Category: Blog

Building a business requires engagement, branding, and outreach. The minds behind growing your audience are media and marketing experts. Meet local media experts Scott Allen, Nick Armstrong, and Tim Wenger.

Scott Allen

Owner, Northern Colorado SEO

Speaking on: SEO for Startups, Wednesday March 1 @ 2PM

I have been doing SEO for over 15 years and I still love it. Helping new and existing businesses improve their web presence is what I do best. I’m looking forward to the opportunity of speaking at Fort Collins Startup Week and hope to have many engaged business people in attendance.

I took a tour of the West and loved the feeling I got in Fort Collins. So I moved here.

Lots of great resources to make their startup successful and able to hit the ground running.

Take notes.

A feeling of having helped people understand the search engines and how they work. A benefit to the people attending in any way I can.

Nick Armstrong

Geek-in-Chief, WTF Marketing

Speaking on: From Solopreneur to Multi-Person Business, Tuesday, February 28 @ 6PM

I’m a dad, author, Ignite and TEDx speaker, audio drama enthusiast, and award-winning serial entrepreneur. My company WTF Marketing has made marketing fun again for a large number of happy clients, including several multi-million dollar businesses and mom-and-pop shops in my hometown of Fort Collins, Colorado. I’ve even advised Fortune 100 businesses on marketing and technology. I leverage over a decade of hands-on marketing experience in building community and helping businesses tell stories, alongside over 15 years of web design experience. Alongside an amazing team of 13 other super-geeks, I built out Fort Collins Comic Con to benefit the Poudre River Public Library District and have raised over $45,000 for the Library and encourage youth literacy through comics. I love to be involved throughout my community and co-organize/help with events like TEDxFoCo, Startup Week Fort Collins, Ignite Fort Collins and more.

I landed in wonderful Fort Collins, Colorado to earn my BS in Marketing and Computer Information Systems at Colorado State University, fell in love with the city, and never left.

If you don’t walk away from FCIP: Startup Week edition (From Solopreneur to Multi-Person Business) with at least a few actionable tips on when, how, why, and with whom to grow your business, we either ran out of beer mid-talk, or you weren’t paying attention, or both. Growing beyond a ‘You-preneurship’ is a scary but necessary step if you ever hope to scale your time and energy.

Don’t try to do all the things, pick one or two events, absorb everything you can, take notes, and make as many good connections as you can. If you walk away with even one new idea, one new friend, or one new opportunity, you’ve won.

Fort Collins is expansive – in all the right ways. By providing a platform for all kinds of entrepreneurs and startups – from artists, creatives, and musicians to coders, techies, and makers, the city’s ability to solve 21st century problems like a world-class city should! Beyond the basics of employment, solving fundamentally complicated woes like homelessness, poverty, and inequality is all within reach with a well-established, communicative, and collaborative startup community.

Tim Wenger

Owner/Operator, Inkwell Media Services

Speaking on: Startup a Band, Wednesday, March 1 @ 2PM

Tim Wenger is a Denver-based journalist and founder of Inkwell Media Services. He is the author of So, You Have A Band and a frequent contributor to Matador Network and MicroShiner. After finishing a BA in Communications from Fort  Lewis College, Tim jumped into the back of a Ford Econoline and spent a few years playing guitar in dark bars while falling in love with travel, good food, and local drink. He’s been unable to rest his pen (or his feet) ever since.

I’ve been part of the front range music community since moving back up here in 2009 with my band, Oatie Paste. I worked as the Managing Editor of Colorado Music Buzz from 2011-2015, when I branched out and started Inkwell Media Services as a freelance business. Since forming in Sept. 2015, I’ve been doing a wide variety of media work for various clients including news and journalism, copywriting, PR, talent buying and event management, and anything else my clients need.

The vast majority of musicians, as great as they may be at writing and playing music, need help with business side. Through my book, So You Have A Band, and speaking events such as Startup Week, I hope to pass along what I’ve learned as an editor, talent buyer, and musician to those looking to grow the business side of their music career. I sincerely hope people walk away with a better understanding of how to put their best foot forward in the industry.

Make yourself easy to get ahold of. Carry business cards, and follow up with everyone you meet. List your email and phone on your business Facebook page and everywhere else you can. Your contacts are going to make or break you, so do everything you can to maintain them.

I am very interested in learning how to scale a media business. I hope to watch presentations from business leaders discussing how they have started the process of taking themselves out of the day to day operations.

Colorado is the place to be. We’re attracting all types of young entrepreneurs and hotshots to our state. Where we’ll be depends on how well we interact with those coming here with fresh ideas. Do we view them as competition? Or do we network, learn from, and work with/alongside them? That will be telltale sign.

It is hard to know at what stage you are ready for investors or if you qualify for traditional financing. Three experts Dave Harris, Doug Johnson, and Mike O’Connell will be guiding you through funding 101 for entrepreneurs at startup week.

Dave Harris

Director of Operations, Rockies Venture Club

Speaking on: Sharkless Tank: Aligning Angel Investors and Entrepreneurs, Friday, March 3rd @ 4PM

Dave Harris is the Director of Operations for Rockies Venture Club (RVC), the longest running angel investor group in the US. Rockies Venture Club is a non-profit organization furthering economic development in Colorado by connecting investors and entrepreneurs through conferences (Angel Capital Summit, Colorado Capital Conference, and Cannabis Capital Summit), networking events, educational offerings and facilitation of Colorado’s largest angel investor groups. Dave is also a Managing Partner with Rockies Venture Fund, an early stage venture fund focused on supporting Colorado startup companies. Prior to joining RVC, Dave worked as a collaborative start-up consultant specializing in strategy, business development, and project management. He also has 7+ years experience in international finance and content management at Thomson Reuters and Lipper, covering the financial markets for Latin America, Europe, and Canada. Dave is a graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder, and he enjoys climbing 14ers, backpacking, fishing, and cooking; often all simultaneously, while still answering RVC emails. Connect at linkedin.com/in/daveharris5280 or at @DaveHarrisRVC

Rockies Venture Club manages an Angel investor chapter in Fort Collins and provides educational content to investors and entrepreneurs in the Fort Collins area. The reason we feel strongly about this community is its highly collaborative and there is a genuine drive to support one another. That makes it unique to a lot of other ecosystems throughout the state and provides a major draw to investors in our group. That is what leads me to Fort Collins consistently from Denver. I really love taking part in this community.

From our Pitch Academy and Angel 101 events, I hope everyone gains an understanding of how Angel investors think and what they look for in companies they invest in. Investor psychology is fascinating. Entrepreneurs that can see their business through the lens that Angels do generally present much better and ultimately can build a much stronger business.

Our Sharkless Tank event is designed to be the “Anti-Shark Tank” where Angels and VCs will provide constructive feedback and questions to pitch presenters, but will also educate the audience on how actual deals are done. There won’t be any sharky negotiations that end up in worse deal for both parties. It’ll be a lot of fun and it will look much different than any other pitch event.

Dive in deep. Not only into the Poudre during the Poudre Plunge, but dive into all of the amazing content and opportunities that FCSW provides. It is electric to be surrounded by so many like-minded people so take advantage of this week as much as possible. I’ve made so many strong relationships from Startup Weeks, but it takes work.

I’d like to connect with more Fort Collins entrepreneurs that are considering venture capital. I’d also like to see more investors get engaged and take the pulse of this awesome community throughout this week.

I see Fort Collins continuing to mature over the next 5 years and the rest of the state developing a better understanding of why this community is so special. There will be several more major success stories to come out of this startup community over the next 5 years, and I anticipate that those companies will continue the trend of recycling their success and expertise back into the Fort Collins community.

Doug Johnson

Colorado Chair, Tiger 21

Speaking on: Access to Capital: Show Me The Money, Wednesday March 1 @ 3PM

Doug Johnson currently serves as chair for the Colorado TIGER 21 investor group, Senior Advisor to the Impact Finance Center, CO Impact Days and Initiative, chair for the Virtual Board and works with a number of high net worth individuals, families and foundations on direct investment and impact investment strategies. In addition, he is also a board member of The Interfaith Alliance for Colorado and serves on the Regional Development Council for the Community Foundation of Northern Colorado. A wealth advisor by training, Mr. Johnson has worked for Charles Schwab, First Western Trust and Everence and was most recently the Vice President for Access to Capital with Innosphere, Colorado’s premier nonprofit science and technology incubator. A Colorado State University graduate, he makes his home in Fort Collins, CO with his twin sons, Jacob and Dane.

I was born and raised in Fort Collins and thankful to still call it home. I’m rooted here with my family including my parents and my twin sons who are sophomores in high school.

Funding solutions that are right for their type and stage of business.

Be curious. Attend something new and stretch yourself to learn more and meet new people.

Satisfaction that the network and experience I’ve gained over the years can be paid forward to help more entrepreneurs.

A thriving innovation center of more than half a million known for some great startup wins in the arts, energy, water, technology and community building.

Mike O’Connell

Director, Larimer Small Business Development Center

Speaking on: Top Six Ways Businesses Get Into Trouble, Thursday, March 2 @ 4:30PM

and

Lunch & Lightning Talks: Local Resources Pitch Back!, Friday, March 3 @ 12PM

Mike O’Connell earned a business degree with a marketing emphasis from Purdue University, and worked in a variety of executive sales, marketing, and business unit management positions, including eleven years with Thermadyne Holdings, North America’s third largest manufacturer of metal cutting and welding equipment. In 2001, O’Connell purchased Mountain Woods Furniture (MWF), a leading national designer/manufacturer of rustic hand-crafted furniture, and co-owned and operated that business until its’ sale in December 2011. MWF’s products were sold through Cabela’s, national furniture e-tailers, furniture stores, and to resorts and lodges desiring a rustic style. He provided over 6,000 paychecks to American manufacturing workers during his ownership of MWF.

He is co-chair of the Larimer County Workforce Development Board (WDB). He enjoys spending time with his three children, hiking and exercising, playing guitar, singing, and photography.

I was living in St Louis, and negotiating to buy a business. I came to Fort Collins to look at the business, and thought Fort Collins was a really cool place, and decided to go ahead and move here. I closed on the business about 3 months later, that I operated for the next 11 years. I’ve stayed here because the people are great, plus there are many many benefits to living here, with very few negatives. The weather is unbelievably good!

Useful real-world information, and an understanding of the resources to help them with their process.

We work with about 650 clients a year, and if I could wave a magic wand and fix two things for all of them, it would be: 1) Your business concept needs more focus. Most clients come in with a concept that is a mile wide and an inch deep. We want you to be a hundred yards wide and a half-mile deep. 2) Understanding that the sales process is probably going to be your biggest challenge – everyone wants to talk about the lease, product/service, loan, blah blah, and spends 15 minutes thinking about WHO they are going to sell to and WHY that person would buy the product. What’s your competitive advantage that’s going to persuade someone to give you their money ??

I would like to see the attendees exit FCSW being more street-smart about what really makes a business succeed, and better connected to useful resources.

We are going to have some significant new workforce challenges going forward that didn’t exist 20, 10, even 5 years ago. I think the businesses that will “win” will be those who excel at retaining/motivating their team members.

 

A special thanks to one of our Fort Collins Startup Week Speakers: Ariana Friedlander for donating a free ebook copy of her new book to every Startup Week Attendee: A Misfit Entrepreneur’s Guide to Building a Business your Way!

Misfit Entrepreneurs Read to Succeed!

Fort Collins Startup Week Attendees will be gifted a FREE copy of A Misfit Entrepreneur’s Guide to Building a Business Your Way eBook. If you’re RSVP’d on Sched, you’ll receive an email link to download the book on Friday March 3rd. You can also just go straight to the Amazon page on Friday to download: http://amzn.to/2ghHWOq

Be sure to check out Ariana’s panels:

Tuesday, February 28, 11:30am to 12:15PM @ FVC Mesh Fort Collins: Getting Started with your Startup (The Secrets of a Business Model Canvas)

and

Friday, March 3rd, 2:30pm – 3:30pm @ the Community Creative Center: How to Self-Publish a Book Without Losing Your Shirt or Your Soul

 

About a Misfit Entrepreneur’s Guide

Everyone wants to be an entrepreneur these days but no one is ever prepared for the emotional rollercoaster ride that it can bring. The constant pressure to put yourself out there, along with the extreme ups and downs of big wins and repeated rejection… it’s hard for many to persevere. A Misfit Entrepreneur’s Guide to Building a Business your Way by Ariana Friedlander and Co-Creators provides key insights to help guide entrepreneurs.

A Misfit Entrepreneur’s Guide helps readers who don’t fit the mold for traditional careers master their own entrepreneurial adventure. Ariana uses a bike metaphor to guide readers, provides excerpts from her own journal to highlight the trials and tribulations of the journey, and prompts readers to blaze their own trail with thought-provoking reflection questions.

In the Forward, Tony Middlebrooks, PhD, and Associate Professor for the Horn Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Delaware writes, “entrepreneurship…requires two key ingredients from the entrepreneur: the ability to see the world differently, and the initiative to pursue their idea. A Misfit Entrepreneur’s Guide to Building a Business Your Way provides the kind of practical, personal guidance that will catalyze both abilities.”

Book Endorsements

“Original, witty, and inspiring. No one has been ambitious or daring enough to write a book like A Misfit Entrepreneur’s Guide until now. This is a must-read for Misfit Entrepreneurs everywhere.”
—Jonah Berger, Wharton professor and bestselling author of Contagious: Why Things Catch On

“Anyone who meets Ariana is instantly struck by her thoughtfulness, knowledge, and humility, and these values are clearly captured and communicated in this book. Through her well-crafted collection of journal entries, stories, and experiences, she paves a path showing what’s involved in being an entrepreneur. These lessons, successes, and challenges provide inspiration, motivation, and real insight into how to manage yourself and your business while exploring the uncertainty associated with new ventures. She constantly reminds us that being a ‘misfit’—and learning to become comfortable with it and yourself—is really what the entrepreneurial journey is all about.”
—Barry O’Reilly, founder and CEO of ExecCamp, co-author of Lean Enterprise: How High Performance Organizations Innovate at Scale

“Remarkable. Practical. Inspirational. Ariana gives us a ‘behind the scenes’ look at the trials and tribulations of the Misfit Entrepreneur’s journey to mastery. Want to chart your own path? Read A Misfit Entrepreneur’s Guide. Get ready for wisdom and insight that will catalyze your growth and transform you into a successful and satisfied entrepreneur.”
—Jason W. Womack, MEd, MA, cofounder of Get Momentum

 

 

 

Fort Collins is slowly emerging on the food scene in Colorado. Like everything that happens around here, a #FoCoFoodie has a very distinct nature. From food trucks to food distributors and all that lies in between, food startups are all around. Learn more about three speakers Taylor Smith, Trish O’Neill, and Tim Solley.

Taylor Smith

Founder & Owner, The Gold Leaf Collective

Fort Collins, CO

Speaking on: So You Want To Start A Food Business? Jesse Doerffel • Callie Koch • Elizabeth Mozer • Trish O’Neill • Josie Sexton • Taylor Smith, Thursday, March 2 @ 1:30pm

After 3 wildly successful years of his first food truck, The Silver Seed, Taylor Smith has taken a small start-up and grown it into an incredibly multi-faceted and diverse company. His second food truck, The Silver Seed, Too, began operations in 2016, and his new Fort Collins restaurant, The Gold Leaf Collective, is slated to open in 2017. The Gold Leaf will be the hub for The Silver Seed(s) as well as Leaf Seed Catering, and Laurel St. Bakery. Taylor’s passion for enabling and supporting his community has been his top priority from the start, and with the support of both his unparalleled team and Fort Collins’ progressive community, The Gold Leaf Collective is having a significant impact in food culture. Their mission is simple: to show the world that sustainably-sourced, ethical food can be insanely delicious.

I moved to Fort Collins January 1st, 2014 with the idea of opening a new kind of food truck. Despite all odds, I opened The Silver Seed on May 23rd, and since then, the roots of The Silver Seed have grown deep within this community. Since then, I’ve opened a second food truck, The Silver Seed, Too, and am now constructing the culmination of these roots in my first restaurant, The Gold Leaf Collective. My work with The FoCo Food Truck Alliance and Fort Collins’ City Council led to the crafting of food truck law that promotes a free market for food trucks to thrive. In 2016, I was in charge of the Food Truck Rally Series in City Park. I spent every Tuesday guiding 15 food trucks, live music, and over 2000 people together to enjoy one of the cities best weekly gatherings of families, friends, and food. Fort Collins’ spirit of entrepreneurship has been my guiding force throughout my time here. This is one of the only places I’ve ever lived where a good idea has potential to implemented- and fast. I intend to stay for a long time and contribute wholeheartedly to the growth of our wonderful community. Fort Collins’ is my home, and where my future will bloom.

If there is one person that understands the power of hearing the right words at the right time, it’s myself. My true hope is that there will be one person in the audience that is thinking about getting involved in our food movement, and if I can be even the smallest catalyst in helping that person commit to commencing, I’ll feel as accomplished as I ever could.

Don’t try to impress anyone. People sense that.

I plan to extended my network of passionate, dedicated, hard-working people that are involved – or planning to be involved – with our incredibly diverse start-up culture.,

Fort Collins’ will be iconic. Our city will serve as a prime example of a truly locally sourced infrastructure. We will resist corporate buyouts, and in 10 years have proven the overwhelming viability of locally-owned and operated businesses.

Trish O’Neill

Founder & Owner, The Cooking Studio

Old Town Fort Collins

Speaking on:

Creative Team-Building Tactics w/ Ron Baker • James Lopez • Brad Modesitt • Trish O’Neill • Kaarina Robson, Monday, February 27 @ 11:00am

So You Want To Start A Food Business? w/ Josie Sexton • Ashley Colpaart • Jesse Doerffel • Callie Koch • Elizabeth Mozer • Trish O’Neill • Taylor Smith, Thursday, March 2 @ 1:30PM

Trish O’Neill is the Founder & Owner of The Cooking Studio, a recreational cooking school in Old Town Fort Collins. The Cooking Studio was founded in 2015 and has hosted over 1500 amateur cooks since opening. Chefs from all over Northern Colorado work as Chef Instructors. Programs offered include team building, private parties, culinary skills classes, international cuisines, date nights, baking and much more. Kids classes & camps were started in the summer of 2016 and are offered every week and on school holidays.

I was living in Boulder and doing a lot of business travel for a previous job, so when I decided to put down roots and open a cooking school it HAD to be Fort Collins! I moved here 3 years ago and love, love, love it.

I’m doing 2 events: Starting a food business and team building. Starting a Food Business: People should come away from this session secure in the knowledge that they are not alone! The food business community in Fort Collins will help. There are a lot of regulations around the food industry on top of what it takes to be a start-up. It’s hard, or even impossible, to know everything you need to know to get started. Don’t leave Startup Week without at least one contact you can call with questions.

Team Building: It’s not easy to assemble and manage a high functioning team, especially when the pressure is on. Functioning teams require communication, project management, time management & delegation skills as well as helping each other out in a pinch. Successful companies use team building activities to help teams practice working together without the pressure. And it can be a lot of fun. Team cooking requires team members to use all their collaborative skills to successfully create a 4-course meal, but in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. And the outcomes are obvious and delicious!

Get what you need from the sessions, but don’t get overwhelmed. Have fun! Meet other entrepreneurs.

Fort Collins will be one of the 5 top Startup Weeks in the US.

Tim Solley

Rebel Leader, Rebel Popcorn

Fort Collins, Colorado

Speaking on: Hands On: How to Website Tim Solley, Tuesday, February 28 @ 4:30pm

Tim Solley has been working with startups for nearly 20 years. He got his start during the dot-com boom of the 90s, founding one of the web’s early e-commerce retail companies. Since then, he’s been a technology leader with several startup companies large and small.

His latest effort is a founder and owner of Rebel Popcorn, Fort Collins’ newest and hottest gourmet snack company. Though he wears many hats as an owner, his primary focus is on Rebel Popcorn’s marketing and technology efforts. He’s bringing high-tech to a decidedly low-tech industry.

In addition to Rebel Popcorn, Tim is the Practice Head of Cloud and DevOps Services at Xpanxion, a software engineering company with over 850 employees and seven offices worldwide, including one in Fort Collins. In this role, he leads all company efforts in the cloud engineering space, from pre-sales to delivery. Clients are primarily Fortune 500 companies such as Anthem, Sony, and The Weather Channel.

I moved to Fort Collins nine years ago to be with family, enjoy everything Colorado has to offer, and be a part of a vibrant, thriving community. I had no idea I’d find heaven on Earth and never want to leave. There’s so much to do, and I enjoy fly fishing, mountain biking, camping, exploring Colorado with my family, and hanging out with the awesome people of FoCo.

I want people to leave the event with the confidence that they can harness technology and bend it to their will, without breaking the budget. As a startup, you often need to wear many hats, and that includes technology. They just need to know how to get started.

Talk to other attendees! Get to know people, and don’t just “network”. Networking is traditionally selfish and transactional in nature. Get to know people, what their needs are, and find a way to help them, even if it’s just a simple tip. Give first. You’ll surely reap the rewards with interest. Events like Startup Week are valuable in what you’ll learn, but they can be equally valuable in who you will meet!

I want to deliver value to people in all walks of life and in all stages in their professional careers. Hopefully I’ll meet some really awesome people out of it. Usually the most valued connections I make are the ones I least expect or planned on.

I would love to see our community become a red hot nucleus of innovation. I want to see that paired with a culture of work/life balance and the excitement of experimentation.