resources they’ll need to build their business.

Produced by: Old Firehouse Books and The Fort Collins Museum of Art

We hope you’ll join us for this event!
https://www.oldfirehousebooks.com/book/9781682752487

Wednesday February 26, 2020 6:00pm - 7:00pm MST
Fort Collins Museum of Art

Arts/Music/Literature/Food

8:00am MST

Elevator Pitches: Why they Fail and What to Do About It

Limited Capacity full
Adding this to your schedule will put you on the waitlist.

Talking about our business should be bursting with passion! The thrill of the chase, the joy of success! But too often we find ourselves exchanging elevator pitches like a cultural game of Marco Polo. In this hands-on workshop, we'll break out of the traditional elevator script and rewrite your pitch. The next time someone asks, "So anyways, what do you do?" your answer won't just have them asking for more, it will guide you to the partners and clients you've been searching for.

Workshop includes
1. A science-based break-down of why elevator pitches regularly fail to be persuasive, or even gain interest
3. Time for participants to write, rehearse, and get feedback on their pitches
4. The best strategies to initiate the business conversation without sounding sleazy or conniving

Speakers

Ruth Atlas

Owner, Feel Brighter LLC

I coach speakers, revamp decision making processes, and generally can help make your professional life better.

Thursday February 27, 2020 8:00am - 8:50am MST
The CodeGeek Room (Innosphere South Conference Room)

Business Education/How-To

8:00am MST

Impact Investing 101

Limited Capacity seats available

An emerging trend in business finance is to invest with specific environmental and social objectives in mind. This practice of "impact investing" is important for entrepreneurs founding or managing mission-driven business to understand. Impact investors are often willing to finance companies that do not appeal to conventional funders. Impact investors may also offer more flexible terms and their return expectations may be lower. This session will provide a "101" level overview of impact investing, and provide guidance as to whether audience members may be able to benefit from this trend.

Speakers

Denichiro Otsuga

Dir. Venture Community Development, Rockies Venture Club

Denichiro "Denny" Otsuga, has a passion for developing a venture community, where new and innovative businesses thrive. Denny believes building a sustainable city should include a vibrant venture community. Denny has dedicated using all of his experience as an entrepreneur, investor... Read More →

Bruce Campbell

Chief Happiness Officer, Blue Dot Advocates

Bruce wakes up every day motivated by the opportunity to leverage his profession in service of the global community. With more than 20 years of experience as a corporate attorney – including six years at the international law firm Hogan Lovells — Bruce brings a true depth of... Read More →

BDA&RIF Presentation pdf

Thursday February 27, 2020 8:00am - 8:50am MST
Innosphere North Conference Room

Funding/Finance

8:00am MST

Building A Business That FLOATS

Limited Capacity seats available

We'll use our LoCo Think Tank FLOATS (see acronym below) assessment as a workshop where people rank themselves 1-5 in each category during the 1st half of the session, followed by an expert panel for second half the session for active Q & A from attendees.

This workshop and panel will help current business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs take a high level audit of their business standing, and help them pin point what areas to take action on. To get focused, actionable advice, we're bringing a panel of experts to answer questions attendees have identified. This Q&A panel will be available to cover questions for each FLOATS category.

FLOATS is an acronym for:

F: Financial performance & tracking systems
L: Leadership & team development
O: Opportunities & obsolescence
A: Administration & documented processes
T: Technology integration & risk mitigation
S: Sales, marketing systems & development

Speakers

Curt Bear

Founder, LoCo Think Tank

Thursday February 27, 2020 8:00am - 8:50am MST
Block 1

Scaling

8:00am MST

Cyber Security

Limited Capacity seats available

Most businesses think they’re too small or their data is invaluable, but 58% of cyber attack victims were small businesses (according to a 2018 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report).Additionally, hackers are ramping up their attacks on vendors with administrator levels of system access (IT Service Providers, HVAC companies, etc.) – we’ll provide some questions you can ask these providers to make sure they aren’t putting your business at risk.

This event will provide attendees with an overview of the threat landscape, and some free tips and tricks they can implement immediately to improve their situation and security standing.

Speakers

Sean Fox

Co-Founder, Mjolnir Technology

I could speak at least half the day with people about technology, different security trends for small & medium businesses, or who the latest victim of a cyber attack was. Then we can grab a beer and spend the other half of the day talking about the best ski & snowboard slopes, traveling... Read More →

Thursday February 27, 2020 8:00am - 8:50am MST
The Articulate

Technology

9:00am MST

The Anatomy of a Contract

Limited Capacity full
Adding this to your schedule will put you on the waitlist.

Contracts are notorious for being written in an obscure language, otherwise known as “legalese.” However, contracts are the backbone of any business and can truly make or break your success as a startup. Whether you signing a contract or delivering one for your company, there are some common components that every startup business should be looking for and know how to decipher. This session will be led by Dave Ratner with the Creative Law Network. Dave will dissect the basic elements of a few standard types of contracts so you can be better informed and protected in your business.

Speakers

Dave Ratner

Creative Law Network, LLC

Following a career in the music and entertainment management businesses as a tour manager, publicist, band manager, and founder of his own management agency, Dave Ratner is now the principal of Creative Law Network, a boutique Denver law firm specializing in entertainment, intellectual... Read More →

Meredith Badler

Program Director, Colorado Business Committee for the Arts

Thursday February 27, 2020 9:00am - 9:50am MST
The CodeGeek Room (Innosphere South Conference Room)

Arts/Music/Literature/Food

9:00am MST

Eating Fear For Breakfast

Limited Capacity filling up

Tips for becoming a better speaker and forging ahead with your life.

In this session, we will confront the fear of public speaking and fear of other things, so that we can move ourselves and our businesses forward. This will not be a lecture. Participants will be guided through exercises and will leave with more clarity about their fears and what they can do to overcome those fears.

Speakers

Erin Hottenstein

Trainer and Coach, Public Speaking for the Professional

Thursday February 27, 2020 9:00am - 9:50am MST
The Articulate

Business Education/How-To

9:00am MST

Accessing Affordable & Friendly Capital for your Business - Yes it actually exists!

Limited Capacity filling up

Accessing Capital to Start or Grow your Business through Debt Financing

It may not come as a surprise that access to capital is frequent roadblock most entrepreneurs face. The amount of information is overwhelming and knowing the best option for your business can be a time consuming matrix. So where do you even begin?

During this panel, you will hear from entrepreneurs who have been there and done that. They will help answer questions like:
- What do you need to prepare for a small business loan?
- How were they able to navigate the lending landscape?
- What small business resources and funding options are available?
- What are some red flags to look for when researching lenders?

Additionally, this panel will discuss the Fort Collins Main Street Program, a small business loan fund that was created in partnership between Colorado Lending Source and the City of Fort Collins specifically for businesses in Fort Collins in need of capital to startup or expand.

Panelists include:
- R.T. Custer, CEO & Co-Founder of Vortic Watch Co.
- Katherine Homes, CEO & Founder of Katherine Homes
- Noelle Garcia, CEO & Founder of SILX Global

Speakers

Lauren Kloock

Colorado Lending Source

I lead the marketing and communications team at Colorado Lending Source and find joy in telling the incredible stories of our small business borrowers! Connect with me if you have questions about financing options for your business or if you want to engage in some marketing chit... Read More →

Thursday February 27, 2020 9:00am - 9:50am MST
Innosphere North Conference Room

Funding/Finance

9:00am MST

Use data. Create insights. Grow business.

Limited Capacity seats available

The Business Intelligence Center’s (BIC) goal is to support the advancement of Colorado businesses by providing the freshest public data, insight and tools, across several focus areas:
• Data Curation & Publishing. As of 2019, BIC curated, published and maintained over 290 data sets, with more added each year. Data is published through the Colorado Information Marketplace (CIM - data.colorado.gov) and is:
• Guaranteed Fresh
• Machine readable
• Discoverable
• Complete with an API and great metadata to provide useful context.
• Technical Support & Engagement. BIC provides technical support and engagement, training, and tools to government agencies and private industry. This helps get data published and provides much needed technical guidance to make more data accessible each year.
• Community Engagement & Outreach. Data is only useful when the public is aware it exists and it is applied to solve real-world business problems. BIC engages with the technology, data, education, and business communities to put the power of public data in the hands of Colorado businesses.

We will explore the work of the Secretary of States, Business Intelligence Center (BIC) with a panel discussion by key program personnel covering Go Code Colorado; Community Data Education Workshops and the work it takes to acquire and publish public data to the Colorado Information Marketplace (CIM).

Speakers

Joshua Dostert

Business Intelligence Center Program Manager, CO Sec of State Office

Josh Dostert is an accomplished Business Analyst and Project Manager working as the current Program Manager for the Business Intelligence Center (BIC), which is an open data initiative of the Secretary of State's Office. Dostert, graduated from the University of Colorado Denver in... Read More →

Joe Simon

Go Code Colorado Program and Partner Manager, Go Code CO, Confluence Communications

With Confluence Communications, I support the Colorado Secretary of State's Go Code Colorado, a challenge that asks teams to creatively utilize public data to develop tools and insights for business. As a project manager, I coordinate outreach, sponsorship development, team recruitment... Read More →

Tim Campbell

Open Data Administrator, City of Fort Collins

Tim Campbell is the OpenData Administrator for the City of Fort Collins, where he manages the City’s OpenData program. This includes determining the data to release to benefit staff and the community as well as working directly with the community on how best to tell stories and... Read More →

Jana Sanchez

Executive Director, LaunchNo.CO

Thursday February 27, 2020 9:00am - 9:50am MST
Block 1

Technology

10:00am MST

Interviewing for the intangibles

Limited Capacity filling up

Its easy to interview for hard skills like experience in Quick Books or Power Point. But how do you interview for soft skills like kindness, grit and perseverance? By the end of this session you will leave with a list of strategic questions (and tips on how to use them), to hire your ideal team.

Speakers

Tamara Parker

CEO / OWNER, UNIcycle Business Consulting

Interviewing for the Intangibles questions and best practices docx

Thursday February 27, 2020 10:00am - 10:50am MST
The Articulate

Business Education/How-To

10:00am MST

Anatomy of an Angel Group

Limited Capacity seats available

In this session, we'll go over the "Anatomy" of an angel group. Why Angel Groups exist, what they do, and how to engage with one.

Speakers

Paul Foley

Director, Rockies Venture Club

The Rockies Venture Club accelerates economic development by educating and connecting investors, entrepreneurs, and corporate partners.

Thursday February 27, 2020 10:00am - 10:50am MST
Block 1

Funding/Finance

10:00am MST

Debt vs Equity: How to Leverage Capital for Scaling your Business

Limited Capacity seats available

Scaling your business with a variety of funding sources

During this panel, you will hear about debt and equity financing options from both sides of the table. Our experts will drive an engaging discussion on how to leverage various funding options to scale your business at any stage. They will give you a clearer understanding of the types of financing options available and how to best navigate what type of financing is the best fit for you, while considering the stage of your business.

Panelists Include:
- Denny Otsuga, Director of Venture Community Development Fort Collins, Rockies Venture Club
- Mike O'Donnell, Executive Director, Colorado Lending Source

Speakers

Mike O'Donnell

Executive Director, Colorado Lending Source

Mike is passionate about small business & entrepreneurship, and thus, Colorado Lending Source is the leading state-wide educational provider of a range of accessible, lower-cost lending options for both startups and seasoned businesses, including the character-based Colorado Main... Read More →

Denichiro Otsuga

Dir. Venture Community Development, Rockies Venture Club

Lauren Kloock

Colorado Lending Source

Thursday February 27, 2020 10:00am - 10:50am MST
Innosphere North Conference Room

Scaling

10:00am MST

Techno-Economic Analysis

Limited Capacity seats available

Any tech-enabled start-up should know the bottom line value to their customers. Usually, this comes down to financial terms: how much will customers save (or gain) compared to the incumbent by using your solution? In this session, we will explain through the reason for doing a "techno-economic analysis", walk through some real examples, and dive into techniques for setting up your own framework.

Speakers

Amanda DelCore

Associate, Factor[e] Ventures

Thursday February 27, 2020 10:00am - 10:50am MST
The CodeGeek Room (Innosphere South Conference Room)

Technology

11:00am MST

Principle of improv theater to improve your communication

Limited Capacity seats available

Communication and speaking can be very nerve wracking when you know what you want to say.. when you don’t have a script it can be terrifying.

This participatory workshop will go through some example exercises to make us think and react outside our own plans, and give us tools for reacting to others.

Participants will leave with more tools for listening, communicating and reacting to others.

Liquid courage will be available at another venue afterwards

Speakers

Bill Tucker

Thursday February 27, 2020 11:00am - 11:50am MST
Innosphere North Conference Room

Community/Culture

11:00am MST

Public Relations In Creative Industries - Why It's Important and How to Implement it in Your Startup

Limited Capacity full
Adding this to your schedule will put you on the waitlist.

Public Relations is an aspect of every business.... whether it's realized or not. In this session, Dawn Jones of Pressed PR will walk you through the beginning stages of implementing PR in your business. Through this session attendees will learn why PR is important (especially for startup businesses) and how you can take steps on your own to implement it into your branding and marketing strategy. We will walk through the beginning stages (a "checklist" of sorts) describing what you will need to establish your own PR strategy and how to begin implementing it in your business. There will also be time for a short Q&A session at the end where attendees can ask specific questions relating to PR.

This session will cover creative industries (music especially - as that is the main focus of Pressed PR) and general PR tips/tricks/strategies for businesses outside of the arts. Anyone who attends should be able to walk away with knowledge on how to craft and implement a PR strategy suitable for their business.

Speakers

Dawn Jones

Founder, PR Consultant, Pressed PR

Dawn Jones founded PRESSED PR in 2017 as a passion project that would empower other independent artists to succeed. As a musician herself with experience performing, touring, recording, and writing music, Dawn learned that intentional and personal public relations take you far in... Read More →

PR in Creative Industries pdf

Thursday February 27, 2020 11:00am - 11:50am MST
The CodeGeek Room (Innosphere South Conference Room)

Marketing/Sales

11:00am MST

You're Only As Good As Your Headshot

Limited Capacity seats available

'Your life and business in the digital age are only as exciting as your images of them.

" This session will give you many new ptotgraphic ideas, that you did not know existed.

Learn how to be photgenic in every image taken of you, whether or not you hate being photographed.

Believe it or not, being photogenic is a learned skill.

I will teach you how your imaages of your business can stand out from the crowd.

Speakers

Moses Street

Owner /Photographer, Moses Street Photography

Your life and business are only as exciting as your photos of them.

Thursday February 27, 2020 11:00am - 11:50am MST
Block 1

Marketing/Sales

1:00pm MST

RVC Pitch Academy Lite

Limited Capacity seats available

RVC Pitch Academy teaches how to organize and deliver a 5 min. pitch to investors.

Speakers

Cindy Skalicky

Owner and Head Coach, On Point Communications

Bill Dieterich

Executive Director, SAGE

Bill has served as the Executive Director of SAGE since 2016. SAGE focuses on building entrepreneurship within Colorado by connecting industry advisors and mentors to Colorado’s most promising early-stage startups.SAGE has worked with over 150 startups since its founding in 2007... Read More →

Denichiro Otsuga

Dir. Venture Community Development, Rockies Venture Club

Thursday February 27, 2020 1:00pm - 1:50pm MST
Innosphere North Conference Room

Funding/Finance

1:00pm MST

Wield Words to Get Your Way

Limited Capacity seats available

Entice investors. Capture customers. Become buzzworthy and stir up sales. There are countless reasons you want to write well.

Sara Rosinsky has been an advertising and marketing copywriter for approximately 3.2 billion years, so she knows a thing or two about how to put words to work. She’ll share some of her strategies for effective writing, so you can grab attention, stand out from your competitors, and give your business a clear and effective voice.

Speakers

Sara Rosinsky

Copywriter, Shiny Red Copy

Under the banner of Shiny Red Copy, Sara helps companies tell the world what makes them wonderful. An avowed logophile (word lover) and grammar fan, she thrives on writing advertising and marketing that connects with customers.

Thursday February 27, 2020 1:00pm - 1:50pm MST
Block 1

Marketing/Sales

1:00pm MST

Meditation as a tool in the workplace

Limited Capacity filling up

Learn mindfulness and meditation techniques that can be helpful in the workplace with Michael "Tate" McTate, certified instructor of the Wim Hof Method and co-owner/operator of The Meditation Station, during this unique mindfulness experience.

I'll walk you through experiencing multiple mindfulness techniques and after each technique I'll explain the science behind what you've just taken part in and how it can be used to benefit your day to day life, especially in the workplace.

Speakers

Michael McTate

Co-Founder & Experience Creator, The Meditation Station

I'm the co-founder, along with my wife, of The Meditation Station, a mobile and solar-powered meditation studio. Friends and family call me Tate and I have a beautiful wife and two sweet little girls. I love exploring the beautiful natural wilderness areas around Northern Colorado... Read More →

Thursday February 27, 2020 1:00pm - 1:50pm MST
The CodeGeek Room (Innosphere South Conference Room)

Wellness/Health

1:00pm MST

Horsetooth International Film Festival (HIFF) Filmmaking Crash Course

Limited Capacity full
Adding this to your schedule will put you on the waitlist.

Do you have a desire to make a film but have very little knowledge on the process? Come learn the basics of film Production for Script to Screen from Jesse Nyander, a local filmmaker and Event organizer for the NoCo Film Network. This 2 hour crash course with arm you with skills to get your first film off the ground! This course also comes with a packet to take home to use as a guide towards your own film creation!

Each attendee will receive a workbook with all the important insights for staying engaged and asking questions without missing important “How-To” details.

Speakers

HIFF - Horsetooth International Film Festival

Jesse Nyander

Co-founder, HIFF

Working and making films for over 17 years in the Midwest, Jesse Nyander has built a reputation as a filmmaker who gets things done. His Style bridges on 80's and 90's neon new retro wave, and Dark Wave industrial production of the late 90's and the early 2000's. His deep obsession... Read More →

Thursday February 27, 2020 1:00pm - 2:50pm MST
The Articulate

Arts/Music/Literature/Food

2:00pm MST

RVC Financial Proforma Lite

Limited Capacity seats available

RVC Financial Proforma teaches how to develop a projected financial to validate a business plan.

Speakers

Mike Bennett

Senior Relationship Manager, GOpositive.BIZ, LLC

Mike Bennett founded GOpositive.BIZ, LLC in 2009 as a business and public policy consulting service. He uses his experience to produce positive results for his clients. Mike is a Rockies Venture Club instructor and has worked on several projects including nearly fifteen financial... Read More →

Denichiro Otsuga

Dir. Venture Community Development, Rockies Venture Club

Thursday February 27, 2020 2:00pm - 2:50pm MST
Innosphere North Conference Room

Funding/Finance

2:00pm MST

Vision to Visibility: How Branding, Presentation and Messaging open doors to markets & investors

Limited Capacity seats available

Matt Faye of Gravitation will present strategies and insight into how effective branding, visual communication, and message clarity can effect potential investors, partners, and market opportunities. This introduction-level session will focus on what critical elements new start-ups should not leave to chance. How design not only communicates, but creates identity and builds credibility. While most entrepreneurs rightfully focus on the company or product they are developing, too many loose focus on how creating that vision in the eyes of their beholders is just as essential. Practical topic and examples will include corporate and product branding, investor presentations, and value message clarity. Matt brings 25 years of experience working with start-ups and established companies using visual communication and design to help bring their vision to their audiences reality. Presentation will include Q&A and discussion.

Speakers

Matt Faye

Creative Director, Gravitation

Matt has over 28 years of experience in design, marketing, identity, media production, and directing creative teams. Although Matt’s background was in a traditional graphic design and marketing, he now focuses on creative technical visual communications, reflecting 11 years spent... Read More →

Thursday February 27, 2020 2:00pm - 2:50pm MST
Block 1

Marketing/Sales

2:00pm MST

3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing

Limited Capacity seats available

3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing enables enraptures in niche markets, enables high value low volume hardware products, and speeds time to market of any product that includes plastic or metal parts. This presentation will discuss how Additive Manufacturing fits in with CNC, Injection Molding, Casting and other traditional methods of part creation. Attendees will also learn about the various technologies used in Additive Manufacturing as well as the benefits and limitations of these technologies.

Speakers

Ken Burgess

CEO, CY3D Printing

Let's talk about 3D Printing, or Niche Markets

Thursday February 27, 2020 2:00pm - 2:50pm MST
The CodeGeek Room (Innosphere South Conference Room)

Technology

3:00pm MST

How to Balance Making a Living with Making a Difference

Limited Capacity seats available

Art can speak volumes. Art has a unique place in politics, addressing controversial topics and sometimes hitting a nerve. Hear from artists who are actively working on social justice, conveying hot topics and making a statement through their art. Through their experiences in film, cartooning and music our speakers will share how they approach these more controversial projects, challenges and thoughts around balancing their careers while changing their communities and minds.

Hear from talented panelists: Ward Sutton, political cartoonist; Shari Due, independent documentary filmmaker; Sydney Parks Smith, actor and director; and Thomas "Detour" Evans, artist.

Speakers

Thomas “Detour” Evans

Thomas Evans, a.k.a. Detour, is an all-around creative specializing in large scale public art, interactive visuals, portraiture, immersive spaces, and creative directing. His focus is to create work where art and innovation meet. A born collaborator and “military brat,” Detour... Read More →

Ward Sutton

Cartoonist/Illustrator, Sutton Impact Studio

Ward Sutton is a Freelance Cartoonist and Illustrator whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, MAD Magazine, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, GQ and many more. In 2018, he won the prestigious Herblock Prize for his Editorial cartoons, which appear regularly in The Boston Globe... Read More →

Sydney Parks Smith

Producing Artistic Director, OpenStage Theatre & Company

SYDNEY PARKS SMITH has worked with OpenStage Theatre since 1997 and serves as Producing Artistic Director for the Company. She received the 2019 OpenStage OPUS Award for Outstanding Director for Avenue Q; the OPUS for Outstanding Actress for her role as M'Lynn in Steel Magnolias... Read More →

Shari Due

Shari Due is a documentary filmmaker, media instructor, and freelance video producer specializing in storytelling through character voices in issue oriented films. Due’s first feature was commissioned for Algerian Canal network focusing the increasing criminalization of homelessness... Read More →

Thursday February 27, 2020 3:00pm - 3:50pm MST
Block 1

Arts/Music/Literature/Food

3:00pm MST

Decisions that Entrepreneurs Should Make... But Often Don't

Limited Capacity full
Adding this to your schedule will put you on the waitlist.

Decisions that Entrepreneurs Should Make…But Often Don’t

This session is targeted at Entrepreneurs who are considering launching a startup and entrepreneurs who have already launched startups and are searching for ideas on how they might improve their odds of succeeding.

We will explore issues that discourage entrepreneurs from making the big decisions around goal setting, strategy, prioritization and resource and capability development. Then a framework for decision making process is presented that will incorporate the entrepreneurs’ personal goals along with the enterprise goals, strategies and execution plans of the startup. The framework can be used by any startup to discover what decisions must be made and when they need to be made in the startup journey. Attendees will walk away with an understanding of how this framework can be used in their startups.

Speakers

Bill Dieterich

Executive Director, SAGE

Denichiro Otsuga

Dir. Venture Community Development, Rockies Venture Club

Decisions that Entrepreneurs Should Make vF pdf

Thursday February 27, 2020 3:00pm - 3:50pm MST
Innosphere North Conference Room

Business Education/How-To

3:00pm MST

Latino NoCo at Fort Collins StartUpWeek

Limited Capacity seats available

Join the hosts of the podcast, Latino Northern Colorado for short, recorded, interviews with Latino business owners in Fort Collins. Learn more about local Latino-owned businesses, gain insight on Latino business ownership in Northern Colorado, and connect with fellow business owners in our community. At the end of the month, you can listen to the full session on the podcast via https://anchor.fm/latino-northern-colorado.

Session interviews will include:

Alma Vigo-Morales, Co-Founder of Diversity Solutions Group
Alan Lugo, Founder and Managing Director at we_are_teknia
Benita Cederquist, Owner at Lloyd's Barbershop

Speakers

Rhonda Solis

Co-Founder and Co-Host, Latino Northern Colorado

Rhonda Solis is co-creator and co-host of the Latino Northern Colorado podcast that highlights living, working and social issues impacting the Latino community. Mrs. Solis brings 30 years of managing experience, community outreach, and customer service. She excels at working with... Read More →

Cristóbal (Chris) Garcia

Co-Creator and Co-Host, Latino Northern Colorado

Cristóbal (Chris) Garcia is the co-creator and co-host of the Latino Northern Colorado, a podcast that focuses on issues impacting Latinos living, working, growing, and playing in Northern Colorado. Mr. Garcia is a graduate of the University of Northern Colorado, Colorado State University... Read More →

Thursday February 27, 2020 3:00pm - 3:50pm MST
The Articulate

Community/Culture

3:00pm MST

A Diverse Team: The Advantages of Employing Populations with All Abilities

When people of different backgrounds work together to solve problems, the result is more innovation and better outcomes. But diversity goals shouldn’t be limited to gender and ethnicity. Amazing things can happen when companies hire people with differing physical and cognitive abilities. These employees bring unique and valuable perspectives to projects and workplaces.

People with disabilities comprise the largest underemployed group in America. More than 26% of adults in the US have a disability, and the unemployment rate for the disabled is 8% — more than double that of the non-disabled workforce. For people with intellectual disabilities, unemployment soars to 66% of working age adults.

When applying for work, people with disabilities are met with skepticism...if they get the interview at all. Yet a great many disabled job candidates have advanced degrees with high honors, yet face discrimination from employers. When they do find employment, people with disabilities are often grossly underpaid, in many cases well under minimum wage.

No matter what their proficiency level, people with disabilities possess skills and perspectives that can greatly contribute to a company’s business goals and culture.

This panel discussion will help bust the myths of employing people with disabilities and give you ideas for how your company can benefit from adding disability to your diversity objectives.

Discussion topics:

Recognizing the significant advantages to hiring people with disabilities
Getting past the fear – accommodating people with different abilities isn’t that hard
Defining reasonable accomodations
Typical accommodation costs (most are less than $100) and no-cost options
Resources available for employers who hire people with disabilities, including paid work internships, stipends for employers, job coaches, etc.
Eliminating unnecessary obstacles faced by people with disabilities
Identifying and carving out jobs that fit specific abilities
Cultivating an inclusive culture

Moderators

Phil Donaldson

Chief Operating & Creative Officer, PropelGrowth

Speakers

Patrick Hackney

Executive Director, Arc of Larimer County

J. Patrick Hackney joined The Arc of Larimer County in June 2019. Prior to coming to the Arc of Larimer County, Patrick worked at Disability Law Colorado as the Community Integration Team Leader. Before moving to Colorado in 2017, Patrick served in several positions, including Legal... Read More →

Sarah Greichen

Chief Executive Officer, Scoreafriend

Greichen, 19, is the founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Score A Friend and serves as a consultant to Score A Friend Clubs across the country. The Denver, Colorado native created the organization after designing a program to help her twin brother, who has an autism spectrum... Read More →

Kortney Campbell

Job Coach, Foothills Gateway

My name is Kortney Campbell and I am a Career Consultant at Foothills Gateway, Inc. I received my Bachelors of Social Work in December 2015 from CSU. I have been working with adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities since 2010. I have been in my current position since... Read More →

Jodi Hebbert

Supported Employment Coordinator, Foothills Gateway

I graduated with a Master's degree in Rehabilitation Counseling from the University of Northern Colorado in May 2019. I have been working in the human services filed for 8 year, supported employment for 4. I have 2 boys, 3 dogs, and a husband at home.

Heather Brooks

Business Outreach Specialist, CDLE, Div. of Vocational Rehabilitation

Heather Brooks is the Business Outreach Specialist for the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation in Northern Colorado. DVR is a state program under the Dept. of Labor and Employment that seeks to help individuals with disabilities in finding and maintaining employment. As Business... Read More →

Thursday February 27, 2020 3:00pm - 3:50pm MST
The CodeGeek Room (Innosphere South Conference Room)

Logistics/Operations/Structure

4:00pm MST

Horsetooth International Film Festival (HIFF) Short Film Screening

Limited Capacity seats available

Catch a glimpse “behind the scenes” of how the Horsetooth Int’l Film Festival came to be! Learn about the process of curating a film festival, what we’re trying to accomplish, and why getting involved in the budding film scene in our community is important!

Join us for the premiere of the HIFF documentary. It’s a short piece shot by Spark Harbour Films, focused on how we dreamed up and pulled off an international film festival in one year from conception to completion. Trust us when we say: It was quite an adventure!

The documentary will be about 5-7 minutes, with the remainder of the session focused on why the film scene in NOCO is on the rise, why it’s an important industry for our community, and a Q&A opportunity with the audience.

Speakers

Katrina Pfannkuch

Communications Director, Horsetooth Int'l Film Festival

HIFF - Horsetooth International Film Festival

John Hunt

Arcadian Pictures

Thursday February 27, 2020 4:00pm - 4:50pm MST
Block 1

Arts/Music/Literature/Food

4:00pm MST

Developing a Purposeful and Actionable Business Plan - Part 2

Limited Capacity full
Adding this to your schedule will put you on the waitlist.

Develop a Business Plan with Purpose & Durability

Adapted for brevity from the Larimer Small Business Development Center course. (Two 50-minute sessions instead of two 3-hour sessions so expect a high-level overview absent most of the exercises in the SBDC course)

Day 2: Creating the Business that You have Defined

Session Two Objectives:

- Review and discuss a traditional business plan template
- Develop basic understanding of P&L, Balance Sheet & Cash Flow Statements
- Discussion of assumptions and developing financial projections
- Review and discuss value proposition, target market, marketing strategies and tactics

Speakers

Curt Bear

Founder, LoCo Think Tank

Thursday February 27, 2020 4:00pm - 4:50pm MST
The CodeGeek Room (Innosphere South Conference Room)

Business Education/How-To

4:00pm MST

Useful Data and Research Resources to Support Going from Zero-to-One

Limited Capacity seats available

Hiring the first employee is a major step that might be around the corner or still be years away. Early research can help you plan for growth. While there is no one-size-fits-all approach to identifying when, how, or who to add to your company, there are resources in our community to support the process from the initial idea through handling the logistics of hiring. This talk will highlight the no-cost resources – data, people, and services – available locally that can support you when discovering answers to questions of when to hire, who to hire, how to find them and how much to pay them.

Presentation here: http://bit.ly/Startup2020_Data

Speakers

Amanda Repella

Workforce Economist, Larimer County

I support Larimer County's Economic Development and Workforce Development efforts through research and data analysis. Helping our local businesses get the data they need to grow is actually part of my job. I have access to job and industry related data—wage trends, posting stats... Read More →

Thursday February 27, 2020 4:00pm - 4:50pm MST
The Articulate

Logistics/Operations/Structure

4:00pm MST

How to Sell Anything to Anybody

Limited Capacity full
Adding this to your schedule will put you on the waitlist.

This is a workshop I developed with the lead coach at Tony Robbins and presented around the country.

As a (former) executive at a major TV network and president of a Wall Street investment bank, I originally created this workshop to teach business owners exactly how to pitch... without actually pitching. Regardless if you are pitching investors or you are trying to close leads received from marketing activities, this workshop teaches how to read the customer and close sales based on their wants and desires.

Read the Mind of Your Customer, Know What They Want and How to Sell to Them…Every Time

Workshop Part 1 - Secret Super Powers of Sales 101
• Why are typical sales techniques failing you? Experience the Hands-On Interactive Workshop on How to Become a Sales Superhero.
• Discover how the sales techniques most business owners use are actually killing their business.
Imagine knowing exactly what drives people to buy and why they make purchases.
•Get practical, hands on experience in reading your customers mind and knowing how to sell to them quickly.

Workshop Part 2 - Sales…
• Powerful Sales Tools to Gain Explosive Business Growth
Get the simple, 2 step process that opens doors to sales quickly; and, will transform your business forever!
• See how to get in front of customers that buy and close those sales.
• Destroy any fear of calling on customers or setting a sales meeting.
• Create value that sells quickly.

This can be made as long or short as you like it. We have a 1.5, 3.5 and 7 hour version.

Speakers

Carl Hartman

President, Business303 / Your Business By Design / Superhero Business Academy

We are rainmakers. Business in a box. We fix, refine and perfect business methods or systems, mindsets and emotional intelligence, and marketing strategy and content through hands on, on-site, in-person coaching (tutoring) for individuals with spectrum disorders (ADHD, Autism, etc... Read More →

Thursday February 27, 2020 4:00pm - 4:50pm MST
Innosphere North Conference Room

Marketing/Sales

5:00pm MST

Keynote: Phil Weiser

Limited Capacity seats available

Phil Weiser is the 39th Attorney General of Colorado. As the state’s chief legal officer, Attorney General Weiser is committed to protecting the people of Colorado, defending the rule of law, and building a Department of Law that serves all Coloradans effectively. Public Service is one of Weiser’s core values. Previously, Weiser served as a Professor of Law and Dean of the University of Colorado Law School, where he founded the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship. Weiser served in senior leadership positions in the Obama administration, and was appointed to serve as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the U.S. Department of Justice and as Senior Advisor for Technology and Innovation at the White House’s National Economic Council. Earlier in his career, Weiser co-chaired the Colorado Innovation Council and served in President Bill Clinton’s Department of Justice. After graduating law school, he worked in Denver for Judge David Ebel on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals and held two clerkships at the United States Supreme Court, for Justices Byron White and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Attorney General Weiser lives in Denver with his wife Dr. Heidi Wald, and their two children.

Speakers

Phil Weiser

Colorado Attorney General

Thursday February 27, 2020 5:00pm - 6:00pm MST
Block 1

Keynote

6:00pm MST

PitchNo.Co Semi-Finals

Limited Capacity seats available

Join us for the Semifinal round of the 3rd Annual PitchNo.CO! Six companies will have 6 minutes to pitch and 10 minutes to answer questions for our judges to decide who is moving into our final round. Companies will be awarded more than $40,000 of service packages.

The goal of PitchNo.CO isn't truly the competition - it's the vital feedback companies receive on their business strategy and the connections they make. The purpose of the competition is threefold:

~Showcase companies that are growing the Northern Colorado economy in the best capacity they can

~Provide the competition companies with as much expert feedback on their plans and strategies as possible to help them grow to the next level

~Connect the companies with the people and resources that will help make those plans a reality

Speakers

Jana Sanchez

Executive Director, LaunchNo.CO

Thursday February 27, 2020 6:00pm - 8:00pm MST
Block 1

PitchNo.Co

8:00am MST

Women Founder Panel

Limited Capacity seats available

This group of female founders will share:

The good/ bad and ugly of being a female founder
Fundraising as a female -- the promotion vs prevention reality
Women in tech
Hiring women at a startup and how to plan for leave
Why it is important to put women in to your advisory, c-level positions, and boards.

Speakers

Ashley Colpaart

Founder, Food Corridor

CEO at The Food Corridor

Emily Satterlee

CEO & Co-Founder, ItyDity

Emily Satterlee is the CEO and Co-Founder of ItyDity.com a Colorado based music production marketplace and startup that transforms how artists and producers collaborate. A singer-songwriter herself, Emily created ItyDity to empower artists in the production process and to help other... Read More →

Lisa Gumerman

CEO & Co-Founder, Sunshower.io

Lisa came to software engineering the long way round. Despite doing web development back when GeoCities was still a thing (RIP), she didn't come to programming again until she discovered that the recession was a bad time to be a journalism major. She got her M.S. in Public Communication... Read More →

Jen Henderson

founder & CEO, TiLT

TiLT is revolutionizing parental leave in the workplace. Through a web based platform, our process guides employees and companies through a research-based, turnkey approach to retention, engagement, and effective transitions.

Friday February 28, 2020 8:00am - 8:50am MST
Block 1

Community/Culture

9:00am MST

Building a Strong Pipeline Management & Forecast Process

Limited Capacity seats available

Having solid definitions and rigor in establishing "what is Pipeline", how to manage it properly, and ultimately how to Forecast properly - is as essential to small stage start up as it is to a public company. Arguably, it's ideal to set in place such a structure, understanding and a culture of honesty and accountability when a company is small, rather than large. This attracts investor interest during due-diligence and inspires strong current investor confidence in their investment and with the way you are managing your company. As the company grows, you've also set a tone and expectation with an expanding sales force. Additionally - the regular inspection a standing forecast process provides will unearth problems you'll need to solve as a company - product, demo, pricing, persona targeted, etc. Put simply - this a core practice to building out a successful business.

In this session, you will understand best practices and considerations regarding:

When to include a lead in your pipeline
Sales stage definitions
Common definitions and management
Forecast cadence
Defining success

My background in technology runs 21 years with 16 of those years leading Sales Operations organizations - from the huge (500M - 3.5B growth stage) to the small (20M to 60M growth stage). I've deep hands on experience with all of the functions and tools involved, and also a strategic view as a leader in terms of how to use and manage to the data produced. Lastly, I have been in Sales and managed an Inside Sales Team of BDR and ISR functions. - so I also have a deep appreciation of the reality of a sales cycle.

Speakers

Pamela Polizzotto

Hi Fort Collins! I\\'m a California \\'invader\\' - from San Jose, CA and now make Fort Collins, CO my home. I\\'m currently at the tail end of my own personal work sabbatical from a 21 year career in high tech (NetApp, Splunk, RedSeal). I am most passionate about building scalable... Read More →

Friday February 28, 2020 9:00am - 9:50am MST
Block 1

Logistics/Operations/Structure

9:00am MST

Creating Content for Video Marketing

Limited Capacity full
Adding this to your schedule will put you on the waitlist.

There's no doubt about it: videos are a critical component to marketing strategy. Do you feel like you should be utilizing videos, but have no idea where to begin? Karen Fournier of Starstream Productions, LLC, will share ideas for creating content through video examples and case studies of some of the businesses, nonprofits, and entrepreneurs with whom she has worked for the past 12 years.
Topics will include where to film (on-site versus in-studio), choosing a style (scripted versus interview-style videos), the use of visuals, how to reinforce your branding in your videos, and the pros and cons of DIY versus professional video production.
Karen will share ideas for you to consider in creating the following:
-- event promotions and highlight reels
-- educational videos
-- video series for content drips on social media and in emails
-- educational video modules to sell
-- series openers and closers and branding reinforcement
-- product-demo videos
-- how-to videos
-- “behind-the-scenes” videos
-- animated infographics
-- testimonials
-- case studies
-- “my why” videos
-- “sizzle reels”
-- Kickstarters
-- book promotions
-- general promotional videos
...and more!

You are guaranteed to leave with new ideas and a fresh mindset about video marketing!

Karen Fournier, founder and CEO of Starstream Productions, LLC, has served Northern Colorado as a video producer since 2007, creating high-impact promotional and educational videos for a wide variety of businesses and nonprofits.She films on-site and in her studio, writes scripts, and edits for maximum impact.She has won six national awards for her productions, including four Telly Awards.

Speakers

Karen Fournier

video producer, Starstream Productions, LLC

Karen Fournier, founder and CEO of Starstream Productions, LLC, has served Northern Colorado as a video producer since 2007, creating high-impact promotional and educational videos for a wide variety of businesses and nonprofits.She films on-site and in her studio, writes scripts... Read More →

Friday February 28, 2020 9:00am - 9:50am MST
The Articulate

Marketing/Sales

9:00am MST

Brain Crawl - Innovative Self-Care: Brain Health Tools To Survive The High Pressure Of Entrepreneurship & Business

Welcome to the first Fort Collins Startup Week Brain Crawl! This innovative self-care event promotes brain health tools to help you survive the high pressure of entrepreneurship & business & life.

Whether you have been diagnosed with a brain condition or mental illness (like bipolar, anxiety, depression, autism, traumatic brain injury, etc) or are just deep in the trenches of human existence, managing brain health is different for everyone and often involves quite a bit of trial and error to figure out. It can be exhausting and demoralizing. Talking to those who have “been there” can make all the difference in being open, getting help, having pride in your condition, and ultimately getting back to thriving.

Join the Brain Crawl, learn more about brain health and brain health solutions, products or ideas by those closest to the issues. You’ll walk away with a better understanding of the brain and individuals with brain conditions (helping us reduce that awful stigma!), as well as have an actionable list of solutions you can try out for yourself or take back to the office.

This event will feature special guests that will share the story of their personal journey navigating brain health every hour on the hour.

Speakers

Gretchen Gaede

A-Train Marketing, President, Co-Founder

Gretchen Gaede co-founded A-Train Marketing Communications, Inc. in 1998 with a mission of helping drive the greater good through creative and strategic marketing, branding, advertising and digital solutions that are designed to gain aggressive results for clients worldwide.Beyond... Read More →

D Dennison

Host, Voices Take Flight podcast

D Dennison has been an award winning (semi-retired) radio announcer for over 30 years, nearly 20 of those years right here in Northern Colorado. She has been involved with many NoCo non-profits including serving on the boards of the Larimer County Boys and Girls Club, 3 Hopeful Hearts... Read More →

Doug Johnson

Tiger 21, Chair

Doug Johnson serves as a Chair for TIGER 21 Groups 01 and 02 in Denver. A former stockbroker and investment advisor, his experience includes public markets, direct investments, deal sourcing and structure, syndication, trusts and estates, socially responsible investments and strategies... Read More →

Ariana Friedlander

Founder, Rosabella Consulting

Ariana Friedlander, MPA, is an author, social entrepreneur, and the founder of Rosabella Consulting. She works with leaders doing “Business as Unusual” and specializes in fostering positive change within organizations and companies of all shapes and sizes. Her first book, “A... Read More →

Dawn Duncan

President, Yellowbright

Dawn Duncan, this year’s emcee, is a 23 year veteran of entrepreneurship. During her career, she has worked in the fields of executive recruiting, corporate training and coaching, marketing, and public relations, with involvement in multiple industries. Currently, she is the owner... Read More →

Alison Proffit

Proffit Coach

Friday February 28, 2020 9:00am - 12:00pm MST
Innosphere Conference Room

Mental Health/Wellness in Business

10:00am MST

Successful women investors and entrepreneurs

Limited Capacity seats available

Women entrepreneurs need better information and access to experienced women angel investors.With another experienced woman angel investor, we will have an informal conversation about what angels look for and how to approach and engage them successfully.

Speakers

Warehouse Business Accelerator

Executive Director, Warehouse Innovation

Barbara Bauer

Director, Rockies Venture Club

Barbara is Director, Women’s Investor Network (WIN), for the Rockies Venture Club, Denver, CO. Barbara started this new initiative to recruit and support women interested in early stage investments and prepare them to become active and engaged angel investors. Prior to this position... Read More →

Friday February 28, 2020 10:00am - 10:50am MST
Block 1

Business Education/How-To

10:00am MST

Movement for Team Synergy

Limited Capacity seats available

A. group that moves together dynamically moves forward to think and create together.
Enroll to for a cooperative movement experience through dance.With guided exercises, you get the chance to align with one another and at the same time express your individual style.Plan to bring your smile!

Speakers

Mary Elizabeth Lenahan

Artistic & Executive Director, Dance Express

Our mission is to improve people’s lives through creative dance experiences. Dance Express provides opportunities for individuals with disabilities to heighten self-awareness, memory, self-discipline, and creativity through cooperation and commitment to the troupe.

Friday February 28, 2020 10:00am - 10:50am MST
The Articulate

Community/Culture

11:00am MST

How to Acquire 500 New Clients

Limited Capacity full
Adding this to your schedule will put you on the waitlist.

How do people find your business? Do you think digital marketing is just about social media? Marketing is about finding out who finds value in what your business offers and delivering upon that in a meaningful way. It’s tough to grow as a business but if you develop a blueprint for how to build on your foundation it gets a lot easier. Come learn about StickerGiant’s 5 Step Proven Process to Marketing and how these simple steps can help fuel growth, help acquire new and retain current customers and have fun while doing it. Walk away with actionable steps to take back to your business.

Drive Traffic
Guide through Sales Funnel
Generate Leads
Re-target Traffic & Customers
Engage with your customers

Each step will have highlighted tools that people can use to get started on each area.

Things within each step:

Measure it. If you don’t plan and report back on results you won’t be able to navigate each step.
Brand consistency. It’s important to define who you are as a brand. Your voice. Your visual identity. Tie this in with your company values.
No one channel is ever King and no active channel is ever dead. Find out what works for your business.
Leads aren’t free. We budget at 11% of PLANNED revenue for the month, quarter and year to achieve the results we need. We went from 10% to 11% from 2018 to 2019.

Speakers

Jesse Freitas

Marketing Director, StickerGiant

I run the Marketing Team at StickerGiant and I am really passionate about Brand Management. We specialize in Digital Marketing acquiring customers through Paid Search, SEO, Social Media, Email Campaigns, Sponsorships and more. I also run Project Management of our Website Development... Read More →

Friday February 28, 2020 11:00am - 11:50am MST
The Articulate

Marketing/Sales

11:00am MST

Create Your Start-Up Budget

Limited Capacity seats available

Grab your laptop and get ready to crunch numbers! Don't love numbers? Great! Misery loves company - bring a friend. We'll do this together.

In this 90-minute Lunch-and-Learn, we'll start with basic personal finance rules and create your personal budget. Why start there? Because most likely you're creating your business, not only to solve a problem, but also to fund your life. We need to know how much income you need to take from your business, so you can maintain your lifestyle...or understand where you can adjust your lifestyle if things get tight.

From there, we'll move into making your business budget and provide tools and strategies for making sure you stick to your budget, pay yourself a salary, have money set aside to pay taxes, and have a profit. (Spoiler alert: you can do the same thing with your personal budget!)

The beauty of this session is that it's not just information to go home and implement (implementation is the hardest phase!); we're going to do it in the time we have so you walk away with both your personal budget and your business budget in hand! And, you just might walk away with a new love for numbers...maybe.

Speakers

LeAndra Foster

Speaker, Mentor, Coach, elan lyfe Consulting, LLC

I have taken a rather interesting path to get to where I am today - forging through actuarial exams, guiding horseback rides through the Rocky Mountains, teaching college Finance, managing day-to-day operations at a start-up hedge fund company, mothering, wife-ing, and reading personal... Read More →

ELC Budget xlsx

ELC BusinessBudget xlsx

BusinessBudget 2020 slides pdf

Friday February 28, 2020 11:00am - 12:30pm MST
Block 1

Funding/Finance

1:00pm MST

Life in Business Workshop

Limited Capacity seats available

You are invited to attend Life in Business, a complimentary workshop on business planning strategies designed specifically for entrepreneurs to address the sustainability of your business, your ability to retire
comfortably, and the financial security of your family. Topics covered include:
ØStrategies to reward and retain top talent in your organization
ØBusiness succession
ØMaximizing after-tax income to owners and their families
......
As organizers, you have ZERO content that covers insurance. I can relate the importance of insurance needs for small business owners to financial planning over their business life-span (IRAs, 401k, partnership agreements, funding buy-sell agreements with life and disability insurance, etc). As an adviser in Fort Collins at the time of this submission, I have an 8-figure financial impact in our community from families to businesses as large as 300 employees. The largest recycler in Colorado remains a healthy business from executing planning from content similar to this presentations.

Speakers

Joseph Vander Linde

Registered Representative, New York Life

Small businesses are the engine of the economy, so it’s important they get the financial protection and guidance they deserve. My passion is to teach you the right tools to enable you to keep your business on track. With proper protections in place, you can focus on reaching your... Read More →

Friday February 28, 2020 1:00pm - 1:50pm MST
Block 1

Business Education/How-To

1:00pm MST

The Neuroscience of Trust: What Every Entrepreneur Needs to Do

Limited Capacity filling up

Warren Buffet says, “Trust is like the air we breath--when it’s present, nobody really notices. When it’s absent, everyone notices.” Trust is the foundation of success and the absence of it is a common business fatal flaw. Neuroscientists have proven that trust and distrust activate different parts of our brains, which significantly impacts the outcomes of our interactions. For any startup to succeed, entrepreneurs must build trust with customers, with partners, with investors and with employees. In this engaging talk, Ariana will show participants how to apply the latest neuroscience research to build trusting relationships that withstand the stress and tensions inherent in being a startup.

Speakers

Ariana Friedlander

Founder, Rosabella Consulting

Friday February 28, 2020 1:00pm - 1:50pm MST
Innosphere Conference Room

Business Education/How-To

1:00pm MST

Networking for Nerds

Limited Capacity filling up

Networking can be a necessary evil of entrepreneurship, but it doesn't have to be!Game-ify your connections with this new spin on professional mingling. Based on scientific research and the notion that fun is one of our most under-utilized networking tools, this event is sure to change the way you think about meeting others.

Speakers

Ruth Atlas

Owner, Feel Brighter LLC

I coach speakers, revamp decision making processes, and generally can help make your professional life better.

Friday February 28, 2020 1:00pm - 1:50pm MST
The Articulate

Community/Culture

2:00pm MST

Genuine Business Connections

Limited Capacity filling up

Genuine Business Connections for a successful business

!.Be Genuine

2. Be the Giver

3. Give Referrals

4. Power of “Snail Mail” & Thank You cards

5. T.O.M. (Top of Mind)

6. Be Positive

7. Remember the 90/10 Rule

8. Use Social Media to promote others

9. Set the atmosphere at events

10. Timely Follow through

11. Communicate

Ann Baron has over 20 years in the business world. Her career has spanned from teaching to business development with a local chamber and DBA. Her volunteer activities have included Business Consultant for the Small Business Development Center, Junior Achievement, TedX Front Range, Mini Maker Fair, and a board member of a non-profit.

She successfully operates her business, Northern Colorado Community, through effective networking events for small businesses in Northern Colorado.

In her spare time, Ann is the organizer for several Meet Up groups. She spends time with her husband and puppies. In addition, she loves to create artwork.

Ann's website: www.northerncoloradocommunity.com
970-405-4208
annbaron2013@gmail.com

Speakers

Ann Baron

CEO, Northern Colorado Community

We believe in your business and connecting you with other business professionals when you are a part of the Northern Colorado Community. .

Friday February 28, 2020 2:00pm - 2:50pm MST
The Articulate

Business Education/How-To

2:00pm MST

Identity and Branding as a tool for success

Limited Capacity full
Adding this to your schedule will put you on the waitlist.

Success is a mystery, but many success stories share a common thread: focus, and determination. Luckily, for businesses and personal brands, we can find a focus, and design character and strategies to never lose it.

During this talk, we will dive into the elements for creating a robust identity. From an idea, we will explain the process of evaluating the possibilities, defining your target, and setting up a focus for your goals. Attendees will walk away with tools and guidelines for creating and managing their brand and marketing strategy to reach your wildest dreams.

Gabriel - Yoy Design Agency

Speakers

Gabriel Rodriguez

Founder - designer, Yoy Design Agency

I am an entrepreneur, innovator, and founder of Yoy Design Agency. I am skilled in consumer experience and research, with robust abilities for storytelling. At Yoy Agency, I am the Managing Director and take part in multidisciplinary design projects where I have developed multiple... Read More →

Friday February 28, 2020 2:00pm - 2:50pm MST
The CodeGeek Room (Innosphere South Conference Room)

Business Education/How-To

2:00pm MST

Inclusion in Marketing: Why Representation Matters

Limited Capacity seats available

Now more than ever, consumers are buying from brands who properly represent the US public as it is: a vast spectrum of races, body types, genders, and socioeconomic classes. As marketers and business owners, it’s our job to integrate diversity and inclusion into our brand ethos—not just as a cover-up or a popularity gain. Spectacle Marketing co-founders Katerina Jeng and Niki Robins will walk you through inclusive marketing best practices like language, their favorite business resources around D&I, and a few case studies of companies who have nailed proper representation in their marketing.

Moderators

Phil Donaldson

Chief Operating & Creative Officer, PropelGrowth

Speakers

Katerina Jeng

Co-Founder & Strategic Director, Spectacle Marketing

Katerina Jeng is a creative entrepreneur who brings people, ideas, and inspiration together to make the world a better place. She is currently the co-founder and Strategic Director of Spectacle, an inclusive content marketing agency. She is also the co-founder and CEO of Slant'd... Read More →

Niki Robins

Co-Founder + Content Director, Spectacle Marketing

Niki Robins is a content creator + collaborator who believes in authentic, lasting community building. She is currently the co-founder and Content Director of Spectacle, an inclusive content marketing agency based in Denver. Niki’s experience with community building and management... Read More →

Friday February 28, 2020 2:00pm - 2:50pm MST
Block 1

Marketing/Sales

2:00pm MST

Impostor Syndrome

Limited Capacity filling up

Recently I was interviewed on the podcast "Bootstrapping Your Dreams" where I spoke about Impostor Syndrome as an entrepreneur. Many start-ups never happen because of negative self-talk.

https://tetranoodle.com/podcast/99-coping-with-negative-events-and-failure-cultivating-a-positive-mindset-tommy-maloney/

We all have that little voice in our head, telling us that we should not try and unfortunately, we listen to that voice,

I would very much enjoy speaking about how to take negative self-talk and stomping it out.

Speakers

Tommy Maloney

Founder, Blending The Family

Tommy Maloney is the Executive producer and host of the podcast Blending The Family, where you can find on ITUNES, Iheart Radio, Spotify, and Stitcher Radio. Tommy has spoken at TEDx, Ignite Fort Collins, and Keynote Speaker at Everything Dad Convention. He even has won speaking awards... Read More →

Friday February 28, 2020 2:00pm - 2:50pm MST
Innosphere North Conference Room

Wellness/Health

3:00pm MST

Marketing para propietarios de negocios

Esta conferencia es un taller con propietarios de negocios latinos quienes han tenido varios niveles de éxito en Fort Collins. Será una sesión abierta de preguntas y respuestas hablando sobre los obstáculos y el éxito que han adquirido en nuestra comunidad. La meta es aprender, compartir y conversar sobre ideas y experiencias que los han traído a este punto en su viaje de éxito.
También les dará una idea de como estos negocios traen una diversidad a nuestra ciudad.

This panel is a workshop that has Latino business owners who have had varying degrees of success in Fort Collins. This will be a question/answer open session to talk through the struggles and successes that they have had in our community. The goal is to learn, share and discuss ideas and experiences that brought them to this point in their path of success. It will also give you a snapshot of how these businesses bring diversity to our city.

This session will be moderated in Spanish and interpreted in English.
Natalia Infante, Owner of Infante Consulting and Research is providing and sponsoring the interpretation.

Speakers

Sergio Torres

Owner, Rocky Mountain Coquí Food Truck

Sergio A. Torres, MS, RDN has a passion for food. He is a graduate of Colorado State University earning a bachelor's in Nutrition and Food Science, and of Case Western Reserve University where he earned a master's in Public Health Nutrition. As a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist... Read More →

Eliaz Martínez

Owner, Cut & Shave Barbershop

My name is Eliaz Martinez, I come from San Diego, California. Cutting hair was a hobby for me growing up. It then became more than just a hobby when I got my barbers license at 20 years old. I came to Fort Collins and noticed very few Latino barbers here. I decided we needed some... Read More →

Aquiles Quiroga

Owner, Quiroga Interpreting Services, LLC

I’m passionate about community which is a big part of my professions. I’m a community interpreter and musician. I moved to Fort Collins from Ecuador in Nov 2007 and now I can call this beautiful town home. My daily responsibility as an interpreter is to facilitate communication... Read More →

Natalia Infante Caylor, PhD

Owner, Infante Consulting and Research

Friday February 28, 2020 3:00pm - 3:50pm MST
Block 1

Business Education/How-To

4:00pm MST

Scaling Up NoCO: Executing Strategies to Avoid the 70% Failure Deathtrap

Limited Capacity seats available

Four key areas define your company’s successful scaling efforts: People, Strategy, Execution and Cash Flow. Moving from engaged start-up to the next step can be rough. Join some of Colorado’s top business leaders to hone in on strategies and execution techniques for growing your reach, garnering investor attention, and building a synergistic team.

Doyle Albee, President, MAPRagency
Brian Clark, CEO, Unemployable
Chuck McCoy, Senior Partner, Creative Alignments
Kyle Sickman, Senior Vice President in Business Lending, 1st Bank - Northern Colorado
Amanda Mouriochi, CEO, Appit Ventures

Moderators

Jana Sanchez

Executive Director, LaunchNo.CO

Speakers

Brian Clark

CEO, Unemployable

Brian Clark is a writer, traveler, and entrepreneur. He's the founder of the pioneering content marketing website Copyblogger, the personal growth newsletter Further, and Unemployable, a resource that provides smart strategies for freelancers and entrepreneurs.Brian has started 10 businesses in the last 20 years, either solo or as a co-founder. The first one failed, but every company since has yielded higher revenue, profits, and happiness.Clark began publishing... Read More →

Chuck McCoy

Senior Partner, Creative Alignments

Chuck is a senior partner at Creative Alignments, which delivers the recruiting engine that powers scale-up companies as they quickly grow their teams. Creative Alignments has deep expertise in the Technology, Natural Food & Beverage, BioTech, AgTech and CleanTech sectors. Creative... Read More →

Doyle Albee

President, MAPRagency

Albee brings more than 30 years of varied experience to MAPR's clients. Prior to creating MAPRagency via merger (2005) and acquisition (2014) he worked in marketing and public relations positions at Coors Brewing Company, the Sterling-Rice Group and directed global communications... Read More →

Kyle Sickman

Senior Vice President in Business Lending, 1st Bank - Northern Colorado

Kyle is a Senior Vice President in Business Lending at FirstBank. Kyle has been with FirstBank since 2008 with experience including retail branch management, residential mortgage and construction lending, commercial real estate lending, and business lending. Kyle currently leads... Read More →

Amanda Mouriochi

CEO, Appit Ventures

Amanda Moriuchi is the CEO of AppIt Ventures, a custom software development company headquartered in Denver. She started her career in sales, and has spent the past 15 years focused on driving revenue for the companies she’s been a part of. Amanda has been in the tech industry for... Read More →

Friday February 28, 2020 4:00pm - 4:50pm MST
Block 1

Keynote

5:00pm MST

Future of Entrepreneurship in Northern Colorado

Limited Capacity seats available

Join us for a data filled presentation about the state of Northern Colorado's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem and where our community might move forward into the future.

Presented by Jana Sanchez, the Executive Director of LaunchNo.CO. The mission of LaunchNo.CO is to advance and support entrepreneurship and small business in Northern Colorado. We connect entrepreneurs with the right resources at the right time to help their businesses grow. And we're working collaboratively to build, support, and monitor the framework of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. A thriving ecosystem allows our communities, governments, and resource providers to better support the startup and small businesses who are creating and sustaining companies and jobs here.

Speakers

Nick Armstrong

Geek-in-Chief, WTF Marketing

Jana Sanchez

Executive Director, LaunchNo.CO

Friday February 28, 2020 5:00pm - 5:50pm MST
Block 1

Keynote

6:00pm MST

PitchNo.Co Finals

Limited Capacity seats available

Join us for the Final round of the 3rd Annual PitchNo.CO! Four companies will have 6 minutes to pitch and 10 minutes to answer questions for our judges to decide who wins our prize packages. Companies will be awarded more than $40,000 of service packages.

The goal of PitchNo.CO isn't truly the competition - it's the vital feedback companies receive on their business strategy and the connections they make. The purpose of the competition is threefold:

~Showcase companies that are growing the Northern Colorado economy in the best capacity they can

~Provide the competition companies with as much expert feedback on their plans and strategies as possible to help them grow to the next level

~Connect the companies with the people and resources that will help make those plans a reality

Speakers

Jana Sanchez

Executive Director, LaunchNo.CO

Friday February 28, 2020 6:00pm - 7:00pm MST
Block 1

PitchNo.Co

7:00pm MST

Start Up Week After Party and Live Concert: Hosted by STAMP

Limited Capacity seats available

What a fantastic week! Come to the STAMP Wrap Party with live Fort Collins music, tasty local kombucha, and tons of fun overlooking the Poudre River. Music featuring Senorita Sometimes!
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STAMP is an educational charity. It is a job-training program for artists, musicians, and performers who want to prosper professionally by touring in a way that is best for the environment. With our partners, through lectures, classes, and symposiums, STAMP’s Road Scholar program educates selected, emerging artists on the skills needed to plan, book, and negotiate a successful and environmentally sustainable tour. STAMP’s Road Residencies provide a free, safe, and reliable touring vehicle along with clean burning biodiesel so that the band can put into practice everything they learned in our classes. Bands that have never toured before will be able to jump start their careers safely and sustainably.

Speakers

Jennifer Zidon

Executive Director, STAMP

Friday February 28, 2020 7:00pm - 9:00pm MST
Block 1

Community/Culture