Tom Smerdon, success in marketing new ideas
1364_ 3/11/13 - From a business person's point of view, the Technology Transfer Office is one of the most important things that the university provides, for business, individual professors and students, with everything from awards and recognition but most importantly really helping them along when they come up with an idea. Larry is with Tom Smerdon, Interim Associate Vice President of the University of Colorado Technology Transfer Office in Boulder. Tom said, "There are a couple of the things I'd like to bring to the listeners attention. One, which we're really excited about, is the recent acquisition of a CU startup. F5 Networks has acquired LineRate Systems, a Colorado startup that’s developing technologies around what’s called software define networking. F5 noted that the networking technologies will help bring superior service agility, application intelligence, and programmability to software defined data centers. The thing that is exciting about this is, not only was this a startup basically out of Computer Sciences and Electrical Engineering here on the CU Boulder campus, but the company was also an early recipient of the Proof-of-Concept investment from the Tech Transfer Office. This was the first money into the company which really helped it acquire some critical equipment early on and facilitated the development of the technology that was later further developed in its Louisville office and ultimately the subject of the sale to F5. This is one of the success stories for Tech Transfer and we're really excited for the company and the founders. A couple of events that are coming up; we are doing our Tech Transfer Awards a little differently this year. Previously there had been a single awards event covering the system campuses held in Denver. This year we're going to have campus focused events, so we have the Boulder Awards event which is scheduled for April 1st. This is in conjunction with the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship. The program, Entrepreneurship Under the Microscope, is an evening event with a keynote speaker and we will be awarding the Inventor of the Year, New Inventor of the Year, and Company of the Year during a fun networking event with CU-Boulder faculty and students, and members of the Boulder entrepreneurial community. We have the second awards event planned... there's more...
RELATED LINKS: CU Technology Transfer Office || CU TTO Channel || TTO Blog || LineRate Systems || TTO Blog || KEYWORDS: Tom Smerdon, Interim Associate Vice President, Tech Transfer Office, University of Colorado, Technology Transfer, LineRate Systems, F5, Awards, bytes=4401426
LISTEN TO: Tom Smerdon, Interim Associate Vice President. Tech Transfer, University of Colorado

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Life of the Entrepreneur: Controlling Your Destiny
421_ 9/06/11 [12/10/2007] Nancy Phillips, NCWIT Hero, offers a few keys for being a successful entrepreneur: Maintain a good sense of humor; Overcome the nay-sayers; and Practice real-world economics. Nancy is the Co-Founder, Director, COO of ViaWest (Today, Nancy is President and CEO as this was recorded in December, 2007) and shared her story and poignant points about building and growing a business even in the toughest of times to Lucy Sanders, CEO and Founder of the National Center for Women & Information Technology and NCWIT board member, Lee Kennedy along with Larry Nelson. Nancy loves technology and people and has a long history with the Telecom industry. She enjoys the challenges of being an entrepreneur for many reasons including her passion to control her destiny. Nancy says her husband claims, "Because I'm a control freak." Phillips has also been a principal, executive and consultant for numerous successful telecommunications companies including France Telecom, MCI and Qwest. Over 15 years ago, she began her career with Teleconferencing Systems Canada as Vice President of Sales and it was in this role that she met Roy Dimoff - the two have been loyal business partners ever since. Nancy shares some excellent advice for managers, leaders and entrepreneurs. Related Links: ViaWest || NCWIT Home || Software || NCWIT Entrepreneurs || NCWIT Blog || Keywords: Nancy Phillips, ViaWest, Lucy Sanders, Entrepreneurs, National Center for Women & Information Technology, NCWIT Heroes, Teleconferencing Systems Canada, France Telecom, MCI, Qwest > 12/10/07 Bytes: 48124972 Listen to: Nancy Phillips, ViaWest > Bytes: 48124972
LISTEN to Nancy Phillips, ViaWest

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Tom Smerdon First to Invent Rule
under the America Invents Act
1360_ 3/4/13 - Larry is in Boulder with Tom Smerdon, Interim Associate Vice President of University of Colorado Technology Transfer Office. "There are several interesting events that we're keeping an eye on. One is the upcoming implementation of 'The First to Invent Rule under the America Invents Act. This goes into effect on March the 16th. So this has required us to look at some of the provisional applications that are pending and accelerate the filing of the U.S. Utility Applications. We've been doing that as well as setting up some informational and outreach efforts to inform the faculty of this change. One of the exciting legislative initiatives that Tom and his team are keeping an eye on is the Advanced Industries Acceleration Act. This was recently introduced in the House as HB1001 and basically it would expand the current Bioscience Discovery and Evaluation Grant Program [the BDEG] which currently provides for state grant funding / proof-of-concept funding for bioscience technologies as well as grants for early stage bioscience companies. It would expand that to six other advanced industries in Colorado. These are advanced manufacturing, aerospace, electronics, cleantech energy and natural resources, infrastructure engineering and information technology. While we make some changes to the basic BDEG funding, the basic structure is preserved. So there would continue to be proof-of-concept grants that would go to research institutions - that definition has been expanded somewhat, but it would include the state research institutions, University of Colorado. It would also provide some company matching grant funding, although the match would now be one dollar from the state to two dollars from the company and it will also provide infrastructure funding as is currently provided under the BDEG program. There are some caps on those funding amounts but in the case of proposals that would involve more than one advanced industry, those caps are removed. But again, it's pending and we'll have to see what the final legislation looks like. we've been working closely with the Office of Economic Development and International Trade on some related advanced... there's more...
RELATED LINKS: CU Technology Transfer Office || CU TTO Channel || TTO Blog || CID4 || CBSA || KEYWORDS: Tom Smerdon, Interim Associate Vice President, Tech Transfer Office, University of Colorado, Technology Transfer, The First to Invent Rule America Invents Act., Biotech Technologies, Bio Science Discovery, Office of Economic Development and International Trade, Bioscience Discovery and Evaluation Grant Program - bytes=5151245
LISTEN TO: Tom Smerdon, Interim Assoc. Vice President, Tech Transfer Office, University of Colorado

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"Commissioned sales people may be a thing of the past..."
1362_ 3/4/13 - ...Bill Flagg was convinced he needed the service and would probably buy within the next month. But, the commissioned sales person was so motivated to get the sale in by the end of the quarter, that he gave Bill a 30% discount - on the entire contract, a big dollar amount. Not only did Bill not get value from this sales person, he had to go to the tech guy to get his real questions answered - You need a technology partner willing to work for sweat equity - cast a wide net in the beginning... Bootstrapping, more insights, Watch Now Part 2 of 2
Crash Course, Bootstrapping || The Felix Fun || Bill Flagg Blog || Economy Builders || PodCast Directory || KEYWORDS: Bill Flagg, Crash Course Bootstrapping, Silicon Flatiron Center, Brad Bernthal, The Felix Fun, RegOnline, PosterBrain, SnapEngage, StickerGiant, SurveyGizmo, SFC Crash Course
Video - Bill Flagg, The Felix Fun - SFC Crash Course Series, Bootstrapping

Jim Franklin, it's a great idea to use free web services
1363_ 3/11/13 - Larry sat down with Jim Franklin, CEO, SendGrid at their new office in Denver to get an update. SendGrid is a cloud based email service. So they move email from an application to an application's user. The best way to describe it is by example. Pinterest is one of our best customers. When you pin somebody on Pinterest and it gets repined, the application sends you an email letting you know that your content has been repined. With that application generated email we send to the users of that application. We do that for clients like Pinterest; Foursquare; Carbonmade; Spotify; GetSatisfaction that amounts to over 135,000 customers around the world. "Almost all of our business starts with brand new startups." To people starting something, using lean startup principles, it's a great idea to use free web services to help you start faster and cheaper. SendGrid is just one of those services that many startups choose to use. Jim went onto say, "Biggest challenges facing businesses today is hiring people. As we in the technology community recognize there is virtually zero unemployment in technology, especially for people who are coders and are building things. It's just a very, very hot sector. We have offices in Boulder, Denver, Anaheim, we're just opening in San Francisco. We're looking actually on the west coast, Vancouver, Seattle, San Diego, trying to have a development team in the same time zone if not in the same city. We have people in Romania and Ireland and other places. It's challenging to manage across time zones. But, clearly the number one issue is recruiting people especially technical people. The opportunities are many and vast. With SendGrid the big opportunities we see are around cloud computing. We think it's early days for cloud computing. It's a very large strong trend that in the U.S. has very good momentum. Thanks to companies like Sales Force and Net Suite, they've really pioneered the way to show people they can put enterprise applications in the cloud and have it be trustworthy. Amazon has also paved the way for startups to use web services to very cheaply and quickly ..."
Jim offers some great business advice ...Listen for more...
RELATED LINKS: SendGrid || TechStars || Software Channel || PodCasting Directory || KEYWORDS: Jim Franklin, SendGrid, Software, TechStars, eMail, Pinterest; Foursquare; Carbonmade; Spotify; GetSatisfaction, Entrepreneurship, Brad Feld, bytes=6031885
LISTEN TO: Jim Franklin, CEO, SendGrid

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Ed von Bleichert, it's time to get rid of the pests
1365_ 3/11/13 - We are back with Edward von Bleichert, Manager Environmental Operations, for the Department of Facilities Management at the University of Colorado Boulder, a demanding responsibility where Ed almost plays different roles to accomplish these varied and important services, from capturing Brown Bears and Mountain Lions that wander onto campus, to solving the huge issues of providing solutions and recycling options. Today we're going to talk about Integrated Pest Management [IPM]. First an overview of what that means. IPM similar to Zero Waste [ZW] has many definitions but for our purposes, it is essentially a focus on safe and effective long-term control and prevention of pests. Whatever you want to determine as a pest. The point is, pesticides are a part of that tool kit we use, but they're not the first tool that we reach for. Any time we use pesticides, we're very careful, specifically speaking to indoor structures, not to impact indoor air quality, not to expose people to pesticides. Which essentially means the majority of our pesticide applications are in the form of a gel base or granulers or some type of pheromone. We do not do aerosol sprays, liquid sprays, crack and crevice treatments, perimeter treatments, we don't fog or the bombs. The point is you really need to know a lot about your pests. The biology, the physiology, its behaviors and patterns. And if you can answer a few questions about what is attracting that pest in the first place, you can likely eliminate that attraction. It could be a leaky pipe, it could be poor sanitation, a broken screen, a missing door sweep. A lot of it is relying on the other shops and trades we have here at Facilities to do the structural work needed to seal up the building and roof. That's a really a big part of it. Ed answered a number of interesting questions such as, "What are some of the pests you deal with here at CU? You don't use pesticides etc. What is the alternative that you use? What could an average person or a business learn that would have to do with pests? ...Listen for more helpful ideas...
RELATED LINKS: CU wins EPA Challenge || Ralphie’s Green Stampede || Single Stream in Housing || PodCasting Directory || KEYWORDS: Ed von Bleichert, CU, Environmental Operations, Integrated Pest Management, IPM, Department of Facilities Management, University of Colorado Boulder, Pesticides, bytes=6589861
LISTEN TO: Ed Von Bleichert, Manager, Environmental Operations, CU

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Ed von Bleichert Zero Waste &         Ralphie's Green Stampede
1359_ 3/4/13 - "Here at CU we have one of the oldest college and university recycling programs in the country, going back to 1976." We're talking with Edward von Bleichert, Manager Environmental Operations, Department of Facilities Management, University of Colorado Boulder. Ed tells us, "Our program has some rich history as a recycling program. The term Zero Waste [ZW] is a relatively new term and tries to redefine the approach we're taking." To explain, recycling is somewhat reactive. You take the waste you're given and you try to find an outlet for it. Zero waste is really more proactive where you're looking at the inputs, throughputs, outputs, and trying to minimize waste at all of those stages. As it relates to us here on campus, it's still mostly a waste focus in terms of municipal solid waste, what would be going to the landfill as trash. But we're still being proactive in that we're going upstream, into that waste stream, and we're redesigning the waste from the beginning to make sure it's recyclable, compostable or reusable. Our biggest foray into Zero Waste started with Ralphie's Green Stampede which was the Athletic Department's initiative. It includes other initiatives in sustainability like energy and water conservation. But probably the area that's gotten the most attention is the waste elimination and the Zero Waste effort. As part of that, we literally sort through all the waste of every single home football game [the waste of 53,000 people]. Mostly to identify what is in that waste stream, and be able to design it out or find a market for it, whichever the case may be, to ultimately keep it out of a landfill. The simple definition of Zero Waste, and there are many, but for our purposes we're talking about achieving a minimum of a 90% landfill diversion rate. The campus is currently about 41% conversion rate for municipal solid waste. That doesn't include... Listen for more...
RELATED LINKS: CU wins EPA Challenge || Ralphie’s Green Stampede || Single Stream in Housing || PodCasting Directory || KEYWORDS: Ed von Bleichert, CU, Environmental Operations, Department of Facilities Management, University of Colorado Boulder, Zero Waste, Ralphie's Green Stampede, bytes=4874556
LISTEN TO: Ed Von Bleichert, Manager, Environmental Operations, CU

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Michele Gebhart, Have Them Look at Business Process
1361_ 3/4/13 - We're speaking with Michele Gebhart the immediate past executive director of the ACG Denver [Association for Corporate Growth]. Now Michele has been the executive director since 2003 when the membership was 68 people. Today membership tops 500+ and growing. Michele has a very interesting background in high tech. She tells us, "Technically I've been in operations my entire career. Most recently leading the Association for Corporate Growth and before that with Fortune 500 technology companies and a global IT consulting firm." Her strengths in systems implementation, process management and program development have helped organizations through periods of significant growth and made a significant impact on increasing their customer satisfaction. She's often been referred to as the glue in the organization because of her ability to organize and move projects from objectives to accomplishments while coordinating large teams and demonstrating specialism's in all of her interactions. She's worked with the techies, the end user/customer, sales teams, executive teams and her expertise is bringing all those together. They don't always speak the same language, Michele is the person that brings all the stakeholders together through communication. Larry asked, "With all of your experience, what do you feel is the biggest challenge businesses face today?" She replied, "The biggest challenge I keep coming across is the customer experience. And I hear that not only from external customers but internal customers. I think businesses have gotten very specialized in their hiring. They're looking for specific skill sets, but then they're missing that person that brings them all together. Ultimately the customer experience is what is going to drive the success of your business. If your internal customers aren't happy and your external customers aren't happy - you're not going to last very long. Businesses need to focus more on improving that customer experience. You know, finding the people who can help them find the holes in the business and fix those gaps." Listen for more great advice...
RELATED LINKS: Michele Gebhart LinkedIn || ACG Denver || Dell Computer || ACG Denver Channel || KEYWORDS: Michele Gebhart, Customer Experience, Business Process, Communications, IT, Customers, Sales Teams, Executives, Dell Computer, ACG Denver, Association for Corporate Growth, bytes=5403692
LISTEN TO: Michele Gebhart

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